Saint Faustina Kowalska (1905–1938), born Helena Kowalska, was a Polish nun and mystic who is venerated in the Catholic Church as the "Apostle of Divine Mercy." Her spiritual diary, written under obedience to her confessor Blessed Michał Sopoćko, describes her mystical experiences and the messages she claimed to have received from Jesus Christ regarding divine mercy.
The devotion to Divine Mercy that she promoted includes the Divine Mercy image (with the inscription "Jesus, I trust in You"), the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, and the Feast of Divine Mercy (celebrated on the Second Sunday of Easter). Jesus reportedly told her: "I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners."
She died of tuberculosis at the age of 33 in Kraków. She was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1993 and canonized by him in Rome on April 30, 2000 — the first Sunday after Easter, which he simultaneously established as Divine Mercy Sunday for the universal Church.
