Saint Faustina Kowalska

Helena Kowalska was born on August 25, 1905, in Głogowiec, Poland, the third of ten children of a poor farming family. She had little schooling and worked as a housekeeper before entering the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Warsaw in 1925, where she took the name Sister Maria Faustina of the Most Blessed Sacrament. She served as cook, gardener and porter.

In 1931, in Płock, she reported a vision of Jesus with rays of red and pale light flowing from his heart, asking that his image be painted with the words "Jesus, I trust in You." Guided by her confessor, Blessed Michael Sopoćko, she recorded the revelations in her Diary, including the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and the request for a feast of Mercy. She died of tuberculosis in Kraków on October 5, 1938, aged 33. Saint John Paul II canonized her on April 30, 2000.

At her canonization John Paul II established Divine Mercy Sunday, the Sunday after Easter, for the whole Church. Her memorial was added to the General Roman Calendar in 2020.

Devotees pray the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, often at three in the afternoon, the Hour of Mercy, and place the Divine Mercy image in homes and hospitals. Her shrine in Kraków-Łagiewniki draws pilgrims from around the world.