St Sister Faustina Kowalska (1905 – 1938)
Faustina Kowalska was born on 25 August 1905 and christened Helena. She was the third of ten children born to Marianna and Stanislaw Kowalski, farmers from the village of Glogowiec in the parish of Swinice Warckie, Poland. Faustina had less than three years’ schooling. At the age of 16, she went into service with wealthy families in Aleksandrów Lódzki and in Lódz, to earn a livelihood for herself and to help her parents. Following her vision of the suffering Jesus and then one year of service in Ostrówek, Klembów, 20 miles north-east of Warsaw, on 1 August 1925 she entering the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, where, during the ceremony of taking the veil, she was given the name Sister Mary Faustina. During the thirteen years of her religious life she lived in many houses of the Congregation, but spent her longest periods in Kraków, Vilnius, Plock and Warsaw, serving chiefly as cook, gardener or portress. She suffered from tuberculosis of the lungs and of the digestive tract and had two lengthy periods of treatment in Pradnik Hospital in Kraków.
Her seemingly very ordinary life hid an amazing union with God and the great prophetic mission which God entrusted to her. Faustina experienced many extraordinary graces, reaching the heights of union with God on earth. Through her, Jesus reminded the world of the biblical truth about the merciful love of God for all and called her to proclaim it to the world with new power. To do this, Jesus provided new forms of devotion to The Divine Mercy, which are: the image with the inscription: “Jesus, I Trust in You”, the Feast of The Divine Mercy on the first Sunday after Easter, the Chaplet of The Divine Mercy and the prayer at the moment of His agony on the cross, referred to as the Hour of Mercy. Jesus attached great promises to each of these, and also to spreading the veneration of Mercy, always providing that great care is taken to maintain an unfailing trust in God (doing His Will) and acting mercifully towards one’s neighbour. Blessed Fr Michael Sopocko, her spiritual director, and Fr Józef Andrasz, her Kraków confessor, helped Sr Faustina fulfil this prophetic mission. From the charism and mystical experience of Sr Faustina, The Divine Mercy Apostolic Movement was born The movement undertakes her mission of proclaiming the mystery of God’s mercy to the world through life witness, in deed, word and prayer.
Sr Faustina died on 5 October 1938 in the convent of the Congregation in Kraków-Lagiewniki. In 1966, her mortal remains were moved from the convent cemetery to the convent chapel. Since her Beatification, which Pope John Paul II announced on 18 April 1993, the coffin with her relics has rested on the altar under the miraculous image of The Merciful Jesus in the Shrine in Kraków-Lagiewniki. On 30 April 2000, Pope John Paul II numbered her among the saints. John Paul II transmitted the message of Mercy, which at the command of Jesus the saint had written in her “Diary”, to the whole Church and to the world for the third millennium of faith.
On 25 August 1995, the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, continuing her charismatic mission, acknowledged Sr Faustina as its spiritual co-founder.
www.saint-faustina.org/saint-faustina-kowalska/