St. Maria Faustina Kowalska (1905 - 1938)

Feast Day: October 5th
Canonization: April 20, 2000
Patron of Mercy

Blessed by visions of Christ when she was a young nun, St. Faustina obeyed Him in launching a new mission – spreading worldwide devotion to His mercy, particularly to those oppressed in sin.

Born in 1905 in a small Polish town as Helenka Kowalska, she was one of 10 children of a poor family. Leaving school after third grade before reading or writing well, she longed to be a nun but her parents would not approve. The money she earned as housekeeper for neighboring families was needed by her family, so she endured. Then at 19, she had a vision from Jesus asking her to enter the convent.

After being refused by several orders, she was accepted by the Servants of Our Lady of Mercy, and took the name Maria Faustyna Kowalska of the Blessed Sacrament. Working menial tasks, she had continued visions from Jesus. In 1931, He asked her to paint His Divine Mercy image, with the signature “Jesus, I trust in You.”

She recorded her visions and conversations with Jesus in her Diary, even as other nuns ridiculed her. After her death on October 5, 1938, her Diary went to the Vatican. In 2000, Pope St. John Paul II canonized her, and proclaimed the Sunday after Easter as the Feast of Mercy.