Faustina: The Apostle of Divine Mercy

Faustina: The Apostle of Divine Mercy

Director:   Jerzy Lukaszewicz

Cast:

  1. Dorota Segda
  2. Danuta Szaflarska
  3. Agnieszka Czekanska
  4. Stanislawa Celinska
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The story and film are based on her own writings from her "Diary", which has become a worldwide best-selling spiritual work. She was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2000 as the first saint of the new millennium. Actress Dorota Segda received great critical acclaim by European film critics for her stunning portrayal of Sister Faustina. 1

Maria Faustyna Kowalska (born Helena Kowalska; 1905–1938), also known as Saint Maria Faustyna Kowalska of the Blessed Sacrament and popularly spelled Faustina, was a Polish Roman Catholic nun and mystic. Her apparitions of Jesus Christ inspired the Roman Catholic devotion to the Divine Mercy and earned her the title of "Secretary of Divine Mercy".

Throughout her life, Kowalska reported having visions of Jesus and conversations with him, of which she wrote in her diary, later published as The Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy in My Soul. Her biography, submitted to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, quoted some of these conversations with Jesus regarding the Divine Mercy devotion.

At the age of 20 years, she joined a convent in Warsaw, was transferred to P?ock, and was later moved to Vilnius where she met her confessor Father Micha? Sopo?ko, who supported her devotion to the Divine Mercy. Kowalska and Sopo?ko directed an artist to paint the first Divine Mercy image, based on Kowalska's vision of Jesus. Sopo?ko used the image in celebrating the first Mass on the first Sunday after Easter. Subsequently, Pope John Paul II established the Feast of Divine Mercy on that Sunday of each liturgical year.

The Roman Catholic Church canonized Kowalska as a saint on 30 April 2000. The mystic is classified in the liturgy as a virgin and is venerated within the church as the "Apostle of Divine Mercy". Her tomb is in Divine Mercy Sanctuary, Kraków-?agiewniki, where she spent the end of her life and met confessor Józef Andrasz who also supported the message of mercy. 2

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