In the year 1931, Our Lord Jesus Christ made a series of private revelations to Saint Faustina Kowalska. Learn about the life of this nun and the origin of the devotion to Divine Mercy.
Newsroom (04/25/2022 6:30 PM, Gaudium Press) Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska was a religious of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, born at the beginning of the 20th century. She lived deeply united to God, practicing in her daily life, in silence and in suffering, the heroic virtues that raised her to the honor of the altars. As the Servant of God John Paul II said when he canonized her, she was “a gift of God to our time”.
Called by God since childhood
Helena Kowalska came into the world on August 25, 1905, in the village of Glogowiec, Poland, into a poor peasant family, the third of ten children. Already in the first years of her life, in a family environment intensely marked by Catholicism, Helena felt the desire to give herself fully to God.
She herself recounts that at the age of seven she received a “definite call from God to religious life”. This vocation accompanied her in her youth, even when she had to work as a maid to help support her large and humble family. But it was not until she was 18 that she insistently asked her parents for permission to enter a convent. The parents, despite their daughter’s ardent desires, firmly refused her request.
Helena then tried to stifle the voice of vocation, which pursued her ceaselessly, distracting herself with what she called the “vanities of life.” However, the Lord had a great mission in store for her, and despite all obstacles, Jesus’ will would win.
The decisive invitation
One day, while with one of her sisters at a dance in the city of Lodz, Helen tried in vain to enjoy herself like other girls her age, but her soul felt heavy and unhappy. In the middle of a dance she suddenly saw Our Lord Jesus Christ beside her, covered with wounds, and heard these words: “How long shall I have patience with you, and how long will you disappoint Me?
Deeply moved, she left the dance in disguise, entered a nearby church, and fell prostrate before the Blessed Sacrament, asking Him earnestly to give direction to her life. And she heard this answer: “Go immediately to Warsaw, and there you will enter the convent. Helena got up and left for the capital without delay. She carried only one dress, but she possessed the greatest treasure: her complete trust and abandonment in the hands of Providence.
The beginning of religious life
God tests those whom he loves. Thus, in Warsaw, she was rejected in several monasteries. She did not give up, and was finally accepted – on August 1, 1925 – into the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, which was dedicated to the rehabilitation of women of bad life and the education of young people at risk. During her postulancy, Helena had tremendous doubts about her vocation. But finally, overcoming all trials, she received the habit of novice on April 30, 1926, with the name Sister Maria Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament.
The novitiate was for her an opportunity to put into practice, with every effort, her desires for perfection and union with God. Aware of her own weakness and smallness, she threw herself unreservedly into the arms of Our Lord, following the paths of the spiritual childhood of Saint Therese of the Child Jesus.
Instead of potatoes… roses!
An incident from that time shows how much the young novice leaned entirely on God, even in things of insignificant appearances. Assigned by the superior to work in the kitchen, she had great difficulty in handling the huge pans. It was especially difficult for her to drain the water from the potatoes without letting a large quantity of them fall out. Intimidated by her weakness, Sister Faustina had tried to shirk this duty, succeeding only in scandalizing the other sisters.
Without the slightest fear, the novice asked Jesus for help, and He answered her with a clear inner voice that from that day on she would find the strength to carry out the task without effort. That same night, Sister Faustina managed to pour the water out of the pot with ease. But what a surprise when she saw, when she uncovered the pot, that instead of potatoes, she saw indescribably beautiful red roses! And she heard these words from Our Lord: “I have transformed your heavy labor into bouquets of the most beautiful flowers, and their perfume rises to My Throne”.
Later, the Saint would express herself thus: “You give me to know and to understand in what the greatness of the soul consists: not in great actions, but in a great love. Love has value and gives greatness to our actions. Although our actions are trivial and vulgar in themselves, through love they become important and powerful before God. This love for God was the light that always guided her, both in
Mission of “Apostle” of Divine Mercy
On May 1, 1933, Sister Faustina made her perpetual vows. Her mission as an “apostle” of Divine Mercy had already become explicit with the continuous revelations and messages of Jesus: “In the Old Testament, I sent prophets to My people with threats. Today I am sending you to all mankind with My mercy. I don’t want to punish the suffering humanity, but I want to heal it, straitening it to My merciful Heart.”
The fervent Sister gave herself, with all the commitment of her soul, to this important mission, despite feeling in herself so much uncertainty and inability. “Secretary of My deepest mystery,” was the title given by Jesus to her “apostle” of the Divine Mercy.
The messages and revelations she received were noted down in a Diary, written by express determination of the Divine Redeemer: “Your task is to write down everything I make known to you about My mercy for the benefit of souls who, reading these writings, will experience consolation and will have the courage to approach Me.”
The pages of the Diary are filled with recollections of visions and intimate conversations with Our Lord and Our Lady, communications with Angels, Saints, and souls in purgatory, and even a visit to Hell and Purgatory. Simple, yet of surprising theological depth, the Diary is a treasure trove of teachings on Divine Mercy.
Making known the Savior’s wishes
Many of the revelations dealt in a special way with devotion to Divine Mercy, given by Jesus especially for the days in which we live: “Humanity will find no peace until it turns with confidence to Divine Mercy.
In them, Jesus expresses a great desire that souls turn to Him, with humility, recognizing their faults, so that He may enforce His mercy: “May every soul glorify My goodness. I desire the confidence of My creatures; exhort souls to a great trust in My inconceivable mercy. Let the weak, sinful soul not be afraid to approach Me, for even if his sins were more numerous than the grains of sand on earth, they would still be submerged in the abyss of My mercy.”
(Also read: How to receive the graces on the Feast of Divine Mercy)
In order that the world might benefit from such goodness, it was necessary to promote and spread this devotion, as Jesus Himself had requested: “I desire that the priests announce this My great mercy for sinful souls. Let the sinner not be afraid to approach Me. I burn the flames of mercy; I want to pour them on souls”.
This great mission brought the Saint countless sufferings, because she was not always understood by those around her. Until Our Lord gave her, in 1933, a wise and prudent confessor, Father Michael Sopocko. He counseled and helped her for years, guiding her through her doubts and difficulties.
Jesus tells her to paint a picture
On February 22, 1931, St. Faustina received one of the most impressive revelations from her Divine Master. She saw Him dressed in white, with His right hand raised in an attitude of blessing; from His chest came two rays, one white and the other red. She also heard His divine voice commanding her to have a picture painted according to the model she was seeing, with the inscription: “Jesus, I trust in You. “I promise,” Jesus added, “that the soul who venerates this Image will not perish. I Myself will defend it as My own glory.”
In a later revelation, He explained the meaning of the two rays: “The white ray means the Water, which justifies souls; the red ray means the Blood, which is the life of souls.”
After several obstacles, the picture was painted by Eugeniusz Kazimirowski. The saint complained to the Divine Master that it was nowhere near as beautiful as the vision, but He calmed her, saying that it didn’t matter, because the value of the picture was not in its artistic beauty, but in the grace given by Him.
Our Lord asked her that the picture be solemnly blessed on the Sunday after Easter, which He instituted as the Feast of Mercy: “The first Sunday after Easter should be the Feast of Mercy. On that day, priests should speak to souls of this My great and unfathomable mercy.”
Meditated Rosary of Divine Mercy
In another vision, a prayer was revealed to him to appease God’s righteous anger against the world: the “rosary of mercy.” Our Lord Himself taught her how to pray it, as follows:
“First you shall say the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Creed. Then, on the Our Father’s beads, you will say the following words: ‘Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your most beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world. On the Hail Mary beads you will pray the following words: ‘By His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world. At the end, you will pray three
“First you will say the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Creed. Then, on the Our Father’s beads, you will say the following words: ‘Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your most beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world. On the Hail Mary beads you will pray the following words: ‘By His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world. At the end you will pray these words three times: ‘Holy God, Strong God, Immortal God, have mercy on us and on the whole world’.”
(Also read: Divine Mercy Sunday: origin, meaning and plenary indulgence)
He also instituted the “Hour of Mercy”, three in the afternoon, for all to venerate His Passion. This moment of the day is the “Hour of great mercy for the whole world”, in which “mercy has overcome justice”. He further revealed to the Saint that He denies nothing to those who ask in the name of His Passion in this hour, especially for poor sinners.
“Do not live for yourself, but for souls”
Despite all the extraordinary gifts she had received – including the hidden stigmata, prophecy, discernment of spirits, mystical espousals – St. Faustina was well aware that holiness consists in doing God’s will, even if this led her to offer herself as a victim. That is why she wrote: “I know that the grain of wheat, in order to become food, must be crushed and ground between millstones; in the same way, in order to be useful to the Church and to souls, I must be destroyed, although outwardly no one notices my sacrifice.
Suffering physical deterioration caused by tuberculosis and the weight of the great responsibility of her mission, Sister Faustina was able to perform the much desired holocaust. Her illness was not immediately understood by the community, and for this reason, some sisters accused her of caprice and laziness.
Her extraordinary revelations and gifts also made her an object of suspicion. But her unalterable good humor and kindness to everyone without exception, especially to one sister who treated her particularly badly, was so heroic that it led one of the religious to exclaim: “Sister Faustina is either a fool or a saint, because really a normal person would not tolerate someone always treating her so harshly!”
Her charity also extended to the numerous girls of the house, to whom she gave patient and inexhaustible devotion. She lived deeply the meaning of these words of Our Lord: “My daughter, do not live for yourself, but for souls”.
Graces that exceed our requests
After several hospital stays for treatment of her painful illness, Sister Faustina returned to the convent where she gave her heroic soul to God on October 5, 1938, at the age of 33.
Canonized by St. John Paul II on April 30, 2000 – Divine Mercy Sunday – St. Faustina illuminates our century with her mission and life. The devotion and knowledge of Mercy, as well as the testimony of her outstanding virtue, spread all over the world today, inviting us to abandon ourselves without fear into the hands of the One who always welcomes with kindness and never disappoints.
For, as He Himself said to Saint Faustina: “I take pleasure in souls who have recourse to My mercy. To these souls I grant graces that exceed their requests. I cannot punish even the greatest of sinners if he has recourse to My compassion, but I justify him in My unfathomable and inscrutable mercy.”
By Sister Monica Erin MacDonald, EP
(Heralds of the Gospel Magazine, October 2009, n. 94, p. 34 to 37)
Compiled by Teresa Joseph
