St. Faustina Kowalska
Patron of Divine Mercy devotion and the mercy of God
- Feast day
- October 5
- Origin
- Poland
- Era
- 20th century
- Order
- Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy
- Canonised
- 2000
About the saint
Helena Kowalska was born in 1905, the third of ten children in a poor Polish village, and had less than three years of formal schooling. She entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in 1925 and worked as a cook, gardener and porter.
From 1931 she recorded a series of visions of Christ as the King of Divine Mercy, who asked for an image to be painted with the words "Jesus, I trust in You," for a feast of Mercy on the Sunday after Easter, and for the Chaplet of Divine Mercy.
She died of tuberculosis in 1938 at thirty-three. Her diary was briefly banned before being cleared, and John Paul II canonized her in 2000, establishing Divine Mercy Sunday for the universal Church.
Works
Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul
Her spiritual journal recording the Divine Mercy revelations and the Chaplet.
Read it →
Documented miracles
The Divine Mercy image
Painted in Vilnius in 1934 to her description of the vision, with rays of red and pale light from the heart of Christ.
Vilnius, 1934
The healing of Maureen Digan
An American woman with incurable lymphedema was cured at Faustina's tomb; the case was accepted for her beatification.
Kraków, 1981
The healing of Fr. Ronald Pytel
A Baltimore priest's damaged heart returned to normal function after prayer to Faustina, accepted as the canonization miracle.
Baltimore, 1995