Saint Faustina Kowalska

Born in Głogowiec (Poland) in 1905 as Helena Kowalska into a humble peasant family, she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in 1925. In her convents in Płock, Vilnius, and Kraków, she lived a life of quiet sacrifice, working as a cook, gardener, and doorkeeper. Beginning in 1931, she experienced profound mystical visions of Christ, who instructed her to paint the iconic image of Divine Mercy with red and pale rays flowing from His pierced Heart, establish Divine Mercy Sunday, and spread the Chaplet of Divine Mercy. Offering her sufferings through tuberculosis for the salvation of sinners, she passed into eternal glory in Kraków in 1938 at the age of 33. On April 30, 2000, Pope Saint John Paul II canonized her as the very first saint of the third millennium.