Sister Faustina Kowalska: Her LIfe and MIssion

h ad become a social disease. The s itua tion was the more serious because the population, though i t was panic-stricken in its fea r of th e disease (and sick people carefully hid from others the fact they were infected with it), understood only th e acute form. Few realized th a t tuberculosis is such a dangerous disease because i t is deceptive. I t a ttacks young persons most readily, those who are strong: thu s for a long period i t goes unnoticed by the sick person and by those around him, and th is is due to the illusion of hea lth given by the f irs t stage of the disease. The p a tien t has shin ing eyes, rosy cheeks and displays considerable physical vitality, and th is has often misled even the medical profession. This superficial appearance of good hea lth is due to a slightly sub-feverish s ta te , which may go on for years, un til th e disease, a t some dram a tic moment, reveals how i t h a s ravaged th e body. When S ister F au s tina was alive, the illness continued for years with the then known drugs, and only a t a la te stage general p ro s tra ­ tion took place. Unfortunately , by then its ravages were irreversible. The p a tien t was lucky if the disease could be arrested . His hea lth was lost for good. As far as Helena Kowalska is concerned, in her childhood and early youth there seems to have been no trace of tuberculosis, in h e r or in any member of he r immediate family. Even la ter, when she had left the family home, we do no t find th a t anyone close to h e r had suffered from the disease. Therefore she did not take the disease from h e r home. From all we know, she left i t hea lthy and sturdy . Her employer a t the time she was in Lodz calls h e r plump, and h e r la s t employer before she en tered th e convent, Mrs Lipszyc, also confirms th a t when Helena en te red h e r service she was a strong and hea lthy girl. Nevertheless i t was while she was in th a t post th a t the f irs t symptoms of ill hea lth in th e h itherto strong constitution of Helena did f irs t appear. We h e a r the description of Helena as a "skinny little thing" for the f irs t time, from the lips of Mother Michael, who went 255