Pillars of Fire In My Soul

Mr. Hyla painted an image of the Lord in a walking posture, but in a somewhat affectedly inclined one, against a back- ground of flowers, with the right hand lifted high and with a gaze piercing [drilling] the viewer, with rays which, as though ribbons, hang from the heart toward the ground. When I came [to Cracow] from Wilno (August 1947), I brought to the attention of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy that the image does not correspond at all to Sr. Faustina’s vision, and I asked Mr Hyla to correct it and not to paint such images anymore. Unfortunately, Mr Hyla did not come into line with my observations [remarks] and said point-blank that he is going to paint the kind of images that those commissioning him are going to want, and he executed a couple hundred of them against a variety of backgrounds. Only after a few years did he begin to paint against a dark background, and, after the approval of Mr. Slendzinski’s image by the principal Episcopal Commission, [he began painting the image] against the back- ground of closed doors, without changing the posture itself, which, as was said, was incorrect. The mistaken [incorrect] interpretation of this image is due to this, that Fr. Andrasz, not knowing the details well, in the booklet: “Divine Mercy, We Trust in You,” wrote that “The Savior on this image... is walking upon this our poor earth.” While in her Diary, Sr. Faustina, when she saw this image in a vision for the first time, says [See Diary, entry number 47] ... the Lord Jesus is in her cell in the evening, so that the back- ground of the image should be dark, as it was in the Cenacle when He appeared to the Apostles with the words: “Peace to you,” and instituted the sacrament of penance. In 1953, their Excellencies the Bishops at their conference in Czestochowa decided that these images, as deriving from a pri- vate revelation, unverified by the Church, should not be accept- ed [for placement] in churches: those already found there should slowly be removed, in order not to anticipate the 86 Pillars of Fire in My Soul