Life & Mission of St. Faustina

Helena Kowalska - known in the convent as Sister Mary Faustina - was the third of ten children of Stanisław (d.1946) and Marianna (d.1965). Her father came from Świnice Warckie, from the area known by the name of Zagórze. As a bachelor, he worked in the local brewery in Dąbie on the river Ner, where he had met his future wife Marianna Babel. The wedding of Stanisław and Marianna took place on October 28, 1892; when the two of them got married, he was 25, while she was 18. After the wedding they purchased a few acres of poor land at the village of Głogowiec, where in the year 1900 they had built a house, consisting of one room, a kitchen and a carpenter's workshop. Next to the house, there was a water well and a little shrine hanged on a pear-tree. A great trial of faith for the young couple was the difficulty of having children. It was only 10 years after the wedding that the couple had been blessed with children: Józefa, Ewa, Helena (subsequently Sr. Faustina), Kazimiera (died in infancy), Natalia, Bronisława (also died in infancy), Stanisław, Mieczysław, Lucyna and Wanda.

Helena was born on August 25, 1905. Considered to be a weak child, she was baptized already on the second day after birth in Świnice Warckie by the then parish priest Rev. Józef Chodyński (whose grave is to be found at the local cemetery). Helena's birth certificate is written in Russian as it was a time of partitions. Under the birth certificate one can see a clear and legible signature of Helena's father, which testifies to the fact that he was literate. Already as a little child, the future Saint had shown great inclination to prayer; she even got up at night so as to pray. She also taught other children how to pray. In the seventh year of her life when she attended vespers at church, she had for the first time heard God's voice in her soul (c.f. Diary 7). During her First Holy Communion, she experienced a real presence of Jesus in her soul.

In the year 1917, when she was 12, she started attending elementary school in Świnice Warckie. She was a very good pupil, yet she had only attended school for 3 years, as she had to make room for younger children. Her stay was also connected with a series of humiliations, due to her extreme poverty.

When she was 16, she went into service with the well-to-do Bryszewski family in the town of Aleksandrów Łódzki. It was here, in the courtyard, that she for the first time saw a great light. She then returned home and asked her parents for permission to enter a convent. But her father objected very strongly. She went back into service in the city of Łódź. When she was 18 she had once again asked her parents for permission to go into convent but they objected yet again. After this refusal, she decided to suppress this calling from God. On February 2, 1923 she began working as housekeeper to Marcjanna Sadowska in Łódź and she remained there until July 1, 1924. Her other two sisters were also in Łódź at the time working as housekeepers for well-to-do families. It was with the two of them and a friend that Faustina had gone to a dance in the "Wenecja" park (present-day Słowacki park). At the dance she saw the image of the Suffering Jesus who summoned her to follow the voice of her vocation at any cost. When she lay prostrated in the cathedral dedicated to St. Stanislaw in Łódź, she heard a voice which told her that she is to go to Warsaw, so as to enter a convent there. She worked for the whole year to save up for a very modest dowry which was required of her. On August 1, 1925 she went through the gate of the convent home of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Warsaw which was situated in Żytnia St. She went back to her home and family parish only once more during her lifetime when she visited her sick mother in 1935.

St. Faustina's mission and life in the convent

Known as Sister Mary Faustina - she had spent 13 years in the convent, performing the duties of cook, gardener, and gate-keeper in various houses belonging to the Congregation, but the longest in Cracow, Vilnius and Płock. She carried out the above simple duties with immense dedication, trying to discover God's love through them and responding to this love with her own personal involvement.

She suffered from tuberculosis of the lungs and intenstines. She also experienced great spiritual sufferings as she had offered her life as a sacrifice for sinners, and especially for those people who were in danger of losing salvation. The life of Sr. Faustina which to some might have seemed gray and monotonous, hid an extraordinary depth of mystical life. She was endowed with extraordinary graces, among others: the gift of contemplation, hidden stigmata, bilocation, prophesy, the ability to get to know the secrets of hearts, all of which had allowed her to reach the summits of unity with God in this world.

Sister Faustina died in the convent of the Congregation in Cracow-Łagiewniki on 5 October 1938. During the II World War the fame of the sanctity of Sister Faustina's life spread quickly, as through her intercession, people were able to entreat many graces. The Lord Jesus chose her for a secretary and apostle of His mercy, so as to communicate a great message to the world. In the Old Covenant - He said to her - I sent prophets wielding thunderbolts to My people. Today I am sending you with My mercy to the people of the whole world (Diary 1588).

The mission of Sister Faustina consists of 3 tasks:

• Proclaiming and bringing the truth of our faith revealed in Sacred Scripture about the merciful love of God for every human being closer to the world.
• Imploring God's mercy for the entire world, and particularly for sinners, among others, through the practice of the new forms of devotion to the Divine Mercy presented by the Lord Jesus. They are: the Image of the Merciful Christ with the signature: Jesus, I Trust in You; the Feast of Divine Mercy on the first Sunday after Easter; the Chaplet to the Divine Mercy; and the prayer at the Hour of Mercy (3:00 p.m.).
• Initiating the apostolic movement of the Divine Mercy, which undertakes the task of proclaiming and imploring God's mercy for the world and, at the same time, strives for Christian perfection following Sister Faustina's road to sanctity. The precepts of this path require the faithful to have the attitude of childlike trust in God which expresses itself in fulfilling God's will and in the attitude of showing mercy to one's neighbor.

The mission of Sister Faustina was recorded in her Diary which she kept at the specific request of the Lord Jesus and her confessors. In it she recorded faithfully all of the Lord's wishes. Secretary of My most profound mystery…- the Lord Jesus said to her - Your task is to write down everything that I make known to you about My mercy, for the benefit of those who by reading these things will be comforted in their souls and will have the courage to approach Me (Diary 1693).

Consumed by disease and by innumerable sufferings, which she accepted and offered as a voluntary sacrifice for sinners, and having reached full spiritual maturity, Sister Faustina died in Cracow on October 5, 1938, at the age of just thirty-three.

In the years 1965-1967, the Informative Process of her life and heroic virtues was undertaken in Cracow; and in the year 1968, the Process of Beatification was initiated in Rome. The latter was completed in December 1992. On April 18, 1993, our Holy Father John Paul II beatified her in St. Peter's Square in Rome, and he canonized Saint Faustina on April 30, 2000. Her remains rest at the Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Cracow-Łagiewniki. Saint Faustina reminds the contemporary world about the great truth of faith, namely that God is the Father of mercy and she shows us how to look for God and find Him amid the gray realities of everyday life.

From the website of: The Roman-Catholic Parish Dedicated to St. Kazimierz
99-140 Świnice Warckie, Poland