Saint Faustina Kowalska

Life story

Helena Kowalska was born on 25 August 1905 at Głogowiec in Poland, into a large farming family. She had only about three years of primary schooling, and from the age of sixteen worked as a domestic servant in several places to help her family.

In 1925 she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Warsaw, taking the religious name Maria Faustina. She worked as a cook, gardener and portress and lived in several houses of the congregation, including Vilnius, Płock and Kraków. In Vilnius she met Father Michał Sopoćko, who became her confessor.

At her confessor's instruction she recorded her spiritual experiences in a Diary, later known as the Diary of Divine Mercy. She described visions and a call to spread devotion to the mercy of God; the image of the Merciful Jesus was painted by Eugeniusz Kazimirowski in Vilnius in 1934 following her description.

She contracted tuberculosis and died on 5 October 1938 at Kraków, aged thirty-three. She was beatified in 1993, and John Paul II canonised her on 30 April 2000; at the same ceremony he established Divine Mercy Sunday for the whole Church. In 1959 the Holy See restricted the spread of the devotion, a restriction lifted in 1978 after new documentation was examined. She is buried in Łagiewniki, Kraków, where the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy now stands, and the Diary has been translated into many languages.

Works and witness

• Entered the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in 1925 and worked as cook, gardener and portress
• Wrote her Diary at the request of her confessor, Father Sopoćko
• The Merciful Jesus image was painted in Vilnius in 1934 from her description
• Canonised on 30 April 2000

Saints from the same country

Saint Stanislaus of Kraków, Saint John Paul II, Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Saint Jadwiga of Poland

References

• Martyrologium Romanum
• Dicastery for the Causes of Saints – biographical profile
• Maria Faustina Kowalska, Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul

Written by Anawim from documented history. Some details about ancient saints rest on tradition and are marked as such.