St. Faustina Kowalska

Born: August 25, 1905

Died: October 5, 1938

Feast Day: October 5

Patron saint of: mercy

In a world sorely lacking in compassion, the life and witness of St. Faustina Kowalska serves as a powerful reminder of the limitless mercy and forgiveness of God. Born in Poland in 1905, St. Faustina discerned a vocation to religious life from a very young age. It is reported that she first felt her call as she sat before the Blessed Sacrament when she was just 7 years old. Known for her mysticism, St. Faustina had a powerful vision that ultimately spurred her to commit to entering the convent, when, while out one evening, Jesus appeared to her and asked “How long will you keep putting Me off?”

After an exhausting search for a convent which would accept her, during which she encountered discrimination due to her poverty, she was finally accepted into the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. Just a few years later, in 1931, Jesus appeared to St. Faustina dressed in white with red and pale rays radiating from his heart and instructed her to paint what she saw, along with the phrase “Jesus, I trust in You.” Ironically, St. Faustina did not know how to paint, so the image was not recorded for three more years, after she was able to find someone to produce it under her guidance.

Throughout her life, she took meticulous notes of the apparitions in her diary, frequently encountering Jesus, who often instructed her to spread devotion to Divine Mercy. St. Faustina dutifully and aggressively did so up until illness (likely tuberculosis) caused her health to rapidly deteriorate. She passed away at the age of 33, and is buried at the Basilica of Divine Mercy in Krakow. The Divine Mercy devotion has spread to every corner of the church, largely because of the faithful witness of St. Faustina, whose trust in Jesus never wavered throughout her life.

–John T. Grosso