16 Marian Helper • Spring 2025 • Marian.org Finding Faustina Birth and Baptism The limestone house in the peasant village of Głogowiec, Poland, was completed in 1900 and sat on a few acres of farmland. In this modest home, Helena Kowalska (the baptismal name of St. Faustina) was born in 1905, the third of 10 children, and lived her first 16 years. Today a small museum features mementos of their family life. Two days after her birth, Helena was brought for Baptism to the family’s parish church, St. Kazimierz Church in nearby Świnice Warckie. Today, the side altar highlights an image of St. Faustina and the baptismal font at which she was received into Christ’s life. In this church, she also received her first Confession and first Holy Communion. At the age of 20, Faustina joined the convent of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy on Żytnia Street in Warsaw. Describing her feelings when joining the convent, she wrote: “It seemed to me that I had stepped into the life of Paradise. A single prayer was bursting forth from my heart, one of thanksgiving” (Diary, 17). The site of the convent is today the Shrine of St. Faustina. The convent buildings were burned during World War II and remained in ruins throughout the 20th century. Reconstruction of the site began in the early 21st The sanctuary of St. Kazimierz Church in Świnice Warckie, Poland, where Helena Kowalska was baptized in 1905. By Stephen J. Binz This silver jubilee year of St. Faustina’s canonization is the perfect time to visit the historic places in Poland and Lithuania associated with the Apostle of Divine Mercy, in person or vicariously from the comfort of home. Silver Jubilee
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