The family was not well off, so like her older sisters she went into domestic service. During the homily for her canonization on April 30, 2000, the pope declared Divine Mercy Sunday to be celebrated worldwide. But occasionally someone was a witness to them. With her inborn gentleness, she trained them from their youngest years in jobs about the house and farm, and responsibility in carrying out their duties. By July 1937, the first Divine Mercy holy cards were printed with Sr. Faustina's instructions for praying the Novena of Divine Mercy, which she reported was a message from Jesus. I no longer had any doubts that what she wrote in her diary about Holy Communion being administered to her in hospital by an angel was absolutely true.. I learned how much God loved me. So when we go to confession our souls are spotless and we have nothing to worry about. Those who are strong devotees to Divine Mercy and St. Faustina, may know a lot already about her life. Everyone loved her her mother recalled she was chosen, the best of the children. These words filled her soul with a terrible awe. From today on you shall be called Sister Maria Faustyna, 11. Thats how Mother Magorzata Gimbutt described the candidate on a preliminary interview to Mother General, Mother Leonarda Cielecka, who was not very keen on admitting persons with such a background into the Congregation. Mrs. Lipszyc tried to get her to marry. There was not much work for her to do at Derdy, and Sister Faustina felt as if staying in this house was almost like a holiday. But already in April she suffered a relapse. He was strict with himself and his children and did not tolerate even the slightest misdemeanour. Sister Faustina was not good at drawing, so she asked Sister Boenna Pniewska for help. Not only her parents noticed little Helenkas goodness, and her open attitude to God and other people. Right at that moment, I was transfixed by the Divine light, and I felt I belonged solely to God; and I experienced supreme spiritual freedom, such as I had never had any idea of before (Diary 1681). I shall complete all that is wanting in you (Diary 435). She told her that God was still her Father although he was testing her, and that these trials were to prepare her soul for a fuller union with Him. Helenka spent the last months of her postulancy in the novice house in Krakw, where she arrived on 23 January 1926. For the spirit space does not exist. Sister Maria Faustina (born Helena Kowalska in Glogowiec, Poland on August 25, 1905) was canonized on April 30, 2000 by Pope John Paul II thus becoming the first Catholic saint of the 21st century. Our Lady faithfully accompanied Sister Faustina and spoke to her on the prophetic mission. No-one knew about it except for Father Micha Sopoko, Father Jzef Andrasz, and some of her superiors. 6,379 Likes, 75 Comments - EWTN (@ewtnmedia) on Instagram: "Today is St. Faustina's feast day. He asked people to kindle that spark of Gods grace and to transmit the fire of mercy to the world. Helenka went into service again, this time in d. In her everyday contacts Sister Faustina was able to interpret lifes troubles in a spirit of living faith and see Gods goodness in everything. If time allowed she would play with me. Then I saw Our Lady who said, O, how God likes the soul that faithfully follows the inspiration of His grace. I want a Feast of Mercy. In this situation, she tried to avoid the Lord, and when He came she would ask, Jesus, are You my God, or a spectre? Today there is probably no country left without an image of the Merciful Jesus. The last time I visited her, on 26 September in the agiewniki Convent, she did not want to talk to me, or perhaps she couldnt any longer, saying she was in communion with the Heavenly Father. After the retreat, she returned to Warsaw full of gratitude and spiritual joy to prepare during her third probation, along with two other sisters, under the direction of Mother Magorzata Gimbutt, for the making of her perpetual vows. She was kind, courteous, and hard-working. Sister Faustina is one of the Church's most popular and widely known saints and the greatest mystics in the history of the Church. Numerous new Divine Mercy shrines have sprung up to preach the truth of Gods merciful love for each human being. But Sister Faustina was not pleased, although the artist and Father Sopoko did all they could to render as faithful an image of Jesus as possible. He asked her to hold the moment of His death on the cross in veneration. From then on Helenka prayed all the more fervently for the souls in purgatory, to help them, and God permitted her to establish a closer form of contact with them. Informed of this, Mother Superior Irena Krzyanowska forbade her to speak about it, and this is how Sister Faustinas extraordinary spiritual life was kept secret. 9 in the Kronieska, and worked for three ladies who were Tertiaries of St. Francis. At the age of nine, she made her first Holy Communion. The Lord is with Thee. She was modest and quiet, ready to do any chore and help anyone, but at the same time cheerful and always with a smile on her face. A sick man lived in a lumber room under the stairs in the house. She was the third of ten children born to an impoverished and devout religious family in rural Pennsylvania. The mystery of Divine Mercy took up the central position in Sister Faustinas life and apostolic work. The funeral took place on 7 October, the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. Two years later he made his second pilgrimage as Pope to the agiewniki Shrine, and in the basilica church he had just consecrated entrusted the whole world to the Divine Mercy. The figure of Blessed Micha Sopoko, confessor of Sister Faustina Kowalska, is well known, but Father Jozef Andrasz SJ (1891-1963), who played a very important role in the. The One to whom I have made my vows is my husband and therefore your son-in-law. One day she held a lottery, another time she put on her mothers old clothes and as a beggar went from house to house and the collected money gave to the parish priest for the poor. I got in touch with Eugeniusz Kazimirowski, an artist who lived in the same house as I and undertook to paint the picture, and with Mother Superior, who allowed Sister Faustina to visit him twice a week to instruct him on the details of the painting., The painting of the first picture of the Merciful Jesus started very discreetly at the beginning of January 1934. One of the people who came to worship before this image was Karol Wojtya, a young labourer from the Solvay quarry which neighboured on the convent, who had already become familiar with the devotion to Divine Mercy in the forms of worship prescribed by Sister Faustina. What can you do about it?, 'Well, said Sister Faustina, 'if you have a yard then what with walking across it all week itll get dirty, but come Saturday you sweep it and clean it up and its spotless. Finally she came to the house of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. It happened one day during the octave of Corpus Christi she recorded the most important event of her time at Ostrwek in her diary God filled my soul with an inner light enabling me to come to know Him as the Supreme Good and Beauty. Translated by Teresa Bauk-Ulewiczowa, Copyright by ZgromadzenieSiostr Matki Boskiej Miosierdzia, 4. In the next visions Jesus made great promises to Sister Faustina in connection with the trustful reciting of the Chaplet. The same ceremony was being held in Rome in a beautiful church, and the Holy Father and all the clergy were celebrating it; and suddenly I saw St. Peter standing between the altar and the Holy Father. Firstly in Warsaw in the ytnia, in 1929 she went to Wilno to replace Sister Petronela Basiura, who was leaving for her third probation; then she returned to Warsaw and the house in the ytnia, only to be sent off to a new house on the Hetmaska in the Grochw district. But this wasnt her biggest worry. St. Faustina Kowalska Catholic Online Saints & Angels Facts Feastday: October 5 Patron: of Mercy Birth: 1905 Death: 1938 Beatified: Pope John Paul II on April 18, 1993 Canonized: Pope John Paul II on April 30, 2000 Author and Publisher - Catholic Online Printable PDF of St. Faustina Kowalska Shop St. Faustina Kowalska When I tried to explain that I had a problem with saying this Litany, he rose and granted me absolution. One day she saw there an extraordinary light. The sisters in the refectory got up from table and went upstairs, where Sister Faustina was lying in her room. Though seriously ill herself, often so ill that she had to leave Mass, she always noticed others, who needed help. She instructed Sister Faustina to say the exclamatory prayers instead of long prayers which required a considerable amount of concentration, and thereby accept the will of God. We were sitting on a bench and she came up from behind, put her arms around our shoulders and put her head between our heads. In fact, being submerged in God will give me unlimited scope for action(Diary 1582). Do what is in your power to spread the worship of My mercy; I shall complete whatever is wanting in your capacity. The Novice Mistress thorough training and personal experience gave her the confidence to lead the novices into the spiritual life, teaching them to know God more profoundly, to pray and practise the ascetic life, so that their piety should not be emotional and soft but thorough, and bring them to an ever deeper union with God through obedience, humility, a self-sacrificing love of their neighbours and a zeal for the salvation of the souls entrusted to the Congregations apostolic care. The Passion of Jesus teaches us what true mercy is. Her eyes were fixed on an invisible object, and her pupils slightly dilated, for some time she did not take any notice of me, and I did not want to disturb her and was intending to leave, but soon she came round, noticed me and apologised for not hearing me knock or enter. The notification had been issued owing to an erroneous translation of her diary and resulting inappropriate forms of worship. The painting of the vision Sister Faustina had had three years earlier at Pock gave rise to several fundamental questions which Father Sopoko put to Sister Faustina, and she in the simplicity of her heart passed them on to Jesus, who explained, My gaze from this picture is like My gaze from the cross (Diary 326), Jesus explained, The two rays stand for blood and water. It was in the convent at Pock, where Sister Faustina arrived in the May or June of 1930, that her great prophetic mission was to begin. And it is to prepare the world for His second coming. While she prayed there she heard the words, I admit you, you are in My heart (Diary 14). In her heart of hearts she heard the words, My Mercy does not want that, but justice commands it (Diary 20). In the darkness of the passive nights God was granting her moments of respite and great joy. That day at supper time a bell was heard. Where, if not in Divine Mercy, will the world find rescue and the light of hope? I thought she must be in her room and lying in bed, as she was ill, so I opened the door and went in. It was Sunday, 22 February 1931. He was spiritual director and chaplain in the Vilnian archdiocesan seminary, and confessor to numerous religious congregations, including the Antokol house of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy for their confession week. As I was a senior novice I had to act as her guide (angel). There were holy pictures on the walls, and a little altar stood in the middle of the bedroom, with a crucifix and two holy statues, the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. A name with several distinguished namesakes: the wife of ancient Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, a famous Italian opera singer, and two Catholic saintsmaking it both substantial and unusual. But the joy of those days for Sister Faustina was the fact that Jesus requests had been fulfilled. As the devotion became more and more widely known the opinion of Sister Faustinas sainthood grew as well. Her family had ten children and was very poor. It was with this in mind that on 21 March 1936 she left Vilnius. Some, especially the more curious ones, were irked by my silence. It was around eleven at night. On the afternoon of 5 October 1938 Father Andrasz arrived at the agiewniki Convent and for the last time granted Sister Faustina absolution and administered the Sacrament of the Sick. "After it will come the Day of Justice. "Speak to the world about My mercy," Jesus allegedly told her. Her apparitions of Jesus Christ inspired the Roman Catholic devotion to the Divine Mercy and earned her the title of Secretary of Divine Mercy. This scrawny young man, in dreadfully tattered clothes, barefoot and without a hat as Sister Faustina described the incident was freezing, as it was a cold and wet day. Two days later she was baptized with the name Helena in the parish church of . Sister Faustina wished a priest would come and resolve the question definitively and just say, rest assured, you are on the right road, or reject it all, for it does not come from God (Diary 127). Sister Felicja was surprised that the doctor allowed her to go to Mass despite her poor condition. And you could always observe a childlike joy on her face. However, she knew that the convent chapel at agiewniki in Krakw would become the shri- ne for the worship of the Divine Mercy. Sister Faustina experienced visions of Jesus and Mary, during one of which Our Lord revealed that she was to . Tuberculosis, which had not been diagnosed until her stay in Vilnius, was ravaging Sister Faustinas body. One day passing by the chapel she said to Sister Damiana Ziek, I heard that Jesus said that at the Last Judgement He would judge people only on their mercy, for God is Mercy, so by doing or failing to do merciful deeds you are casting a verdict on yourself. Sister Faustina was born on 25 August 1905 in Gogowiec, Poland to Marianna and Stanisaw Kowalski as the third of ten children. What does Faustina mean The name Faustina is a girls name of Spanish, Latin origin meaning fortunate one. The week for Confession came she recorded in her diary and, to my joy, I saw the priest whom I knew before I came to Vilnius. It is undoubtedly a sign of our times a sign of our 20th century. In July her superiors sent her to the Congregations house in the spa resort of Rabka, but the sharp mountain climate was not good for Sister Faustina, she felt worse and had to leave after thirteen days. It was Father Micha Sopoko, who lectured in pastoral theology in the Faculty of Theology of the Stefan Batory University, and in educational studies in a teachers training college. St. Faustina was canonized in 2000, making her the first declared saint of the third millennium. It was a picture with a new content, he recalled, and that is why I could not display it in a church without permission from the Archbishop, whom I was embarrassed to ask or, even more, to explain its origins. But Sister Faustina, urged on by Jesus, demanded it be put up in church. . God was working in a strange way in my soul. But it was to her that Jesus addressed these amazing words: Under the Old Covenant I sent prophets to My people with thunderbolts. And Jesus said: I shall treat every soul that says this Chaplet as My glory, and I shall grant it My defence at the hour of death; also those at whose deathbed others say the Chaplet shall be granted the same indulgence. Here I have called you, and to no other place; here I have prepared many graces for you (Diary 19). But as she left the confessional Jesus explained, My image is in your soul. She commuted into Warsaw from Ostrwek looking for a convent which would take her but she was turned down wherever she knocked to the gate. Already in the first days, when she suffered much because for nearly three weeks she had no access to confession, This afternoon, Father Andrasz came into my isolation room and sat down to hear my Confession. She died on Oct. 5, 1938, after being chosen by Jesus and Mary to become the unlikely apostle of the Divine Mercy. She wrote: "I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish. 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