Introduction to the Divine Mercy Devotion
What is it?
The Divine Mercy Devotion, as it is commonly known today, is the collection of devotions ostensibly intended to give worship to the Mercy of God in particular, independent of His other divine attributes. It is entirely based on the text of the diary of one nun, a Sister Faustina Kowalski (born Helena Kowalski), of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, a congregation in Poland. Sr. Faustina lived in the congregation beginning in 1925 at the age of 20, until her death in 1938. In the course of her religious life Sr. Faustina was visited by a spirit claiming to be Jesus Christ, communicating with her in the form of interior locutions (words or impressions in the imagination) along with appearances to her in a visible form with an audible voice.
In 1931 in Plock, Poland, the visitors started to instruct on a specific series of devotions. The Church has provided no confirmation of the validity of the visions. In 1958 the Holy Office of the Catholic Church in Rome suppressed the devotion, declaring it non constat de supernaturalite, that is, without evidence of the supernatural and therefore unworthy of belief. It based this decision on the common opinion of the Polish bishops of the time, including the Primate along with the Ordinary of the diocese of Vilnius; the local bishop of Sr. Faustina, therefore the competent Church authority ruling on the authenticity of the private revelation (if the Holy Office does not pronounce on it).
The Polish bishops were uniformly against or skeptical of the revelations and the devotion, and the Ordinary decidedly against it. The devotion consists of a feast day, a painting, a litany, a novena, an hour of prayer, and generally extolling the Mercy of God.
Who are the principals?
In the case of the Divine Mercy devotion, several principal individuals accepted and insisted upon the revelations as being genuine. These are its basic promoters.
Fr. Michael Sopocko was one; he was an academic of Vilnius, Poland (now Lithuania) tasked as the confessor of the convent of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. The congregation was spread across numerous houses over the whole of Poland. In Vilnius, in their first meeting, Sr. Faustina Kowalska claims to have recognized Fr. Sopocko as a priest she had seen in a vision, told to her to be chosen by (the spirit she took to be) Jesus Christ. She informed him in their first Confession of the instructions given to her and of his role in promoting the devotions. (Whereas, a confessant experiencing revelations would properly refer these in all indifference and humility to the confessor to be evaluated as true or false, and have no personal opinion on their truthfulness.) Some little time later he embraced it as a life’s mission.
Fr. Joseph Andrasz was the second of two priests who advocated the Divine Mercy devotion in its early stages. Several others later joined the cause. This was, notably, without the approval of the private revelation by competent Church authority, first the local bishop (Ordinary) of the diocese of Vilnius. It was clearly illegal.
A short history of the devotion
In Plock, Poland, in 1931 the religious sister Faustina Kowalska was instructed by voices to have a specific image painted. This was the first of a series of devotions. Following this by a few days came the order to establish a new feast day in the Church in honor of the Divine Mercy of God. In 1934, at this time as confessant of Fr. Michael Sopocko, she was given his permission to begin to have the painting executed. In 1935 Sr. Faustina received the idea of having a congregation established devoted to her revelations and leading it. In this case it was Fr. Sopocko who suggested the congregation, and the voices continued with it.
Later in this year she was given, by locution, a chaplet. In 1937 she was told in this extraordinary way of a new devotion, an Hour of Mercy. The voices providing the instructions also promised great graces, including full remission of sins (surpassing the grace of a plenary indulgence, equivalent to Baptism), guaranteed salvation and all wishes granted for any and all material and spiritual things, for those who practiced and propagated the various devotions. Likewise, the devotions replace established Catholic practice, for example the chaplet is to be said for the dying (without mention of Extreme Unction or Traditional prayers or the dying) and a novena precedes the Divine Mercy Sunday, itself replacing the Low Sunday, with the novena prayers beginning on Good Friday and effectively subtracting from the Holy Week.
The devotion was in the species of unapproved private revelation, of which there are many in the Catholic world, most proving to be false. It was adopted with zeal by its principal advocates, a small handful of Polish priests. It was immediately disapproved of by the bishop of Vilnius, the diocese of Sr. Faustina in this time, acting as its competent judge on behalf on the universal Church. He opposed it in his official capacity, and his opinion along with those in the body of the Polish episcopate formed the substance of a questionnaire requested by and presented to the Holy Office in Rome. In 1958, based on the responses of the Polish bishops, the Holy Office issued a decree to the Polish bishops disallowing the devotion in Poland, in 1959 it was repeated in a shortened form and publicized in the official gazette of the Holy Office. It stood here until the changes following the Vatican II council allowed leeway for the soon-to-be Pope John Paul II to have the ban lifted, in 1978.
Who is Sister Faustina?
Sister Faustina Kowalska was born in 1905 as Helena, third daughter to Stansilaw and Marianna Kowalska in a small village in central Poland called Glogowiec. The family was pious, hard-working and sustained itself with farming. A lack of money and education prevented Helena from developing her lively intelligence in formal schooling and any type of higher academia, yet her father taught her reading and shared with her his book collection. She was the favored child of the large family, earning her the resentment of siblings who saw the preferential affection of the parents. She was devout, and says she had an inclination to the religious state as a young child, yet asked none of her family priests about the possibility, instead proceeding from childhood to teenaged life in several cities as housekeeper.
Sr. Faustina experienced a strange phenomenon in childhood and as a teenager, occasionally seeing unexplained lights where they did not naturally exist. She was overtaken with a sudden onset of extraordinary experiences in the city of Lodz, initially at a dance, seeing clearly, visually, the scourged body of Jesus Christ, who rebuked her for not carrying through and entering into a convent. This was the first of the hundreds of visions and locutions she writes of in her diary. Her parents had decided against her becoming a religious, yet she immediately took the vision as an occasion to visit the city of Warsaw, without planning or preparation, and look for a convent. Her life was marked by constant illness owing to a lack of nourishment, caused by the fasting she undertook, without the counsel of a priest, first in this teenaged period. It ended her life at the early age of 33.
The religious life of Sr. Faustina was marked by a variety of troubling episodes, only exacerbated with the coming of the “prophetic mission” she was certain she was called to perform (independent of the instructions of superiors early on, and often against it). This included conflict and tension with the community and Mother Superiors. It is quite fair to say, once one is acquainted with the story of the Divine Mercy devotion, it would be very different then and now had Sr. Faustina asked for, fully cooperated with and received competent spiritual direction in the time of her visions and locutions.
A chronology of events
August 25, 1905
Birth of the third child in the family of Marianna and Stanisław Kowalski in the village of Głogowiec.
1914
Helenka Kowalska’s First Holy Communion given by the pastor, Father Józef Chodyński in Świnice Warckie.
1921
Helen begins household service for Kazimierz and Leokadia Bryszewscy in Aleksandrów Łódzki.
Autumn 1922
Helen Kowalska goes to Łódź in order to look for work; stays with uncle Michał Rapacki at 9 Krośnieńska Street.
July 1924
Helen Kowalska’s trip to Warsaw in order to enter a convent. Work for Aldona Lipszyc, at Ostrówek, Klembów County. First visit in the convent of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy and initial acceptance by Mother Michaela Moraczewska.
August 1, 1925
Helen Kowalska enters the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy on Żytnia Street in Warsaw.
August 1925
Postulant Helen Kowalska goes to Skolimów, a vacation house of the Congregation, to regain her health.
April 30, 1926
Ceremony of the taking of the veil where she received her habit and her religious name: sr. M. Faustina. On that day Bishop Paweł Kubicki from Sandomierz presided at the ceremony of taking the vail and at the ceremonies of the first and final religious profession of vows.
April 30, 1928
First religious vows (chastity, poverty and obedience) of Sister Faustina made for one year and to be renewed each year until the moment of her perpetual profession.
October 31, 1928
Sister Faustina goes to Warsaw to work in the kitchen.
February 21, 1929
Sister Faustina goes to Vilnius (Wilno) to substitute for sr. Petronela Basiura, who was going for her third probation.
June 11, 1929
Sister Faustina’s return from Vilnius to Warsaw (convent on Żytnia Street).
June 1929
Sister Faustina goes to a newly-formed house of the Congregation at Grochów in Warsaw on Hetmańska Street.
July 7, 1929
Sister Faustina goes to Kiekrz to replace the sick sr. Modesta Rzeczkowska in the kitchen.
October 1929
Sister Faustina’s stay at the General House on Żytnia Street in Warsaw.
May-June 1930
Sister Faustina’s arrival in Płock and work in the bakery store. Sister Faustina’s stay in the branch house in Biała (10 km from Płock).
February 22, 1931
Beginning of the “prophetic mission” in the life of Sister Faustina. First vision of the “Merciful Jesus” and the order to paint the image.
February, 1931
“Jesus’” order regarding the establishment of the Feast of Divine Mercy on the first Sunday after Easter.
November 1932
Sister Faustina goes for the third probation to Warsaw.
April 18, 1933
Sister Faustina’s arrival in Kraków.
May 1, 1933
Sister Faustina makes her perpetual profession in Kraków. Bishop Stanisław Rospond conducts the ceremonies.
May 23, 1933
Sister Faustina’s trip from Kraków to Vilnius. On the way she makes a stop at Częstochowa; starts work in the garden in Vilnius.
June 1933
Sister Faustina’s first meeting with the confessor Fr. Michał Sopoćko, spiritual director in Vilnius.
January 2, 1934
First visit at the atelier of painter Eugeniusz Kazimirowski where she used to go with her superior Mother Irena Krzyżanowska.
April 26-28, 1935
First public exposition of the image of the Merciful Jesus in Ostra Brama church in Vilnius.
May 1935
First revelation concerning the idea of the new congregation. The initial idea itself was floated by Fr. Sopocko.
September 13-14, 1935
Revelation of the Chaplet to the Divine Mercy to Sister Faustina.
January 8, 1936
Sister Faustina’s visit at Archbishop Romuald Jałbrzykowski’s, during which she announced “Jesus’” demand regarding the foundation of a new congregation.
March 21, 1936
Sister Faustina’s trip from Vilnius to Warsaw.
March 25, 1936
Sister Faustina’s arrival in Walendów and later trip to Derdy.
May 11, 1936
Sister Faustina goes to Derdy for a permament stay in Kraków, accompanied by Sister Edmunda Sekul.
May 12, 1936
Sister Faustina’s arrival in Kraków.
December 27, 1936
Sister Faustina goes to the hospital in Prądnik for further treatment.
March 27, 1937
Sister Faustina returns from the hospital to the convent in Łagiewniki.
July 29, 1937
Sister Faustina goes for treatment to Rabka.
August 10, 1937
Sister Faustina returns from Rabka to Kraków.
October 1937
Revelation of the Hour of Mercy in Łagiewniki, Kraków.
October 5, 1938
Sister Faustina’s last confession to Fr. Józef Andrasz (at 4:00 p.m.). Prayers of the chaplain Fr. Teodor Czaputa and the sisters at the bedside of the dying Sister Faustina. Sister Faustina dies (at 10:45 p.m.) in the presence of Sister Amelia Socha and Sister Eufemia Traczyńska.
October 7, 1938
Sister Faustina’s funeral took place on the first Friday of the month and the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary. Fr. Władysław Wojtoń S.J. celebrated the Holy Mass at the main altar and Fr. Tadeusz Chabrowski S.J. at the altar of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. No members of Sister Faustina’s family were present at the funeral because Sister Faustina did not want to inconvenience them with travel expenses. Sister Faustina was buried in the convent cemetery in the garden of the Congregation.
(The above is taken, with edits, from this webpage.)