Faustyna Kowalska

Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska
Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska
	Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska of the Most Blessed Sacrament
Confessor
Born	25 August 1905; Głogowiec, Russian Empire
Died	5 October 1938; Kraków, Poland
Venerated in	Roman Catholic Church
Beatified	18 April 1993
Canonized	30 April 2000
Major shrine	Shrine of Divine Mercy in Łagiewniki, Kraków, Poland
Feast	5 October

Maria Faustina Kowalska, commonly known as Saint Faustina, born Helena Kowalska (August 25, 1905, Głogowiec, then in Russian Empire – October 5, 1938, Kraków, Poland) was a Polish nun and mystic, now venerated in the Roman Catholic Church as a saint.

Biography

Helena Kowalska was the third of ten children born to a poor family. At the age of fifteen, having attended just three years of school, she started work to support her family. Around this time she was considering a vocation in the Catholic church. She claimed that God himself was calling her to be a nun. Helena left for Warsaw, and applied to various convents in the capital, only to be turned down each time. She was finally accepted at the convent of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. She was eventually initiated as a nun on April 30, 1926, with the name Sister Maria Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament.

Sister Faustina claimed to have visited Purgatory, and to have seen and spoken to Jesus and Mary several times. Later on, Jesus allegedly revealed her purpose; to spread the devotion of the Mercy of God. On February 22, 1931, Jesus was said to have appeared as the 'King of Divine Mercy', wearing a white garment. His right hand was raised in a sign of blessing and the other was touching the garment at the breast. From beneath the garment emanated two large rays, one red, the other pale. St. Faustina had a picture of this vision painted. With the help of Father Michał Sopoćko, she distributed the images at Kraków and Wilno, and people began to pray before them. Faustina wrote a diary, despite her limited literacy. The diary was later published under the title Divine Mercy in My Soul: The Diary of St. Faustina. Faustina unsuccessfully tried to found a "Congregation which will proclaim the Mercy of God to the world, and, by its prayers, obtain it for the world", but was constantly denied leave by her convent.

In 1936, Faustina became extremely ill, speculated to be from tuberculosis. She was moved to the sanatorium in Pradnik. She spent much time in prayer, reciting the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and praying for the conversion of sinners. The last two years of St. Faustina’s life were spent working as much as she could between visits to the sanatorium and time spent sick in bed in the convent. By June of 1938, she could no longer write in the diary, and it became obvious that she would not live much longer. St. Faustina died on October 5. The task of spreading the message of Divine Mercy, already well begun, was continued by her spiritual director, Father Sopoćko. Faustina had never been able to found the religious order which Jesus had asked for, but she had left clear rules for the life of the prospective community, and at last in 1941, the order, now known as the Institute of Divine Mercy, was founded.

Note: With reference to 'religious order' 'able to found' and Saint Sister Faustina please visit Faustinum Association of Apostles of the Divine Mercy for information regarding the apostolic movement which springs from Sr Faustinas' charism and the message of Divine Mercy

Canonization and Institution of Divine Mercy Sunday

In 1958, the Holy See issued a document condemning the work of the Institute of Divine Mercy, because St. Faustina’s diary was misinterpreted by theologians who did not take into consideration her lack of education which resulted in poor spelling and punctuation, and many unclear sentence constructions that suggested heretical teachings. Father Sopoćko was harshly reprimanded, and all his work was suppressed.^[source?]

The archbishop of Kraków, however, permitted the nuns to leave the original picture hanging in their chapel so that those who wished to continue to pray before it could do so.^[source?]

It was through the intervention of Karol Wojtyła, then the Archbishop of Kraków and the future Pope John Paul II, that a new investigation into the life and diary of St. Faustina was finally launched, and the devotion to the Divine Mercy was once again permitted. Faustina was beatified on April 18, 1993 and canonized on April 30, 2000.

Divine Mercy Sunday is celebrated the Second Sunday of Easter (which is the first Sunday after Easter).

“	Indeed the message [St. Faustina] 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.	”
—Pope John Paul II -Divine Mercy Sunday Homily,Sunday, 22 April 2001

The fact that her Vatican autobiography directly quotes some of her conversations with Jesus distinguishes her among the reported visions of Jesus and Mary.

References

Vatican biography
The diary of Saint Faustina

External links

Biography

Canonization and Institution of Divine Mercy Sunday

References

See also

External links