Maria Faustyna Kowalska of the Blessed Sacrament, OLM (born Helena Kowalska; 25 August 1905 – 5 October 1938 was a Polish Catholic religious sister and mystic. Faustyna, popularly spelled Faustina in English, had apparitions of Jesus Christ, which inspired the Catholic devotion to the Divine Mercy. She is sometimes called the “secretary” of Divine Mercy.
Throughout her life, Kowalska reported having visions of Jesus and conversations with him, which she noted in her diary, later published as The Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul. Her biography, submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, quoted some of the conversations with Jesus regarding the Divine Mercy devotion.
At the age of 20 years, she joined a convent in Warsaw. She was later transferred to Płock and then to Vilnius, where she met Father Michał Sopoćko, who would become her confessor and spiritual director and supported her devotion to the Divine Mercy. With this priest’s help, Kowalska commissioned an artist to paint the first Divine Mercy image, based on her vision of Jesus. Father Sopoćko celebrated Mass in the presence of this painting on Low Sunday, also known as the Second Sunday of Easter or (as established by Pope John Paul II), Divine Mercy Sunday.
The Catholic Church canonized Kowalska as a saint on 30 April 2000. The mystic is classified in the liturgy as a virgin and is venerated within the church as the “Apostle of Divine Mercy”. Her tomb is in the Divine Mercy Sanctuary in Kraków, where she spent the final years of her life and met her confessor, Józef Andrasz, who also supported the message of mercy.
The Divine Mercy is a Catholic devotion to God’s mercy, associated with the reported apparitions of Jesus to Faustina Kowalska.
The Divine Mercy devotion comprises several practices, such as Divine Mercy Sunday, the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy, and the Divine Mercy image, which Kowalska describes in her diary as “God’s loving mercy” towards all people, especially sinners. According to Kowalska’s writings, these devotions and practices were asked by Jesus Christ himself during his reported apparitions.
Kowalska was granted the title “Secretary of Mercy” by the Holy See in the Jubilee Year of 2000.
The primary focus of the Divine Mercy devotion is the merciful love of God and the desire to let that love and mercy flow through one’s own heart to those in need. As he dedicated the Shrine of the Divine Mercy, Pope John Paul II said, “Apart from the mercy of God there is no other source of hope for humankind.” There are seven main forms of this devotion:
- The Divine Mercy image with the specific inscription Jesus, I trust in You;
- The commemoration of the Feast of the Divine Mercy Sunday (Today April 12, 2026)
- The recitation of the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy at the Cenacle
- The recitation of the Divine Mercy novena at the Cenacle
- The designation of the Hour of Mercy at 3:00 p.m.(15:00)
- Spreading mercy by word, deed, or prayer
- The spreading of works of mercy to the whole of humanity, in preparation for the return of Jesus Christ to Earth
- Proclaim that mercy is the greatest attribute of God.
— Words attributed to Jesus by Kowalska in her diary.
