Saint Faustina, apostle of the Divine Mercy

Summary:

Born Helena Kowalska on August 25, 1905, to poor and religious parents in a small village in central Poland, our future saint was she third of ten children. During the Russian occupation, her father got up early and prayed aloud to instil piety in his children.

From the age of seven, Helena received the grace of a religious vocation, and heard God's call to lead a more perfect life by following him more closely. As the young girl helped her mother at home, she was only able to attend three years of primary school. However, despite her lack of education, those close to her testified that she was gifted in the tasks entrusted to her. In 1921, she left work as a housemaid in Łódź. At the age of 16, on her return home, Helena told her parents that she wanted to enter a convent, but they would not give their permission. She then left home to work as a housekeeper in Aleksandrów, Lodi, and Ostrówek. Because of her parents' refusal to accept her vocation, Helena tried to silence the voice of grace, and her soul fell in love with worldly pleasures. She wrote in her Diary that ignoring this permanent call was a great sorrow for her.

But in July 1924, during a ball with friends, she suddenly saw Jesus, covered in wounds, complaining about her attitude: "How long am I going to put up with you and how long are you going to disappoint me?" Shaken by this vision, she left the party and went to the cathedral. There, lying with her arms folded before the Blessed Sacrament, she begged God with all her soul to show her the way, so clearly that she heard the words: "Leave immediately for Warsaw. There you will enter the convent." This mystical experience of Christ turned her life upside down.

So she obeyed, moving confidently forward in her vocation: "With just one dress and nothing else, I arrived in Warsaw", she wrote. When she got off the train, Helena was frightened: she didn't know anyone and didn't know where to turn! So she prayed to the Virgin Mary: "Mary, lead me, guide me!... Immediately, I heard in my soul that I should leave the city for a village where I could spend the night in safety, which I did and found everything just as the Mother of God had told me." The next day, very early in the morning, she arrived in Warsaw and went into "the first church she found" to pray in order to understand God's will. There she heard: "Go and find this priest and tell him everything, he'll tell you what you should do." Listening to the young girl, the priest expressed astonishment at this unprecedented situation. But he asked her to have great confidence in God, who would decide her future.

The priest sent her to stay with a lady until she entered the convent. But there was no shortage of obstacles: Helena knocked on the doors of several convents, which refused to admit her. Exhausted, she asked the Lord Jesus to help her a little: "Help me, don't leave me alone." She then went to the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, whose superior asked her to go see if the Master of the House would accept her. Realising that she meant the Lord Jesus, she ran to the chapel with joy. The good Lord granted her this favour: "Yes, I accept, you are in my heart." Seeing such simplicity in this young girl, the superior told her that if the Lord Jesus accepted her, she would do the same.

However, after the First World War, poverty was endemic in Poland. The monasteries had no ressources. At the request of the superior, Helena worked for a year as an au pair in order to earn a dowry to become a Sister of Mercy. She found a job with a well-to-do family in Łódź as a housekeeper and nanny. She kept her word and made deposits at the convent throughout the year in order to be accepted. There, the locals discovered remarkable human qualities in her. She was responsible, careful and intelligent. Gifted at looking after children, Helena would tell them many stories and invents funny ones to amuse the younger ones. Always cheerful, she was nicknamed "the prankster".

She finally joined the sisters on August 1, 1925. After three weeks, however, she began to think seriously about leaving for a stricter community. But the Lord Jesus appeared to her and said: "You will cause me such pain if you leave this convent. This is where I have called you and prepared many graces for you." Taking the name Sister Maria Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament, she was sent to various convents in Kraków, Płock and Vilnius, where she enthusiastically performed the tasks of cook, bread seller, gardener and then porter for thirteen years. Through a very ordinary external life, she was thoughtful and silent, observing the rule of her religious order perfectly. However, she continued to receive regular visits from the Lord Jesus. He taught her a way of conversion to prepare the whole world for his return in glory. These mystical revelations reminded her of the harsh reality of hell and the punishments of purgatory, as well as the need to repent in order to enter eternal life. Sister Faustina participated in the Passion of the Lord Jesus by receiving the stigmata in a hidden way.

During an apparition, Jesus asked her: "I want you to paint my portrait, to paint me exactly as you see me." The Lord Jesus continued his request: "Call this painting: Jesus, I trust in you". But as soon as he saw her trembling, he assured her of his peace and promised to send her a confessor to carry out his will on earth. He also asked for the institution of the Feast of Mercy throughout the Church. Jesus promised that the soul that honoured this image would not be lost and would obtain victory over its enemies here below. He added: "At the hour of her death [i.e that soul], I myself will defend her as my own glory." Sister Faustina regularly conversed with the Mother of God, the angels, the saints and the souls in purgatory. For her, this heavenly world was as real as the visible that surrounded her. But she knew that her joy lay in a profound union of her will with that of God.

After her perpetual vows, pronounced on May 1, 1933, she wrote: "I am in him and he in me. God invades my whole being." Faustina gradually fell ill with tuberculosis of the lungs and intestines, forcing her to undergo repeated cures in sanatorium hospitals. In truth, she was chosen to be an apostle of divine mercy, and suffered as a victim of voluntary expiation for sinners. She is a reminder that God is good to everyone. This revelation was a source of consolation and courage to draw graces from Christ the Saviour. She died in Krakow on October 5, 1938, at the age of 33. Saint Faustina was canonized on April 30, 2000.

Beyond reasons to believe:

The message of Divine Mercy was spread exactly as Christ had announced it to Faustina. When Saint Faustina's confessor gave his first homily on the Lord's infinite mercy, the painting in the chapel came to life and the rays penetrated "the hearts of the people gathered, but not to the same extent. Some received more, others less" (Diary 417, p. 187).

Going further:

Divine Mercy In My Soul - Diary of Sister M. Faustina Kowalska, by St. Faustina, Marian Pr; 3rd edition (January 1, 2000)

More information:

• Documentary video Saint Faustina, Her Life and Spirituality by Father Chris Alar MIC
• Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy's website: Biography of Saint Faustina (click "read more" to read the full page)
• Film Love and Mercy: Faustina, by Michał Kondrat (2019)