Life of sister Faustina

SAINT SISTER MARIA FAUSTINA KOWALSKA
(1905-1938)



Glogowiec - a place of birth of st Faustina.



Saint Faustina in the family circle (1935).
"Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska, known today the world over as, "The Apostle of The Divine
Mercy," she was the third of ten children born into a poor and pious peasant family in Glogowiec,
a village in the heart of Poland.
At her baptism in the nearby Parish Church of Swinice Warckie, she was given the name,
"Helena". From childhood she distinguished herself by her piety, love of prayer, industriousness and obedience as well as by her great sensitivity to human misery. She had hardly three years
of schooling, and at the age of sixteen she left the family hearth to help her parents by earning
her own livelihood serving as a domestic in the nearby cities of Aleksandrow and Lodz.
When she was only seven, Helen already sensed in her soul the call to embrace the religious life. When later she made her desire known to her parents, they categorically did not acquiesce
in her entering a convent. Because of this situation Helen strove to stifle this divine call within her.
After the years she remembers about it in her DIARY:

"Once I was at a dance with one of my sisters and while everybody was having a good time, my soul was experiencing deep torments. As I began to dance, I suddenly saw Jesus at my side, Jesus racked with pain, stripped of his clothing, all covered with wounds, who spoke these words to me, "How long shall I put up with you and how long will you keep putting Me off?" At that moment the charming music stopped, and the company I was with vanished from my sight; there remained Jesus and I. I took a seat by my dear sister, pretending to have a headache in order to cover up what took place in my soul. After a while I slipped out unnoticed, leaving my sister and all my companions behind and made my way to the Cathedral of Saint Stanislaus Kostka (Lodz). It was almost twilight; there were only a few people in the cathedral. Paying no attention to what was happening around me, I fell prostrate before the Blessed Sacrament and begged the Lord to be good enough to give me to understand what I should do next.
Then I heard these words, "Go at once to Warsaw (Poland), you will enter a convent there." I rose from prayer, came home, and took care of things that needed to be settled. As best I could, I confided to my sister what took place within my soul. I told her to say good-by to our parents, and thus, in my one dress, with no other belongings, I arrived in Warsaw (Diary, 9-10).