12 As the devotion spread, the Marians were urged to build a larger edifice to house the Divine Mercy Image. They hired local Stockbridge artisan Antonio Guerrieri. Amazingly, Guerrieri used no architectural plans or blueprints to build the Shrine. The Marian Fathers ran into many obstacles throughout construction. First, a lack of funds delayed completion. Then, Guerrieri died before the Shrine was completed. As if that weren’t enough, the Vatican placed a temporary ban on spreading the Divine Mercy message and devotion in 1959 due to faulty translations of St. Faustina’s Diary. The Shrine was finally completed in 1960. The ban on the message and devotion was lifted in 1978 by Pope St. Paul VI. In 1993, Pope St. John Paul II beatified Sr. Faustina. In 1996, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops officially designated the Shrine as “The National Shrine of The Divine Mercy.” In 2000, St. John Paul II canonized St. Faustina and declared the second Sunday of Easter Divine Mercy Sunday, a universal feast for the Church. Tens of thousands of pilgrims visit the Shrine every year.
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