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Sr. Faustina Kowalska was canonised twenty years ago

Twenty years ago, Pope John Paul II canonised a key figure of the Catholic church of the twentieth century. Throughout her life, Sr. Kowalska described having visions of Jesus and conversations with him. She wrote about her experiences in her diary, later published as The Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: "Divine Mercy in My Soul." She remains a respected authority, especially in the Polish Catholic Church.

 

At the age of twenty, she joined a convent in Warsaw and later moved to Vilnius where she met her confessor, Father Michał Sopoćko, who supported her devotion to the Divine Mercy.

Sr. Kowalska and Fr. Sopoćko directed an artist to paint the first Divine Mercy image based on Kowalska’s vision of Jesus. Sopoćko used the image while celebrating the first Mass on the first Sunday after Easter. Subsequently, Pope John Paul II established the Feast of Divine Mercy on that Sunday of each liturgical year.

Pope John Paul II canonised Sr. Kowalska as a saint on the 30th of April 2000. She is listed in the liturgy as a virgin and is venerated within the Catholic Church as the “Apostle of Divine Mercy.” Her tomb is located in the Divine Mercy Sanctuary in Krakow where she spent the end of her life.

Source: katedra.rzeszow.pl

Image: faustyna.pl

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