Sister Faustina Kowalska: Her LIfe and MIssion

the efforts o f tfie doctor > I f e f t neither Setter nor zvorse, remarks began to reach my ears zvhich inferred that I zvas making befieve (Diary, Notebook I, para . 67). The same s ta tem en t was made by h e r a few years la te r du ring S is te r F au s t in a ’s conversation with S ister D., when the la t te r complained th e doctors did not believe in h e r illness. "For three years, they treated me, too, for nerves and d id not treat my lungs", she observed then. (Archives of S.F., Recoil.) I t is a fac t th a t th e lady doctor to the community did no t diagnose any th ing seriously wrong with her. She ascribed everything to anaem ia , general exhaustion and over-sensitive nerves, and accordingly she prescrib­ ed restora tives , which of course gave no resu lts . There is no summary tre a tm en t for tuberculosis. T rea tm en t in general, and particu larly in those years, was very lengthy and above all demanded absolute rest. The tre a tm en t given to S is te r F au s t in a was tonic medicines and additional nourishm en t. This undiagnosed commencement of the tuberculosis no t only decided the fate of S ister F au s tin a ’s fu tu re hea lth ; i t also affected h e r re la tionsh ip with certa in sisters . From th is time onward, she suffered because of the renewed suspicions th a t the discomforts of which she complained were exaggerated, and th a t she was trying , by tak ing refuge in illness, to create conditions to give h e rse lf more time for prayer, for which i t was known she longed. A time of hidden martyrdom began, because once the view had become established th a t she was over-sensitive and exaggerated h e r illness, it accompanied h e r from one convent to another. These rumours persisted even when signs of the disease were clearly ev iden t externally. Bu t i t is difficult to fau l t those sisters , since th e view 259