Faustina Kowalska

The first Divine Mercy painting, by Eugene Kazimierowski, (1934) at the Divine Mercy Sanctuary (Vilnius)

Kowalska arrived in Płock in May 1930. That year, the first signs of her illness, which was later thought to be tuberculosis, appeared, and she was sent to rest for several months in a nearby farm owned by her religious order. After her recovery, she returned to the convent, and by February 1931, she had been in the Płock area for about nine months.[4]

Kowalska wrote that on the night of Sunday, 22 February 1931, while she was in her cell in Płock, Jesus appeared wearing a white garment with red and pale rays emanating from his heart.[11] In her diary (Notebook I, Items 47 and 48), she wrote that Jesus told her:

Paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the signature: "Jesus, I trust in You" (in Polish: "Jezu, ufam Tobie"). I desire that this image be venerated, first in your chapel, and then throughout the world. I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish.[12]

Not knowing how to paint, Kowalska approached some other nuns at the convent in Płock for help, but she received no assistance.[13] Three years later, after her assignment to Vilnius, the first artistic rendering of the image was produced under her direction.

In the same 22 February 1931 message about the Divine Mercy image, as Kowalska also wrote in her diary (Notebook I, item 49), Jesus told her that he wanted the Divine Mercy image to be "solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter Sunday; that Sunday is to be the Feast of Mercy."[14]

In November 1932, Kowalska returned to Warsaw to prepare to take her final vows as a nun, by which she would become in perpetuity a sister of Our Lady of Mercy.[4] The ceremony took place on 1 May 1933, in Łagiewniki.[4]

The small convent building where Faustina lived in Vilnius

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In late May 1933, Kowalska was transferred to Vilnius to work as the gardener, here tasks including growing vegetables. She remained in Vilnius for about three years until March 1936. The convent in Vilnius then had only 18 sisters and was housed in a few scattered small houses, rather than a large building.[15]

Shortly after arriving in Vilnius, Kowalska met Father Michael Sopoćko, the newly appointed confessor to the nuns. He was also a professor of pastoral theology at Stefan Batory University, now called Vilnius University.

When Kowalska went for the first time to this priest for confession, she told him that she had been conversing with Jesus, who had a plan for her.[15] After some time, Sopoćko insisted on a complete psychiatric evaluation of Kowalska by Helena Maciejewska, a psychiatrist and a physician associated with the convent. This took place in 1933 and Kowalska passed the required tests and was declared of sound mind.[16]

Sopoćko then began to have confidence in Kowalska and supported her efforts. He also counselled her to begin keeping a diary and to record the conversations and messages from Jesus of which she had told him.[15] Kowalska told Sopoćko about the Divine Mercy image, and in January 1934, Sopoćko introduced her to the artist Eugene Kazimierowski, who was also a professor at the university.[17]

By June 1934, Kazimierowski had finished painting the image, based on the direction of Kowalska and Sopoćko,[18] the only Divine Mercy painting that Kowalska saw.[19] A superimposition of the face of Jesus in the Image of the Divine Mercy upon that in the already-famous Shroud of Turin shows great similarity.[20]

Kowalska wrote in her diary (Notebook I, Item 414) that on Good Friday, 19 April 1935, Jesus told her that he wanted the Divine Mercy image to be publicly honoured.[4] A week later, on 26 April 1935, Sopoćko delivered the first sermon ever on the Divine Mercy, and Kowalska attended the sermon.[18]

The first Mass during which the Divine Mercy image was displayed occurred on 28 April 1935, the second Sunday of Easter, and was attended by Kowalska. It was also the celebration of the end of the Jubilee of the Redemption by Pope Pius XI. Sopoćko obtained Archbishop Romuald Jałbrzykowski's permission to place the Divine Mercy image within the Gate of Dawn Church, in Vilnius, during the Mass that Sunday, and he celebrated the Mass himself.[21]

On 13 September 1935, while still in Vilnius, Kowalska wrote of a vision about the Chaplet of Divine Mercy in her diary (Notebook I, Item 476).[22] The chaplet is about a third of the length of the Rosary.[23] Kowalska wrote that the purpose for chaplet's prayers for mercy are threefold: to obtain mercy, to trust in Christ's mercy and to show mercy to others.[24]

In November 1935, Kowalska wrote the rules for a new contemplative religious congregation devoted to the Divine Mercy. In December, she visited a house in Vilnius that she said she had seen in a vision as the first convent for the congregation.[4]

In January 1936, Kowalska went to see Jałbrzykowski to discuss a new congregation for Divine Mercy. However, he reminded her that she was perpetually vowed to her current order.[25] In March 1936, Kowalska told her superiors that she was thinking of leaving the order to start a new one that was specifically devoted to Divine Mercy, but she was transferred to Walendów, southwest of Warsaw.[4] She reported that Jesus had said to her: "My Daughter, do whatever is within your power to spread devotion to My Divine Mercy, I will make up for what you lack."[26]

In 1936, Sopoćko wrote the first brochure on the Divine Mercy devotion, and Jałbrzykowski provided his imprimatur for it. The brochure carried the Divine Mercy image on the cover. Sopoćko sent copies of the brochure to Kowalska in Warsaw.[27]

Faustina's chapel at her resting place, the Basilica of Divine Mercy in Kraków, Łagiewniki.

Later in 1936, Faustina became ill in what had since been speculated to be tuberculosis. She was moved to the sanatorium in Prądnik, Kraków. She continued to spend much time in prayer in reciting the chaplet and praying for the conversion of sinners. The last two years of her life were spent by praying and keeping her diary.[28]

On 23 March 1937, Kowalska wrote in her diary (Notebook III, Item 1044) that she had a vision that the feast of the Divine Mercy would be celebrated in her local chapel and would be attended by large crowds and also that the same celebration would be held in Rome, attended by the Pope.[17]

In July 1937, the first holy cards with the Divine Mercy image were printed. In August, Sopoćko asked Kowalska to write the instructions for the Novena of Divine Mercy, which she had reported as a message from Jesus on Good Friday, 1937.[18]

Throughout 1937, progress was made in promoting the Divine Mercy, and in November 1937, a pamphlet was published with the title Christ, King of Mercy. The pamphlet included the chaplet, the novena and the litany of the Divine Mercy. The Divine Mercy image appeared on the cover, with the signature "Jesus I Trust in You". On 10 November 1937, Mother Irene, Kowalska's superior, showed her the booklets while Kowalska rested in her bed.[29]

As her health deteriorated at the end of 1937, Kowalska's reported visions intensified, and she was said to be looking forward to an end to her life.[18] In April 1938, her illness had progressed, and she was sent to rest in the sanatorium in Prądnik for what was to be her final stay there.[29]

In September 1938, Sopoćko visited her at the sanatorium and found her very ill but in ecstasy, as she was praying. Later that month, she was taken back home to Kraków to await her death there. Sopoćko visited her at the convent for the last time on 26 September 1938.[18]

Kowalska died at the age of 33, on 5 October 1938, in Kraków. She was buried on 7 October and now rests at Kraków's Basilica of Divine Mercy.[30]

Before her death Kowalska predicted that "there will be a war, a terrible, terrible war" and asked the nuns to pray for Poland. In 1939, a year after Kowalska's death, Romuald Jałbrzykowski noticed that her predictions about the war had taken place and allowed public access to the Divine Mercy image, which resulted in large crowds that led to the spread of the Divine Mercy devotion.[31] The devotion became a source of strength and inspiration for many people in Poland. By 1941, the devotion had reached the United States, and millions of copies of Divine Mercy prayer cards had been printed and distributed worldwide.[29]

In 1942, Jałbrzykowski was arrested by the Nazis, and Sopoćko and other professors went into hiding near Vilnius for about two years. During that period, Sopoćko used his time to prepare for establishment of a new religious congregation, based on the Divine Mercy messages reported by Kowalska. After the war, Sopoćko wrote the constitution for the congregation and helped the formation of what is now the Congregation of the Sisters of the Divine Mercy.[32] By 1951, 13 years after Kowalska's death, there were 150 Divine Mercy centres in Poland.[31][33]

On 24 June 1956, Pope Pius XII blessed an Image of the Divine Mercy in Rome, the only one blessed by a Pope before the Second Vatican Council.[34] In 1955, under Pope Pius XII, the Bishop of Gorzów founded a religious order, the Congregation of the Most Holy Lord Jesus Christ, Merciful Redeemer, to spread devotion to the Divine Mercy.[35] Under both Pope Pius XI and Pope Pius XII, writings on devotion to the Divine Mercy were given imprimaturs by many bishops, making it an approved devotion.[36] Cardinals Adam Stefan Sapieha and August Hlond were among those who gave their approval.[37][38] During the papacy of Pope Pius XII, Vatican Radio broadcast several times about the Divine Mercy.[39]

The original Image of the Divine Mercy, painted under the guidance of Saint Faustina

After a failed attempt to persuade Pope Pius XII to sign a condemnation, Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, at the Holy Office, included her works on a list he submitted to the newly elected Pope John XXIII in 1959.[40] On 6 March 1959, the Holy Office issued a notification, signed by Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty as notary, that forbade circulation of "images and writings that promote devotion to Divine Mercy in the forms proposed by Sister Faustina" (emphasis in the original).[41] The negative judgment of the Holy Office was based both on a faulty French[42] or Italian[37][43][44][45] translation of the diary, theological difficulties such as the claim that Jesus had promised complete remission of sin for certain devotional acts without specifying whether the forgiveness would be obtained directly or through undertaking reception of the sacraments, and what may have been thought to be excessive concentration on Faustina herself.[43]

The ban remained in place for almost two decades. Meanwhile, Archbishop Karol Wojtyła of Kraków began in 1965, with the approval of the head of the Holy Office, the informative process on Kowalska's life and virtues,[42][43][46] Then, on 15 April 1978, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a new notification, signed by the Prefect and the Secretary of the Congregation, that rescinded the previous one and reversed the ban on circulation of Kowalska's work. It decreed: "This Sacred Congregation, in view of the many original documents that were unknown in 1959, giving consideration to the profoundly changed circumstances, and taking into account the view of many Polish ordinaries, declares no longer binding the prohibitions contained in the cited 'notification'".[47][48] "Also, the Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith declared that, "with the new 'notification'... there no longer exists, on the part of this Sacred Congregation, any impediment to the spreading of the devotion to The Divine Mercy."[48]

Archbishop Karol Wojtyła later became Pope John Paul II and beatified and canonized Kowalska. He died in April 2005, on the eve of Divine Mercy Sunday, and was himself beatified by his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, on Divine Mercy Sunday, 1 May 2011, and was canonized by Pope Francis on Divine Mercy Sunday, 27 April 2014. Divine Mercy Sunday is celebrated on the Second Sunday of Easter, the Sunday after Easter Sunday.

Interior of the sanctuary of the Fathers of Mercy

In 1965, with the approval of the Holy Office, Karol Wojtyła, then Archbishop of Kraków and later Pope John Paul II, opened the initial informative process into Kowalska's life and virtues, interviewed witnesses and, in 1967, submitted a number of documents about Kowalska to the Vatican and requested the start of the official process of her beatification. That was begun in 1968 and concluded with her beatification on 18 April 1993.[49] She was canonised on 30 April 2000,[3][4] and her feast day is 5 October.

The Holy See's Press Office biography provided on the occasion of her canonization quotes some of her reputed conversations with Jesus.[2] The author and priest Benedict Groeschel considers a modest estimate of the following of the Divine Mercy devotion in 2010 to be over 100 million Catholics.[50] Pope John Paul II said, "The message she brought is the appropriate and incisive answer that God wanted to offer to the questions and expectations of human beings in our time, marked by terrible tragedies. Jesus said to Sr Faustina one day: 'Humanity will never find peace until it turns with trust to the Divine Mercy.'"[51]

In October 2011, a group of cardinals and bishops sent a petition to Pope Benedict XVI for Kowalska to be made a Doctor of the Church.[52]

On the 100th anniversary of the birth of Pope John Paul II, 18 May 2020, Faustina was added by Pope Francis to the General Roman Calendar as an optional memorial.[53] The decree, issued by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, allows her memorial to be celebrated around the world during Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours.

The formal beatification of Kowalska involved the case of Maureen Digan of Massachusetts.[54] In March 1981 Digan reported a healing, while she was praying at the tomb of Kowalska.[29] Digan had suffered from lymphedema, a disease that causes significant swelling from fluid retention, for decades and had undergone ten operations, including a leg amputation. Digan reported that while she prayed at Kowalska's tomb, she heard a voice saying "ask for my help and I will help you", and her constant pain stopped. After two days, Digan reported that her foot, which had previously been too large for her shoe because of her body's liquid retention, was healed.[55] Upon her return to the United States, five Boston area physicians stated that she was healed, and the case was declared miraculous by the Vatican in 1992 based on the additional testimony of over 20 witnesses about her prior condition.[55]

• Divine Mercy: Sa Buhay Ni Sister Faustina (Philippines, 1993)
• Faustina (1995)
• Love and Mercy: Faustina (Docudrama, 2019)