Saint Faustina: Apostle of Divine Mercy

Sister Maria Faustina Kowalska, known today as Saint Faustina, stands as one of the most remarkable mystics of the 20th century. Though her external life appeared ordinary and humble, her interior life was marked by extraordinary encounters with Jesus Christ and a profound mission that continues to impact millions of believers worldwide.

Humble Beginnings

Born Helena Kowalska on August 25, 1905, in Głogowiec, Poland, Faustina was the third of ten children in a poor peasant family. From an early age, she displayed exceptional piety and sensed a calling to religious life. Her formal education was minimal—only about three years of elementary schooling—as her family’s poverty required her to begin working as a domestic servant at the age of sixteen.

Despite her desire to enter religious life from an early age, Helena’s parents opposed this path. It wasn’t until age 19, after a vision of the suffering Christ at a dance, that she finally embarked on her religious journey, entering the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Warsaw on August 1, 1925.

Life in the Convent

Due to her lack of education and simple background, Sister Faustina was assigned to the humblest positions in the convent. She worked primarily as a cook, gardener, and porter. Her external life appeared unremarkable—she performed her duties diligently but without drawing attention to herself. Few of her fellow sisters knew of the extraordinary spiritual experiences occurring within her soul.

Faustina’s lack of formal education made writing her famous diary particularly challenging. She struggled with spelling and grammar, yet persevered in recording her mystical experiences at the direction of her confessors. This diary, titled “Divine Mercy in My Soul,” would later become a spiritual classic, though it remained largely unknown during her lifetime.

The Mystic and Her Lord

What distinguished Sister Faustina was her profound interior life. Beginning in February 1931, she experienced a series of visions and private revelations from Jesus Christ. In these encounters, Jesus appeared to her and asked her to become the apostle and secretary of His mercy, to tell the world about His great mercy and to prepare the world for His Second Coming.

The relationship between Faustina and Jesus was marked by extraordinary intimacy. In her diary, she recorded Jesus speaking to her with tenderness and urgency about His desire to pour out His mercy on humanity. Jesus told her: “I am Love and Mercy itself. When a soul approaches Me with trust, I fill it with such an abundance of graces that it cannot contain them within itself, but radiates them to other souls.”

Through these encounters, Faustina developed a profound understanding of God’s mercy that transcended her limited formal education. She became, in essence, a theologian of Divine Mercy, articulating profound spiritual truths through her simple yet profound writings.

The Image of Divine Mercy

Perhaps the most well-known aspect of Saint Faustina’s mission was the Divine Mercy image. During a vision on February 22, 1931, Jesus instructed Faustina to have an image painted according to the pattern she saw. He appeared dressed in a white robe with rays of red and pale light emanating from His heart, representing blood and water.

Jesus gave specific instructions for this image: “Paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the signature: ‘Jesus, I trust in You.’ I desire that this image be venerated, first in your chapel, and then throughout the world.”

Despite her lack of artistic ability and initial difficulties finding a painter, the first Divine Mercy image was eventually completed in 1934 by Eugene Kazimirowski under Faustina’s direction. Jesus promised that “The soul that will venerate this image will not perish” and that He would “defend it as His own glory.”

The Mission of Divine Mercy

Beyond the image, Jesus entrusted Faustina with several elements of the Divine Mercy devotion:

1. The Feast of Divine Mercy – To be celebrated on the Second Sunday of Easter (now officially established in the Church calendar).
2. The Chaplet of Divine Mercy – A prayer using rosary beads, which Jesus said would “obtain everything” if recited with trust.
3. The Hour of Mercy – The 3:00 hour (commemorating Christ’s death), when Jesus promised special graces for prayer.
4. Spreading the message of Divine Mercy – Jesus told her: “Humanity will not find peace until it turns with trust to My mercy.”

Despite facing scepticism from some within her community, Faustina remained faithful to her mission. She once wrote: “Neither graces, nor revelations, nor raptures, nor gifts granted to a soul make it perfect, but rather the intimate union of the soul with God.”

Final Years and Legacy

Sister Faustina’s health deteriorated rapidly as she suffered from tuberculosis. She offered her physical suffering for sinners and embraced it as a way to unite herself with Christ’s passion. She died on October 5, 1938, at just 33 years of age—the same age as Jesus at His crucifixion.

At the time of her death, the message of Divine Mercy had barely begun to spread. World War II would soon engulf Poland, and her writings were nearly lost to history. However, through the efforts of her spiritual director, Father Michael Sopocko, and later Pope John Paul II (himself a Polish native), Faustina’s message eventually reached global prominence.

St. Faustina was canonized on April 30, 2000, as the first saint of the new millennium. Pope John Paul II also established Divine Mercy Sunday as a feast for the universal Church on that same day, fulfilling one of Jesus’s requests to Faustina.

Saint Faustina’s life represents a profound paradox: an uneducated, simple nun became the messenger of one of the most important spiritual movements of the modern era. Her story reminds us that God often chooses the humble and the lowly to accomplish His greatest works. Despite her limited education, menial convent duties, and short life, her faithful recording of her mystical experiences has touched millions.

Today, the Divine Mercy devotion she championed has spread worldwide, with the image displayed in countless churches and homes, and the chaplet prayed by millions. Her famous diary, despite its simple language, contains profound theological insights into God’s mercy. Perhaps the most enduring aspect of her legacy is the simple yet powerful message she was tasked with sharing: “Jesus, I trust in You.”