10 Marian Helper • Spring 2026 • Marian.org — that He wanted to touch us in our own time through St. Faustina to bring peace between the Orthodox Churches and the Roman Catholic Church,” Fr. Seraphim proposed. How appropriate, just after the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and Pope Leo XIV’s visit to Turkey to join the Orthodox patriarchs in commemoration, to mark the anniversary of the Image as a step on the path to Christian unity! Gift of the Chaplet We are also in the midst of the 90th anniversary of the Divine Mercy Chaplet, received by St. Faustina on Sept. 13-14, 1935: The words with which I entreated God are these: Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ for our sins and those of the whole world; for the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us. The next morning, when I entered chapel, I heard these words interiorly: Every time you enter the chapel, immediately recite the prayer which I taught you yesterday. When I had said the prayer, in my soul I heard these words: This prayer will serve to appease My wrath. You will recite it for nine days, on the beads of the rosary, in the following manner: First of all, you will say one OUR FATHER and HAIL MARY and the I BELIEVE IN GOD. Then on the OUR FATHER beads you will say the following words: “Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.” On the HAIL MARY beads you will say the following words: “For the sake of His sorrowful Passion have mercy on us and on the whole world.” In conclusion, three times you will recite these words: “Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world” (Diary, 475-476). In subsequent revelations, the Lord made it clear that the Chaplet was not just for Sr. Faustina, but for the whole world. He also attached extraordinary promises to its recitation. Lastly, we are approaching the 90th anniversary of St. Faustina’s final journey to Kraków, Poland, on May 11, 1936. She would remain there until her death in 1938. These anniversaries are a good reminder to all Marian Helpers and devotees of the Divine Mercy message and devotion that the next decade will be full of 100th anniversaries of the Divine Mercy message and devotion. Spreading the devotion Although the “Renovator” of the Marian Congregation, Bl. George Matulaitis, died four years before Jesus first appeared to St. Faustina, he nonetheless played a crucial role in the spread of the Divine Mercy devotion. For it was Bl. George, in his role as Archbishop of Vilnius, who summoned a young priest of his diocese, Fr. Michael Sopoćko, home to Lithuania. He had been serving in Poland as a military chaplain. In 1933, Fr. Sopoćko was assigned as confessor to the convent of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, where he met Sr. Faustina. The rest, as they say, is history. The Divine Mercy Image reached the world first in the painting of Eugene Kazimirowski, completed in 1934, and in the preaching of Fr. Sopoćko in the chapel of Our Lady of the Gate of the Dawn in Vilnius in 1935, during an extraordinary Jubilee Year of the Redemption, with the completed Vilnius Divine Mercy Image by the altar. Then the first prayer cards were printed in 1937 with St. Faustina’s direct input, and by the end of St. Faustina’s life, the first pamphlets and booklets. On Sept. 2, 1938, Fr. Sopoćko brought copies with him on a visit to her in the sanatorium, forgot to give them to her, went back, and saw her in ecstasy. This was shortly before she died. Earlier publications Divine Mercy at 95
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