In celebration of St. Faustina’s feast day Wednesday, the Diocese of Grand Rapids posted a quote from Loyola Press on Facebook.

"In her years in the convent, St. Faustina heard a call from God to make God’s mercy known to the world so that the world may more fully receive God’s healing grace,” the post said. "St. Faustina promoted the Chaplet of #DivineMercy which consists of the recitation of prayers to the Eternal Father with the use of the rosary for the sake of Christ’s sorrowful passion." 

As part of the worldwide celebration, Pope Francis tweeted about St. Faustina.

“Through her, God taught the world to seek salvation in his mercy,” his message said. “Let us remember this especially when thinking of the war in #Ukraine. Let us trust in God's mercy which can change hearts. #Peace” 

St. Maria Faustina Kowalska, whose given name was “Helena,” was born in Poland on Aug. 25, 1905 and died on Oct. 5, 1938. After she joined Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy she was 20, she took the name “Maria Faustina.”

St. Faustina kept a detailed diary in which she recorded her important visions.

In one entry, she wrote that Jesus appeared to her wearing white with “red and pale rays emanating from his heart,” according to the National Catholic Register (NCR). 

Another says Jesus told her: "Paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the signature: ‘Jesus, I trust in You’ [in Polish: “Jezu, ufam Tobie”]. I desire that this image be venerated, first in your chapel, and then throughout the world. I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish.” 

She wrote and talked about her vision of the Lord as a way to save souls, so they would come to repent and believe in Jesus’ Divine Mercy. Pope St. John Paul II canonized her in 2000. 

St. Faustina also described her vision of hell in her journal. While she was on a retreat, an angel showed her “a place of ‘great torture’ and ‘fire that will penetrate the soul without destroying it — a terrible suffering’” the NCR says. 

Her entries indicate that she was shown different levels of hell, similar to Dante’s writing. 

“There are caverns and pits of torture where one form of agony differs from another (and) there are special tortures destined for particular souls,” St. Faustina journaled. “These are the torments of the senses. Each soul undergoes terrible and indescribable sufferings related to the manner in which it has sinned.” 

St. Faustina’s vision and her diary helps the Church when it delivers its message of Divine Mercy, divinemercy.org says. Pope St. John Paul II described her as "the great apostle of Divine Mercy in our time." 

You can buy a copy of St. Faustina’s “Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul” from Amazon. 

Philip Kosloski wrote about St. Faustina’s devotion to the Rosary, which she would pray every Saturday, in an Aleteia article.  

In her diary, she explains her commitment to that practice, saying she received a message from Jesus “to say five decades of the Rosary with outstretched arms” on Saturday. Saturday carries importance as a reminder of the day the Blessed Virgin Mary prayed for her Son after he was crucified.

Her funeral was held on Oct. 7, the feast of the Rosary. 

A prayer in her honor follows: “St. Faustina, you told us that your mission would continue after your death and that you would not forget us. Our Lord also granted you a great privilege, telling you to 'distribute graces as you will, to whom you will, and when you will.' Relying on this, we ask your intercession for the graces we need, especially for the intentions just mentioned. Help us, above all, to trust in Jesus as you did and thus to glorify His mercy every moment of our lives. Amen.”