HER EARLY YEARS
St. Faustina Maria
Kowalska was born on August 25, 1905, the third of ten children
of a poor, pious Catholic family in small Polish village. She
was baptized two days later as “Helena.” At the early age of
seven, Helen first hears the voice of God calling her to the
religious life. When she approached her parents with her desire,
her parents quickly disapproved. As a result, in trying to
adhere to the will of her parents, she tried to stifle and
ignore the call. At the age of 14, she began working outside the
home to earn money in order to support herself. However, when
she was sixteen, her prayer life had grown to such an extent
that work and sleep became difficult, and she left her job as a
housekeeper. Again, she went to her parents to leave and enter a
convent, they said no, citing financial difficulty as their
reason. After another refusal by her parents, she abandoned her
spiritual life to an extent and began to live a worldly life:
buying fashionable clothes, attending dances and parties, all in
an attempt to ignore the call she felt deep inside. At the age
of 20, while dancing at a party on night in Lodz, where she was
currently living, Jesus appeared to her, stripped and covered
with wounds. Everything surrounding her disappeared and she only
saw Jesus, who asked her, “How long shall I put up with you and
how long will you keep putting me off?” (Diary 9). She ran to
the cathedral to pray.
In Lodz's Cathedral St. Faustina heard these words from our
Lord: "Go immediately to Warsaw, and there you will enter a
convent." She got up from prayer, went to her house and as best
she could, confessed to her sister what had happened. She asked
her sister to say goodbye to her parents on her behalf, and with
only one dress and nothing else, she arrived in Warsaw. She
asked the Blessed Mother to guide her and to let her know where
to direct herself. That is how she arrived at St. James the
Apostle Church in the outskirts of Warsaw. After mass ended she
spoke to a priest who sent her to Mrs. Lipzye, a very Catholic
woman, and she lodged with her. During her stay with the Lipzye
family, she visited various convents but all the doors were
closed to her. She asked the Lord not to leave her alone as she
sought an answer to her prayer, but the Lord wanted to teach her
that He always answers our prayers in His time, not in ours. St.
Faustina directed herself to the doors of the Mother House of
the Congregation of the Sisters of our Lady of Mercy on Zytnia
street, in Warsaw, where the Mother General interrogated her.
Mother Micaela told her to go ask the Lord of the house if He
accepted her. St. Faustina went to the Chapel and asked the Lord
if he accepted her and she heard in her heart: " I accept you,
you are in my Heart." She addressed the Mother General and told
her what she had heard, and the Mother responded, "If the Lord
accepts you, I also accept you; this is your house."
Nonetheless, a few weeks after her entrance, she felt a strong
desire to leave and find another, stricter order that dedicated
more time to prayer. However, Jesus appeared to her again,
tortured and wounded and said to her, “It is you who will cause
me this pain if you leave this convent. It is to this place that
I called you and nowhere else, and [it is here] I have prepared
many graces for you” (Diary 19).
RELIGIOUS LIFE
In the beginning of 1926,
Saint Faustina was sent to the novitiate in Józefów (St.
Joseph’s Place) in Cracow-Lagiewniki, to end her postulancy. On
April 30th she took the religious habit of a novice and received
her new name: Sister Maria Faustina. During this ceremony, the
Lord revealed to her the magnitude of her future sufferings and
all to which she was committing herself. This lasted for a short
while, and the Lord filled her with great consolation. After
taking her temporary vows, for the next 8 years she lived in
many different convents of the order – Warsaw, Vilnius, Walendow,
Plock, and some others. Finally in 1936, she returned to the
convent in Cracow, where she remained for the rest of her short
life on earth. In this convent of Cracow-Lagiewniki, Saint Maria
Faustina completed her novitiate, professed her first vows and
her perpetual vows, served as a cook, gardener, doorkeeper, and
spent the last years of her earthly life.
Saint Faustina was a simple religious without many studies.
Based on outward appearance, none would have known of the deep
mystical life that she lead. She faithful went about her duties,
kept mostly silent, and was always kind, cheerful and charitable
toward all. She was completely abandoned to the will of God and
was very valuable to Him. Her life is characterized by her deep
trust and obedience to the Lord. She was a model of religious
obedience and submission, always submitting all her visions and
mystical experiences to the direction of her superiors and
confessors. Her deep mystical life and union with God was
revealed during her life to only a few superiors and confessors.
The depth of this union was known to all only after her death,
revealed by the contents of her Diary, which the Lord had
instructed her to write. To her, the Lord Jesus confided a great
mission: to make known the message of Divine Mercy to the whole
world. The Lord said to her: “In the Old Testament I sent
prophets wielding thunderbolts to My people. Today I am sending
you with My mercy to the people of the whole world. I do not
want to punish aching mankind, but I desire to heal it, pressing
it to My Merciful Heart.” (Diary #1588). As well, “You are the
secretary of My mercy; I have chosen you for that office in this
and the next life (Diary, 1605)... to make known to souls the
great mercy that I have for them, and to exhort them to trust in
the bottomless depth of My mercy” (Diary, 1567).
The mission that the Lord entrusted to St. Faustina, however,
cost her very much. She suffered greatly in fulfilling her
mission as the Apostle of Mercy. In her novitiate, she was
visited by painful mystical experiences and underwent a dark
night of the soul. She also was very weak physically her whole
life, and was often plagued by severe illness, which
hospitalized her for months at a time. She suffered many
spiritual and moral suffering related to the mission to which
she had been entrusted. Many people, including her sisters,
believed she was delusional and crazy because of her deep
communion with God and her desire to have the image painted and
propagated. As well, the Lord allowed her sisters to often
misinterpret her intentions and true state of health; this
caused her deep sufferings, for she was often look upon as weak
and one who was feigning illness. For years, she did not have a
confessor or spiritual director that understood the workings in
her soul, and this left her in an almost constant state of
confusion. The Lord asked her to found a new congregation (which
never happened in her lifetime). Because of all these requests
that Jesus placed on her (the image, the feast day, and the
congregation), she was often doubted by her superiors, priests,
and bishops. She was a “sign of contradiction” just like her
beloved Spouse. She became a victim soul, suffering for the
salvation of sinners; this entailed diverse sufferings which
included the “passive night” of the spirit and hidden stigmata.
Often she would take on spiritual battles and punishments in
order to save sinners and prevent people from committing mortal
sins. She also prayed and suffered greatly for the souls in
purgatory. Eventually, she contracted tuberculosis, and finally
succumbed to the disease, physically ravaged by its effects on
October 5, 1938 at the age of 33 years. She died physically
exhausted, but united mystically with God, totally mature in
spirit, and in the odor of sanctity. She had lived thirteen of
her 33 years in the convent. Her funeral took place two days
later, on the Feast Day of Our Lady of the Rosary, which in that
year was the First Friday of the Month.
HER MISSION
The mission of Saint Faustina consisted of three tasks:
First, proclaiming and bringing the world closer to the
truth of the merciful love of God for every human being, as
revealed in the Scared Scriptures.
Second, imploring God’s mercy for the entire world, and
particularly for sinners, through the practice of the new forms
of devotion to The Divine Mercy asked for by the Lord Jesus.
Third, initiating the apostolic movement of Divine Mercy
whose devotees and apostles shall bring about a religious
renewal among the faithful in the spirit of this devotion,
namely, acquiring an attitude of childlike trust in God and
actively living the commandment of love and mercy toward one’s
neighbor.
In obedience to her spiritual director, she wrote a diary of
about 600 pages in which she gives account of the revelations
she received on the Mercy of God. The devotions and methods
proposed are as follows:
1. Veneration of the Image of the Divine Mercy
The pattern for the image was revealed to St. Faustina on
February 22, 1931. From her Diary: “In the evening, when I was
in my cell, I saw the Lord Jesus clothed in a white garment. One
hand [was] raised in the gesture of blessing, the other was
touching the garment at the breast. From beneath the garment,
slightly drawn aside at the breast, there were emanating two
large rays, one red, the other pale...After a while, Jesus said
to me, Paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the
signature: Jesus, I trust in You (Diary 47). I want this
image…to be solemnly blessed on the first Sunday after Easter;
that Sunday is to be the feast of my Mercy (Diary 49).” He
promised to her, “By means of this Image I shall be granting
many graces to souls” (Diary 570).
2. The Chaplet of Divine Mercy
This prayer is a powerful took of intercession in order to atone
for sin and appease the justice of God. God promises that those
who say this with faith, confidence and trust in His Mercy will
obtain their requests, especially those requests related to the
graces of conversion and peaceful deaths. About the chaplet, the
Lord told St. Faustina, “When this chaplet is said by the
bedside of a dying person, God’s anger is placated, unfathomable
mercy envelops the soul” (Diary 811)…”It pleases me to grant
everything they ask of Me by saying the chaplet” (Diary
1541)…”If what you ask is compatible with my will” (Diary 1731).
3. The Great Hour of Mercy
The Hour of Mercy is 3pm. This is the hour that Jesus died on
the Cross, and it is the moment in which “Mercy triumphed over
justice” (Diary 1572). Jesus asked St. Faustina, at this hour,
to immerse herself in His mercy asking it to cover the whole
world, especially sinners. Jesus promises, “In this hour you can
obtain everything for yourself and for others for the asking”
(Diary 1572). Prayers at this hour should be addressed to Jesus,
they should appeal to His mercy and the merits of His passion,
and they should be made at 3pm in the afternoon.
4. The Feast of the Divine Mercy
This devotion ranks the highest in the all the forms of devotion
to the Divine Mercy. Jesus asked Sr. Faustina to have this Feast
of Divine Mercy instituted on the first Sunday after Easter
Sunday. This Sunday is to be a time of great graces for all,
especially sinners. The Lord promises, “…whoever approaches the
Fount of Life on this day will be granted complete remission of
sins and punishment” (Diary 300). As well, “On this day the very
depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of
graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy…Let
no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as
scarlet” (Diary 699).
To reap the benefits of these great graces, one must have trust
in God’s mercy, be in the state of sanctifying grace (gone to
Confession), and receive Holy Communion.
5. The propagation of the devotion to the Divine Mercy
To those that spread the honor of the Divine Mercy, Jesus
promises to “shield through their entire life as a tender mother
her infant, and at the hour of death I will not be a Judge for
them, but the Merciful Savior” (Diary 1075). Spreading the honor
of this to others does not necessarily mean many words (though
it does require speaking about it). It primarily means living
it. This means living in a spirit of faith and trust in God, and
being merciful and kind in your actions and attitudes toward
others.
THE SPREADING OF HER MESSAGE
Her body was placed in the common grave in the Community
Cemetery in Krakow- Lagievniki. Later in 1966, during the
investigative process to gather information on her virtues, her
remains were transferred to the chapel. Sister Faustina’s
mission really began after her death, just as she had announced
it would.
One day in 1935, Saint Faustina wrote to her spiritual director:
"There will come a time when this work, which God is demanding
so very much, will be as though utterly undone. And then God
will act with great power, which will give evidence of its
authenticity. It will be a new splendor for the Church, although
it has been dormant in it from long ago" (Diary 378).
This did happen. On March 6, 1959, the Holy See, because of
inaccurate information that was presented to it, prohibited the
distribution of images and writings that propagated the devotion
to The Divine Mercy as proposed by Saint Faustina. As a result
of this action, there was a period of silence for about 20 years
regarding the devotion. Then on April 15, 1978, the Holy See,
after a careful examination of some original documents that were
not available before, overturned their decision and again
permitted the practice of the devotion. The man who was
prominently responsible for this turnaround was Cardinal Karol
Wojtyla, the Archbishop of Cracow, the diocese in which St.
Faustina was born. On October 16, 1978, Cardinal Wojtyla was
elevated to the Chair of Peter under the name “Pope John Paul
II”.
On March 7, 1992, the “heroic” virtues of Sister Faustina were
declared; on December 21, 1992, a cure that came about through
her intercession was declared “miraculous”; and on April 18,
1993, Pope John Paul II had the honor of declaring the Venerable
Servant of God, Sr. Maria Faustina, “Blessed.”
In 1997, Pope John Paul II made a pilgrimage to the tomb of
Blessed Faustina in Poland, and called her: “The Great Apostle
of Mercy in our times.” The Holy Father said at her tomb: “The
message of The Divine Mercy has always been near and dear to
me... and which in a sense forms an image of this Pontificate.”
On March 10, 2000, the date of the canonization was announced
after the acceptance of the second miracle obtained through her
intercession. The Secretary of the Mercy of God was elevated to
the altars by the Holy Father on April 20, 2000, Divine Mercy
Sunday. She was the first saint to be canonized in the year 2000
and also in the new millennium. On this occasion the Holy Father
pronounced that the Second Sunday of Easter would be known from
then on as “Divine Mercy Sunday.”
On June 29, 2002, H.H. John Paul II, established that Divine
Mercy Sunday should be enriched with a plenary indulgence.
SHRINE OF THE DIVINE MERCY
On the hill of Lagiewniki, next to the city of Cracow, is the
Shrine of The Divine Mercy. It used to be the old chapel of the
Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. There, in a
side altar underneath an image of The Merciful Jesus, are the
mortal remains of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, to whom Pope
John Paul II gave the name, “Apostle of the Divine Mercy.”
During World War II the chapel was open to the public. From that
time forward, her remains have been visited by people of all
societies: by those who desired to ask for her intercession,
others in thanksgiving for a favor received, or others simply to
pray. The devotion to the Divine Mercy became a great sign of
fortitude and hope for many, especially for those in
concentration camps in and beyond Poland. As time progressed,
the devotion was spread by soldiers and refugees around the
whole world. The Novena, the Litanies and the Chaplet were soon
translated to other languages. The central areas of the
devotion’s spread are France, USA and Australia.
In the year 2002 John Paul II returned to Cracow and consecrated
the New Basilica of Divine Mercy, which was constructed next to
the original Shrine and the Convent of the sisters. There are
plans to build a Retreat House, a Pilgrims House, and a parking
lot. Following are some words from the Homily given by His
Holiness:
"I wish solemnly to
entrust the world to Divine Mercy. I do so with the burning
desire that the message of God’s merciful love, proclaimed here
through Saint Faustina, may be made known to all the peoples of
the earth and fill their hearts with hope.
“I have come to Lagiewniki to dedicate this new church. I am
convinced that this is the special place chosen by God to sow
the grace of his mercy. I pray that this church will always be a
place where the message of God’s merciful love is proclaimed; a
place of conversion and repentance; a place for the celebration
of the Eucharist; a fountain of mercy; a place of prayer and of
constant appeals for mercy for ourselves and for the whole
world. I pray in the words of Solomon: ‘Have regard to the
prayer of your own servant and to his supplication, O Lord my
God, hearkening to the cry and to the prayer which thy servant
prays before you this day; that your eyes may be open night and
day towards this house... Hearken to the supplication of your
servant and of your people Israel, when they pray in this place.
Hear in heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive’
(1 Kg 8:28-30).
“I firmly believe that this new church will always be a place
where people will come before God in Spirit and truth. They will
come with the trust which accompanies all those who humbly open
their hearts to the working of God’s merciful love, to that love
which is stronger than even the greatest sin. Here, in the fire
of divine love, human hearts will burn with desire for
conversion, and whoever looks for hope will find comfort”
(John Paul II, 8/17/2002).
Link to The Diary of St.
Faustina - Excerpts and Quotations >>>
Link to the Divine Mercy Novena and Chaplet>>>
