Faustina Kowalska

Who was Faustina Kowalska?

Maria Faustyna Kowalska, recognised in the Roman Catholic Church as Saint Faustina, was a Polish nun.

Throughout her life, Faustina reported having visions of Jesus and conversations with him, which she wrote about in her diary, later published as the book The Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul. Her Vatican biography quotes some of these reputed conversations regarding the Divine Mercy devotion.

At age 20 she joined a convent in Warsaw and was later transferred to Plock and then to Vilnius where she met her confessor, Father Michael Sopocko, who supported her devotion to the Divine Mercy. Faustina and Sopocko directed an artist to paint the first Divine Mercy image, based on Faustina's reported vision of Jesus. Sopocko used the image to celebrate the first Mass on the first Sunday after Easter - which later was established by Pope John Paul II as Divine Mercy Sunday.

Faustina was canonized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church on 30 April 2000, having been considered a mystic and visionary. She is known and venerated within the Church as the Apostle of Divine Mercy.