Original painting of the Divine Mercy, by Eugeniusz Kazimirowski in 1934. Wikimedia Commons 4.0.
Vilnius, Lithuania, Apr 24, 2022 / 06:03 am (CNA).
Among Catholic devotions, the Divine Mercy message is well-known: the iconic image of Christ, with rays of red and white pouring from his heart; St. Faustina, called the “Apostle of Divine Mercy;” and the Basilica of Divine Mercy in Krakow, Poland.
But what you might not know is that more than 450 miles north of Krakow, in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, there is another Sanctuary of Divine Mercy, one which houses the first image of the merciful Jesus created, and the only Image of Divine Mercy St. Faustina herself ever saw.
Archbishop Gintaras Grusas of Vilnius told CNA that the city, often called the “City of Mercy,” is not only “a place of the Divine Mercy revelations, but also a place that is in need of mercy, throughout history, and a place that in the last couple decades has been a place where we need to show mercy.”
Since long before St. Faustina and the Divine Mercy revelations, the Mother of Mercy has been the patroness of Vilnius, Grusas said.
In fact, in the 1600s, a painting of Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn was created and placed in a niche above one of the prominent city gates. Many miracles are attributed to the image, which was canonically crowned Mother of Mercy by Pope Pius XI in 1927.
It was in this small chapel of the Mother of Mercy, above the gate, that the image of Divine Mercy was first displayed. So Vilnius has had “mercy upon mercy,” Grusas noted.
The story of St. Faustina and Divine Mercy
St. Faustina Kowalska was a young Polish nun born at the beginning of the 20th century. Over the course of several years she had visions of Jesus, whereby she was directed to create an image and to share with the world revelations of Jesus’ love and mercy.
St. Faustina received her first revelation of the merciful Jesus in Plock, Poland in February 1931. At the time, she had made her first vows as one of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy.
In 1933, after she made her perpetual vows, her superior directed her to move to the convent house in Vilnius. She stayed there for three years and this is where she received many more visions of Jesus. Vilnius is also where she found a priest to be her spiritual director, the now-Bl. Michael Sopocko.
With the help of Fr. Sopocko, St. Faustina found a painter to fulfill the request Jesus had made to her in one of the visions – to “paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the signature: Jesus, I trust in You” – and in 1934 the painter Eugene Kazimierowski created the original Divine Mercy painting under St. Faustina’s direction.
In its creation, St. Faustina “was instrumental in making all the adjustments with the painter,” Archbishop Grusas said.
The image shows Christ with his right hand raised as if giving a blessing, and the left touching his chest. Two rays, one pale, one red – which Jesus said are to signify water and blood – are descending from his heart.
St. Faustina recorded all of her visions and conversations with Jesus in her diary, called Divine Mercy in My Soul. Here she wrote the words of Jesus about the graces that would pour out on anyone who prayed before the image:
“I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not perish. I also promise victory over [its] enemies already here on earth, especially at the hour of death. I Myself will defend [that soul] as My own glory.”
When the image was completed, it was first kept in the corridor of the convent of the Bernardine Sisters, which was beside the Church of St. Michael where Fr. Sopocko was rector.
In March 1936 St. Faustina became sick, with what is believed to have been tuberculosis, and was transferred back to Poland by her superiors. She died near Krakow in October 1938, at the age of 33.
“St. Faustina, because of her illness, was brought back to Krakow by her superiors. But she left the painting in Vilnius because it was the property of her spiritual director, who paid for the painting,” Grusas explained.
Jesus, in one of St. Faustina’s visions, had expressed his wish that the image be put in a place of honor, above the main altar of the church. And so, though St. Faustina had already returned to Poland, on the first Sunday after Easter in 1937, they hung the image of Merciful Jesus next to the main altar in the Church of St. Michael.
The history of the image
Archbishop Grusas explained that many people have only recently learned about the image because it was hidden for many years, and it was only rediscovered and restored within the last 15 years.
During World War II, Lithuania was under Soviet occupation and in 1948, the communist government closed the Church of St. Michael and abolished the convent. Many of the sacred objects and artworks were moved to another church to be saved from Soviet hands, but the Divine Mercy image was left undisturbed in St. Michael’s for several years.
In 1951, two women were able to pay the keeper of St. Michael’s church and save the image. Since it couldn’t be taken across the border to Poland, they gave it to the priest in charge of the Church of the Holy Spirit for safekeeping.
Five years later it was moved to a church in Belarus, where it remained for over a decade. In 1970 this church too was shut down by the government and looted, but miraculously, again the Image of Divine Mercy was untouched.
Eventually it was brought back to Lithuania in secret and again given to the Church of the Holy Spirit. In the early 2000s its significance was rediscovered and after a professional restoration it was rehung in the nearby Church of the Holy Trinity in 2005, which is now the Shrine of Divine Mercy.
So though it is a more recent arrival on the international scene, the painting “is also probably the most profound of the Divine Mercy paintings,” Grusas said. “It has a very deep theology, very closely tied with St. Faustina’s diary.”
The Shrine of Divine Mercy
Today in Vilnius the archdiocese has begun to set up a guide for pilgrims who come and wish to visit the holy sites, such as the place where St. Faustina lived, the room where the image was painted, and the several churches which all held the painting at different points.
The Shrine of Divine Mercy itself is not a large place, since it’s only a converted parish church, but its sacramental life “is really quite something,” said Justin Gough, an American seminarian studying in Rome who spent a summer working in the Archdiocese’s pilgrim office in Vilnius.
He said that “between Mass, the Divine Mercy chaplet every day in Lithuanian and Polish, adoration 24/7… vespers every Sunday night led by the youth of Vilnius,” the rosary and the sacrament of Confession, there is always some sort of prayer or sacrament taking place.
Of course the original Image of Divine Mercy is also there, he pointed out, and yet the shrine is not just about the image, but about connecting the image and what it represents to prayer and the reception of God’s mercy through the sacraments.
“I think it’s ironic in a certain sense that God teaches us about his mercy through a holy woman who died at the age of 33,” he said. “She lived a very devout life, endured great sufferings for the sake of Christ, and yet it’s through people like her that we’re taught, great sinners that we are, how to actually receive God’s mercy and to be merciful to others.”
In Vilnius, it’s a great blessing “to know a saint of the 20th century walked here, prayed here, and experienced Christ here, and that we can do that as well.”
This article was originally published on CNA Nov. 26, 2017.
[…]
If they meet there will be no excommunication.
We draw conclusions from consistency. Consistency here a marked affinity between the most radically pro abortion, pro LGBT president, a rosary clutching moon eyed supposed Catholic, and a Pontiff who putatively is opposed to his agenda. Or is he? Not once did Pope Francis laud anything former president Trump accomplished in protecting religious rights, curtailing abortion, limitations on LGBT ‘rights’, more obtrusions than rights. Only sharp criticism of his border security policy, the wall, accusations by the Pontiff at least by implication of divisiveness, racial prejudice. Whereas Biden appears shiningly Catholic to Francis – if we gauge that by his lack of any criticism whatsoever of the president. Andrea Gagliarducci interjects, “Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago and other bishops recently sought to delay the discussion on Eucharistic coherence” likely for purpose of indicating a consistency, perhaps rapport between ‘two peas in a pod’, both in favor of delay, certainly the warning against criticism of the president, and the quintessential chicanery of insisting that primacy on any discussion remains with Ratzinger’s 2002 note on the canonical prudential judgment of the local ordinary. As if in the oddly formed consciences of Cardinals Ladaria, Cupich, and by implication Pope Francis, that whatever may be the case a local ordinary has a canonical privilege to declare an intrinsic evil a political virtue. Gagliarducci underscores USCCB president Archbishop Jose Gomez’ insistence the discussions will proceed.
Perhaps Biden appears “shiningly Catholic” to the Pope, but not to us.
And even in his jejune posturing, Biden believes a rosary is primarily a weapon for violently choking human beings. He is missing more than a few neurons; he seems to be without conscience. And he accuses Putin of having no soul.
I fear this might be another
-can’t wait to shake your hand, buddy,
-see my big grin for you,
-verbally, let’s pat each other
-and ourselves on the back
-as you were, carry on ol boy accompaniment.
Rosemarie, suffice it to say Judas would be envious.
I wonder if they are going practice “social distancing” by kissing each other’s rings from exactly 3 feet away? I have pretty much given up on both those who supposedly run our government and the Church hierarchy. But who cares, my parish is still the faithful and our community is vibrant despite this whole pandemic panic attack. Praise the Lord.
600,000 is no “panic attack.”
We are required to treat others with Mercy, if we want the Divine Mercy for ourselves.
“For the sake of His Sorrowful Passion, have Mercy on us and all the whole world.”
The obvious purpose of this visit and, especially its timing, is to thwart a segment of the American bishops who seem unusually committed to a certain course for their June meeting. It would be so awkward for them to take any action or even make a strong statement against Biden just days after he has what, no doubt, will be a very convivial audience with Papa Bergoglio (if there were any chance that it wouldn’t be, the White House would never allow it to happen). If this isn’t enough to deter these bishops, Francis and Parolin will simply order them to shut up. They should make them do it.
For Pope Francis, that he will evangelize the Biden sect with the papal prayer intention for June: “The Beauty of Marriage—Let us pray for young people who are preparing for marriage with the support of a Christian community: may they grow in love, with generosity, faithfulness and patience;”
For President Biden, that he will seize the moment and choreograph the meeting to take place on the steps of the Immaculate Conception Cathedral where he, like Theodosius kneeling before St. Ambrose, can either defend or appeal for mercy for the deaths of 66 million from A.D.1973 to 2021 (rather than Theodosius’ mere 7,000 in A.D. 390); and
For the Catholic flock, that a photo-op can be allowed to the emerging real leadership in the USCCB, rather than, say, the likes of wonderboy and pseudo-priest James Martin and his cardinalate retinue;
Let us pray to the Lord…Lord hear our prayer.
No one ought to be shocked that close allies should want to confer in person to further their common political agenda. It should be plain to everyone by now that almost all of what has been said about this Pope by his most severe opponents is basically true. But, I am sure there will be more tortured attempts to explain it all away. Time to cue up another piece “proving” how committed Francis is the pro-life cause.
“…close allies…want to confer in person…” Taking into account that this meeting might happen IS a major “take notice” event. When the pawns have finally had enough–full to the eyeballs with the goings-on and the upper crust feels the shaking below——well, it’s time to bring out the big guns.
Jesus said, “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”” Mark 2:17. We can hope that Francis will help Chairman Joe to meet the demands of the “devout” Catholicism he professes.
And what do you think the chances are that Francis will seriously confront Biden on anything? After over eight years of this pontificate, isn’t it rather easy to predict what will and won’t happen?
The so-called ‘catholics’ who see no problem with taxpayer-financed abortions, or ‘catholic’ politicians who support it – and the like – are becoming increasingly desperate because they know that the tide against it is rising.
Both Francis and joe all ready have something on common besides their hatred of trump !! They are both in China’s payroll !