October 5th - St. Faustina By: Jonathan Alapatt

St Faustina was born Helena Kowalska on August 25, 1905. She was the third of ten children of Stanislaw Kowalski and Marianna Kowalska. The family was poor but very religious. At the age of 19, Helena and her sister attended a dance in a park in Lodz. At the dance, Helena saw a vision of the suffering Jesus. Immediately she went to the Lodz Cathedral and saw Jesus telling her to join a Convent in Warsaw, the capital of Poland. At Warsaw, she tried entering into many convents but none accepted her. Finally, she found was accepted to the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. At first, she worked as a housemaid to earn the money she needed and after lots of work, she paid and got into the convent. On April 30, 1926, she became a nun and was given the name Maria Faustina. She was transferred to the convent in Plock, Poland. When she arrived in May 1930, she had her first signs of illness and was sent to rest. On that night, she saw Jesus appear to her and said to paint a picture of what she saw and sign it, “Jesus, I Trust in You.” She couldn’t paint, so she asked for help, but no one could help her. She met a priest named Michael Sopocko who she confessed to and he said to meet a psychiatrist named Helena Meciejewska who told Faustina to write down her visions in a diary. Soon, Fr. Sopocko introduced her to a painter named Eugene Kazimierowski. After the completion of the image, Jesus appeared to Faustina saying that she should show off the picture publicly. On September 13, 1935, Faustina saw another vision of Jesus telling her to make a chaplet of the Divine Mercy and to spread it all around. Soon the Chaplet was spreading and it was spreading. Sadly, Faustina was getting ill and died on October 5, 1938, at the age of 33.  

INTERCESSORY PRAYER ​

O St. Faustina, you followed the will of God even through hard times and sufferings. Help us to pray and not give up on Jesus even through these times. We ask this through Christ Our Lord, Amen