She took a train for Warsaw (around 85 miles away) without gaining the permission of her parents, knowing anyone in Warsaw, or bringing any belongings other than the dress she was wearing. From there, she said Jesus instructed her to depart for Warsaw immediately and to join a convent. Faustina said that, while at the dance, she had a vision of a suffering Jesus. In 1924, at the age of 19 years, Faustina went with her sister Natalia to a dance in a park in Łódź. Her tomb is in Divine Mercy Sanctuary, Kraków-Łagiewniki, where she spent the end of her life and met confessor Józef Andrasz who also supported the message of mercy.Įarly life Childhood and early years The mystic is classified in the liturgy as a virgin and is venerated within the church as the 'Apostle of Divine Mercy'. The Roman Catholic Church canonized Kowalska as a saint on 30 April 2000. Subsequently, Pope John Paul II established the Feast of Divine Mercy on that Sunday of each liturgical year. Sopoćko used the image in celebrating the first Mass on the first Sunday after Easter. Kowalska and Sopoćko directed an artist to paint the first Divine Mercy image, based on Kowalska's vision of Jesus. Īt the age of 20 years, she joined a convent in Warsaw, was transferred to Płock, and was later moved to Vilnius where she met her confessor Father Michał Sopoćko, who supported her devotion to the Divine Mercy. Her biography, submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, quoted some of these conversations with Jesus regarding the Divine Mercy devotion. Throughout her life, Kowalska reported having visions of Jesus and conversations with him, of which she wrote in her diary, later published as The Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul.
Her apparitions of Jesus Christ inspired the Roman Catholic devotion to the Divine Mercy and earned her the title of 'Secretary of Divine Mercy'.
Maria Faustyna Kowalska (born Helena Kowalska 1905–1938 ), also known as Saint Maria Faustyna Kowalska of the Blessed Sacrament and popularly spelled Faustina, was a Polish Roman Catholicnun and mystic. Peter's Square, Vatican City by Pope John Paul II Peter's Square, Vatican City by Pope John Paul IIģ0 April 2000, St. Głogowiec, Łęczyca County, Congress Polandġ8 April 1993, St.