My Sisters the Saints - A Spiritual Memoir

Also known as
    Elena Kowalska
    Faustina Kowalska
    Helena Kowalska
    Maria Faustina Kowalska
    Sister Faustina

Memorial
    5 October

Profile
    Third of ten children, she attended only three years of school. As a teenager, she worked as a domestic servant for other families. After being rejected by several religious orders, she became a nun in the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Warsaw, Poland on 1 August 1925; the order is devoted to care and education of troubled young women. She changed her name to Sister Maria Faustina of the Most Blessed Sacrament. During her 13 years in various houses, she was a cook, gardener, and porter.

    She had a special devotion to Mary Immaculate, to the Sacrament, and to Reconciliation, which led to a deep mystical interior life. She began to have visions, receive revelations, and experience hidden stigmata. She began recording these mystical experiences in a diary; being nearly illiterate, it was written phonetically, without quotation marks or punctuation, and runs to nearly 700 pages. A bad translation reached Rome in 1958, and was labelled heretical. However, when Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II) became Archbishop of Krakow, he was beseiged by requests for a reconsideration. He ordered a better translation made, and Vatican authorities realized that instead of heresy, the work proclaimed God's love. It was published as Divine Mercy in my Soul.

    In the 1930's, Sister Faustina received a message of mercy from Jesus that she was told to spread throughout the world, a message of God's mercy to each person individually, and for humanity as a whole. Jesus asked that a picture be painted of him with the inscription: "Jesus, I Trust in You." She was asked to be a model of mercy to others, to live her entire life, in imitation of Christ's, as a sacrifice. She commissioned this painting in 1935, showing a red and a white light shining from Christ's Sacred Heart.

    Apostles of Divine Mercy is a movement of priests, religious, and lay people inspired by Faustina's experiences; they spread knowledge of the mystery of Divine Mercy, and invoke God's mercy on sinners. Approved in 1996 by the Archdiocese of Krakow, it has spread to 29 countries.

Born
    25 August 1905 at Glogowiec, Poland as Elena (Helena) Kowalska

Died
    5 October 1938 at Krakow, Poland of tuberculosis

Venerated
    7 March 1992 by Pope John Paul II

Beatified
    18 April 1993 by Pope John Paul II
    her beatification miracle involved the cure of Maureen Digan who suffered Milroy's disease, a hereditary form of lymphedema that cost her a leg

Canonized
    30 April 2000 by Pope John Paul II
    her canonization miracle involved the cure of Father Ronald P. Pytel's heart condition

Patronage
    World Youth Day

Also known as

    * Edith Stein
    * Teresia Benedicta

Memorial

    * 9 August

Profile

    Youngest of seven children in a Jewish family. Edith lost interest and faith in Judaism by age 13. Brilliant student and philospher with an interest in phenomenology. Studied at the University of Göttingen, Germany and in Breisgau, Germany. Earned her doctorate in philosophy in 1916 at age 25. Witnessing the strength of faith of Catholic friends led her to an interest in Catholicism, which led to studying a catechism on her own, which led to “reading herself into” the Faith. Converted to Catholicism in Cologne, Germany; baptized in Saint Martin’s church, Bad Bergzabern, Germany on 1 January 1922.

    Carmelite nun in 1934, taking the name Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. Teacher in the Dominican school in Speyer, Germany and lecturer at the Educational Institute in Munich, Germany. However, anti-Jewish pressure from the Nazis forced her to resign both positions. Profound spiritual writer.

    Both Jewish and Catholic, she was smuggled out of Germany, and assigned to Echt, Netherlands in 1938. When the Nazis invaded the Netherlands, she and her sister Rose, also a convert to Catholicism, were captured and sent to the concentration camp at Auschwitz where they died in the ovens like so many others.

Born

    * 12 October 1891 at Breslaw, Dolnoslaskie, Germany (now Wroclaw, Poland) as Edith Stein

Died

    * gassed on 9 August 1942 in the ovens of Oswiecim (a.k.a. Auschwitz), Malopolskie (Poland)

Venerated

    * 26 January 1987 by Pope John Paul II

Beatified

    * 1 May 1987 by Pope John Paul II in the cathedral at Cologne, Germany

Canonized

    * 11 October 1998 by Pope John Paul II

Patronage

    * against the death of parents
    * Europe
    * martyrs

Representation

    * Star of David