Not many people know about the amazing holy life of St Faustina. Here's a brief (3.38 minute) video that simply explains her life from St Faustina's own congregation, Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Poland.
The 7 notebooks that were handwritten by St Faustina have been published into 1 single book generally referred to as the "Diary". It is a collection diary notes of amazing experiences in her life, her personal encounters with Jesus. Her down to earth and honest desire to seek God in all things. Her profound humility, struggles, prayers etc are written here at the advise of Jesus Himself and her Spiritual Directors. Words simply cannot express how important this Diary is for the whole world.
The following links are gathered from internet searches. We do not own the sites and are not associated with them. We are merely linking them here because we had many requests. Physical books can be purchased at the usual online stores, Booktopia, Fishpond, Amazon etc. For those who may want to check out the book before purchasing or simply want to browse, please use the links below.
Read from "Saint-faustina.org" (flippable book)
Congregation of the sisters of Our Lady of Mercy.
This site also has an online store shipping from Poland.
https://www.faustyna.pl/en/Dzienniczek/Diary.php?token=1671172122a7fxML3XPEXQbqwC1
Read it from ARCHIVE.org (plain text)
https://archive.org/stream/St.FaustinaKowalskaDiary/divine-mercy-in-my-soul_djvu.txt
Read from "SERAPHIM.my" (searchable by Notebook number and Note number)
http://www.seraphim.my/divinemercy/diary/text/DiaryI.htm
AUGUST 25, 1905: Sister Faustina is born Helen Kowalska in the village of Glogowiec, near Lodz, Poland. She was the third child, out of ten in the family. Her father was a peasant carpenter, though they led a life of poverty, they were deeply religious. |
1912: At the age of seven, Helen hears for the first time a voice in her soul, calling her to a more perfect way of life. |
1924: When she was 19 years old, at a dance in a park in Lodz, she saw a vision of a suffering Jesus Christ. She reported that Jesus told her to join a convent. That very night itself, she packed a small bag and took a train 130 kms away to Warsaw without her parents knowing, and not knowing anyone in that city. |
JUNE 19-25, 1925: During the Octave of Corpus Christi, at the age of 20, Helen Kowalska makes a vow of perpetual chastity. |
AUGUST 1, 1925: Helen is accepted with much difficulty into the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy as a lay sister because of her lack of education. She begins her postulancy at Warsaw and then leaves for Krakow to complete it. |
APRIL 30, 1926: Helen begins her two-year novitiate in Krakow, receiving her religious habit and the name Maria Faustina. The name means “fortunate” or “blessed one |
1930s: She became ill with what was later thought to be Tuberculosis. The convent sent her off to live on a nearby farm for about 9 months. During this time she saw the first visions of Jesus as the “King of Divine Mercy” |
FEBRUARY 22, 1931: Sister Faustina sees the Lord Jesus dressed in a white robe with red and pale rays streaming forth from the area of His Heart. He tells her to “Paint an image”, according to the pattern you see, bearing the signature, "Jesus, I trust in You". I desire that this image be venerated, first in your chapel, and then throughout the world. I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish.” |
MAY, 1933: Sister Faustina is transferred to Vilnius, where to worked as a gardener. She remained working there till March 1936. |
JANUARY 2, 1934: Three years after that first vision, Sister Faustina eventually meets with the artist Eugene Kazimirowski, who, through Fr. Michael Sopocko (her spiritual director and confessor), has been commissioned, under her direction, to paint the image of The Divine Mercy. |
JUNE 1934: The “Kazimirowski painting” as it is called is completed. Sister Faustina is utterly disappointed with it and cries to the Lord, "Who will paint You as beautiful as You are?" In reply, she hears the words, “Not in the beauty of the color nor of the brush lies the greatness of this image, but in My grace” (Diary note 313). The painting is then hung in the corridor of the Bernardine Sisters’ Convent near St. Michael’s Church in Vilnius, where Fr. Sopocko is rector. |
JULY 1934: Following the instructions of her spiritual director (Fr. Sopocko) who has no time to listen to her confessions, Sr. Faustina begins keeping a personal diary, which she entitles “Divine Mercy in My Soul”. |
AUGUST 1934: Sister Faustina suffers a violent attack of asthma for the first time, perhaps already suffering from tuberculosis, which the cause of her constant suffering for the rest of her short life. |
OCTOBER 26, 1934: Sister Faustina sees the Lord Jesus above the chapel in Vilnius, with the same red and pale rays coming from the area of His Heart. The rays envelop the chapel and the students’ infirmary, and then spread out over the whole world. |
APRIL 26-28, 1935: During the celebration concluding the Jubilee Year of the Redemption of the world, the Kazimirowski image of The Divine Mercy is transferred to Ostra Brama (Shrine of Our Lady of Mercy in Vilnius) and placed in a high window so it may be seen from far away. This event coincides with the Second Sunday of Easter, which, according to Sister Faustina, is to be celebrated as the Feast of Divine Mercy. Father Sopocko was asked to deliver a homily on The Divine Mercy. |
JANUARY 8, 1936: Sister Faustina boldly visits Bishop Romuald Jalbrzykowski and tells him that Jesus has asked for a new congregation to be founded. |
OCTOBER 5, 1936: Father Sopocko writes to Sr. Faustina, asking for the texts of the Chaplet and the Novena to The Divine Mercy. |
DECEMBER 9, 1936: With her health steadily deteriorating, Sister Faustina is sent to the hospital in Pradnik, a sanatorium in Krakow for tuberculosis patients. She remains there until March 27, 1937 except for a few days during Christmas. |
DECEMBER 13, 1936: Under the appearance of her confessor Fr Sopocko, Jesus Himself hears Sr. Faustina’s confession. |
APRIL 4, 1937: Father Sopocko publishes an article on The Divine Mercy in the Vilnius Catholic Weekly. |
APRIL 4, 1937: By permission of Archbishop Romuald Jalbrzykowski, the Kazmirowski image is blessed and placed in St. Michael’s Church in Vilnius. |
SEPTEMBER 27, 1937: Sister Faustina and Mother Irene meet with the first printer who is to print holy cards bearing the image of The Divine Mercy. |
NOVEMBER 1937: Through the efforts of Fr. Sopocko, the Litany, Chaplet, and Novena to The Divine Mercy are published by the J. Cebulski Press in Krakow in a pamphlet entitled "Christ, King of Mercy." On the cover of the pamphlet is the first printed color picture representing the merciful Christ with the signature, "Jesus, I trust in You." Holy cards, bearing a copy of Kazimirowski’s image of The Divine Mercy on the front, and the chaplet on the back, are also printed by Cebulski. |
NOVEMBER 10, 1937: Sister Faustina and Mother Superior Irene look over the pamphlet containing the Litany, Chaplet, and Novena, to The Divine Mercy, and the Lord tells Sr. Faustina that many souls have already been drawn to Him through the image. |
APRIL 21, 1938: Sister Faustina leaves the convent for her final, five-month stay at the sanatorium in Pradnik. By now she is suffering greatly and yet still very much at peace. |
APRIL 22-MAY 6, 1938: For 14 days, at the sanatorium in Pradnik, Sr. Faustina receives Holy Communion from an angel. |
JUNE 24, 1938: Sister Faustina sees the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the sky in the midst of a great brilliance. Rays are streaming from the wound in His side and spreading out over the entire world. |
JUNE 1938: She stops writing the Diary due to illness. |
SEPTEMBER 2, 1938: Father Sopocko visits her at the sanatorium in Pradnik and discovers her in ecstasy. |
SEPTEMBER 26, 1938: Father Sopocko visits her in Krakow for the last time and notes that "she looked like an unearthly being, … I no longer had the slightest doubt that what she had written in her Diary about receiving Holy Communion from an angel was really true." |
OCTOBER 5, 1938: At 10:45 p.m., Sister Faustina, at the age of 33, dies of tuberculosis in Krakow. |
OCTOBER 7, 1938: Her funeral coincides with the First Friday of the month and the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. |
Today, in the 21st Century, some 100,000 million people have a devotion to the Divine Mercy. |