Saint Faustina Kowalska

Saint Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938) was a Polish nun whose mystical experiences became the foundation of one of the most widespread Catholic devotions of the modern era — the Divine Mercy. Born to a poor family in southern Poland, she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy at age twenty and spent her brief religious life in various convents, dying of tuberculosis at age 33. Her Diary, kept at the request of her spiritual director, records her conversations with Jesus and her commission to spread the message of God's mercy to the world.

The central revelation of Saint Faustina's spirituality is the Divine Mercy image — Christ with rays of red and white light streaming from his heart — accompanied by the words "Jesus, I trust in you." Jesus also gave her the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, a brief prayer to be prayed on rosary beads, with particular promises attached to praying it for the dying. Pope John Paul II canonized her in 2000 and instituted Divine Mercy Sunday on the Sunday after Easter — a feast at the very heart of the Easter season.

For Catholic funeral devotion, Faustina occupies a uniquely important place. The Diary records that Jesus made specific promises about the Chaplet of Divine Mercy prayed at the bedside of the dying. Many Catholic hospice and end-of-life ministries pray the Chaplet for those who are dying. Many Catholic families pray it for loved ones who have just died. The Hour of Mercy (3 p.m., the hour of Christ's death) is held by the devotion as an especially powerful time for prayer for the dying and the dead.

Faustina's witness is that God's mercy is wider than human reckoning. For families anxious about a loved one's state at the moment of death — and for any family praying for the deceased — she is a powerful intercessor pointing always toward the same promise: "Jesus, I trust in you."