Apparition
Revelations of the Divine Mercy to Saint Faustina Kowalska
Private revelation · Płock and Vilnius, Poland, 1931
On 22 February 1931, in the convent at Płock, Sister Faustina Kowalska of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy saw our Lord clothed in white, with two rays streaming from his breast, and was asked that an image be painted with the words 'Jesus, I trust in You'. Over the following years, chiefly at Vilnius and Kraków, she recorded in her Diary the message of God's mercy, the chaplet, the hour of mercy and the request for a feast on the Sunday after Easter.
Background
The devotion had a difficult history. In 1959 the Holy Office forbade the spreading of images and writings propagating the devotion in the forms proposed by Sister Faustina, partly on the basis of faulty translations of her Diary. After further study the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith withdrew that prohibition in 1978. Sister Faustina was beatified in 1993 and canonised on 30 April 2000, when Pope Saint John Paul II established that the Second Sunday of Easter would be called Divine Mercy Sunday throughout the Church. The Church's approval concerns the devotion and its doctrinal soundness — mercy as the greatest attribute of God, and trust as the vessel by which it is received; no one is bound to believe the revelations themselves.
Location
Płock and Vilnius
Country
Poland
Approved status
Private revelation
Year of apparition
1931
Visionaries
- Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska
Message highlights
The image of the merciful Christ with the two rays and the words 'Jesus, I trust in You'.
The Chaplet of Divine Mercy and the hour of mercy at three in the afternoon.
The request for a Feast of Mercy on the Sunday after Easter, established for the universal Church in 2000.
Subject
christ
Decision year
1978
Content subtype
unapproved_apparition
Decision authority
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, by the notification withdrawing the 1959 prohibition of the devotion in the forms proposed by Sister Faustina