Description
The St Faustina Medal is a small, silver medal with a image of St. Faustina on it. It is 2.5 cm long and 1.5 cm wide. It is worn as a religious medal by Catholics. The medal is associated with the saint's life, which includes her visions of Jesus and her mission to spread mercy throughout the world. Faustina was born in 1905 and died in 1938. Pope John Paul II canonized her on April 30, 2000.
St Faustina medal
2.5cm long x 1.5cm wide
Facts
Feastday:
October 5
Patron:
of Mercy
Birth: 1905
Death: 1938
Beatified: Pope John Paul II on April 18, 1993
Canonized: Pope John Paul II on April 30, 2000
Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska of the Blessed Sacrament was born as
Helena Kowalska, in Glogowiec, Leczyca County, north-west of L*dz in
Poland on August 25, 1905. She was the third of 10 children to a poor
and religious family.
Faustina first felt a calling to the religious life when she was just
seven-years-old and attended the Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament.
After finishing her schooling, Faustina wanted to immediately join a
convent. However, her parents refused to let her.
Instead, at 16-years-old, Faustina became a housekeeper to help her parents and support herself.
In 1924, Faustina experienced her first vision of Jesus. While at a
dance with her sister, Natalia, Faustina saw a suffering Jesus and then
went to a Cathedral. According to Faustina, Jesus instructed her to
leave for Warsaw immediately and join a convent.
Faustina packed her bags at once and departed the following morning.
When she arrived in Warsaw, she entered Saint James Church in Warsaw,
the first church she came across, and attended Mass.
While in Warsaw, Faustina approached many different convents, but was
turned away every time. She was judged on her appearances and sometimes
rejected for poverty.
Finally, the mother superior for the Congregation of the Sisters of
Our Lady of Mercy decided to take in Faustina on the condition that she
could pay for her own religious habit. Working as a housekeeper,
Faustina began to save her money and make deposits to the Convent.
On April 30, 1926, at 20-years-old, she finally received her habit
and took the religious name of Sister Maria Faustina of the Blessed
Sacrament and in 1928, she took her first religious vows as a nun.
Over the next year, Faustina traveled convents as a cook. In May 1930
she arrived in Plock, Poland. Soon after, she began to show the first
signs of her illness and was sent away to rest. Several months later,
Faustina returned to the convent.
On February 22, 1931, Faustina was visited by Jesus, who presented
himself as the "King of Divine Mercy" wearing a white garment with red
and pale rays coming from his heart. She was asked to become the apostle
and secretary of God's mercy, a model of how to be merciful to others,
and an instrument for reemphasizing God's plan of mercy for the world.
In her diary, Faustina writes:
"In the evening, when I was in my cell, I became aware of the Lord
Jesus clothed in a white garment. One hand was raised in blessing, the
other was touching the garment at the breast. From the opening
of the garment at the breast there came forth two large rays, one red
and the other pale. In silence I gazed intently at the Lord; my soul was
overwhelmed with fear, but also with great joy. After a while Jesus
said to me, 'paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the
inscription: Jesus, I trust in You.'"
Faustina also describes during that same message, Jesus explained he
wanted the Divine Mercy image to be "solemnly blessed on the first
Sunday after Easter; that Sunday is to be the Feast of Mercy."
Faustina, not knowing how to paint, asked around her Plock convent
for help but was denied. It wasn't until three years later, in 1934,
that the first painting of the image was created by Eugene
Kazimierowski.
In 1932, Faustina returned to Warsaw. On May 1, 1933 she took her
final vows in Lagiewniki and became a perpetual sister of Our Lady of
Mercy.
After taking her vows, Faustina was transferred to Vilnius, where she
met Father Michael Sopocko, the appointed confessor to the nuns. During
her first confession with Sopocko, Faustina told him about her
conversations with Jesus and his plan for her. Father Sopocko insisted
she be evaluated by a psychiatrist. Faustina passed all the required
tests and was determined sane, leading Sopocko to
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