Saint Faustina was born in the village of Glogowiec, Poland, on August 25, 1905. She is the third of ten children, born into a poor and pious family of villagers. She was named Helena Kowalska and, from childhood, was distinguished by her piety, her love of prayer, her diligence and obedience, and also her great sensitivity to human misery. She did not complete the 4th year of elementary school. At sixteen, she went to work as a maid to help her family.
Helena’s spiritual life began early. When she was just 7 years old, she heard, for the first time, the voice of God in her soul. Although she had a burning desire to give herself entirely to Christ in a religious congregation, her parents were opposed, as they did not have the resources to give her the necessary dowry, were heavily in debt and were very attached to their daughter.
Saint Faustina and the desire to belong to the consecrated life
The desire to consecrate herself completely to God accompanied her, but, faced with difficulties, for a while, Helena gave up on the idea. She then indulges in “pastimes” and “the vanities of life”, as she describes in her Diary.
God does not give up on those he chooses, and therefore, one day, while at a dance with her sister, a vision of the Suffering Christ questions her: “How long will I have patience with you and how long will you disappoint Me?” (Diary, 9). Impacted, she leaves the ball, goes to a chapel, decides to leave everything and enter. But it wasn’t that easy. She had to knock on several doors and was refused, until she was welcomed, on August 1, 1925, in the cloistered convent of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Warsaw.
Within the Congregation, Helena received the name Sister Maria Faustina, in 1926.
The mystery of mercy
The Lord chose her for a special mission and revealed, in an extraordinary way, the centrality of the mystery of divine mercy for the world and history. After going through the “dark night” of the physical, moral and spiritual, from February 22, 1931, in the city of Łódz, the Lord Jesus Christ himself manifested himself to Sister Faustina in a particular way. She describes this vision:
“From the tunic half open on the chest, two large rays came out, one red and the other pale. (…) Soon after, Jesus said to me: Paint an image according to the model you see, with the inscription: Jesus, I trust in You” (D. 47).
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Saint Faustina’s diary
Saint Faustina began to write down her soul’s encounters with Christ at the request of her Blessed Miguel Sopocko and Jesus himself, from 1934 until his death in 1938.
She wrote everything down on small cards and then in notebooks that the mother superior bought her. Under the influence of a supposed angel, Saint Faustina ends up burning her first notebook and, soon after, this “angel” reveals himself as the devil. Therefore, her diary entries do not appear in chronological order, as she had to rewrite the notebook she had burned. She began again by writing down her memories of what had already happened, interweaving new facts from her spiritual experiences. In her notes, Jesus’ request is recorded for an Image to be painted as she saw Him and for this image to be venerated by everyone; that there would be the Feast of Mercy; that she prayed as He had taught her; and great promises to those who spread divine mercy and practice these ways of living mercy.
After the death of Saint Faustina, her six notebooks were gathered and published as a single book with the name: “Diary – divine mercy in my soul”. In addition to the six notebooks, the Saint presents another manuscript, which she named “My preparation for Holy Communion”. In addition to her superiors, the other nuns did not know that Sister Faustina was writing a spiritual diary. They only found out after her death.
Beatification of Saint Faustina
For Sister Faustina’s beatification process, in the 1970s, the Diary had to undergo a thorough theological analysis carried out by Father Różycki. This analysis lasted almost 10 years, and the priest’s opinion was positive about the nature of Sister Faustina’s revelations. He confirmed the veracity and supernatural character of the saint’s mystical experiences.
In her last moments, when tuberculosis had completely consumed her lungs, intestines and esophagus, without being able to drink a single drop of water, feeling deep pain, Faustina did not even complain. In the morning, she asks a nurse sister to sing some pious song. But finally, she herself hummed softly: “Eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, and the heart of man has not perceived what was prepared for a virgin in heaven.” She even asked for an injection to take away the pain, but she regretted it. She chose to make yet another sacrifice, offering her pain to God for her salvation. Soon after, she announced: “Today, Jesus is going to take me with Him.”
The quest starts after death
On that October 5, 1938, with just 33 years of life, at 10:45 pm, Faustina, after suffering a lot and without expressing a single word of regret, slightly opened her eyes and smiled. She bowed her head and left with her beloved Jesus, leaving in peace for the Celestial Homeland, which she had longed for throughout her life.
In his notebook, he writes: “I have a good feeling that my mission does not end with my death, but begins with it” (Diary, 281). Her writings, collected, published and known in different parts of the world, such as the “Diary of Saint Faustina”, are the testament of God’s Mercy for humanity. Hers, in fact, did not end with her death, but began with her. Today, we have access to this preciousness thanks to your faithfulness, trust, abandonment and deep desire to do God’s will.
Gabrielle Sanchotene
Missionary of the Community