Sister Faustina Kowalska: Her LIfe and MIssion

ward in which she lay was for th e seriously ill, and the number of dea ths among the pa tien ts was considerable. Almost every day, one of them died. The hospital and its world, closed in upon itself, was a completely new experience for S ister Faustina. Until th a t time, she had encountered the sick only singly, and then sporadically. Now she had the opportunity to take p a r t in th e ir daily life, and th is changed he r standpoint. Besides, in the hospital, disease and its th re a t were very obvious; there was no th ing to screen them from view. Above all the painful and difficult problems of hospital life, the question of death became, for her, the most prominent. Here she could observe a t will the s ta te of the human souls it approached. How they varied! She saw peaceful dea ths , where the pa tien t seemed reconciled to w ha t was to come; b u t much more frequently she observed the to rm en t of a protracted agony during which evil powers stalked the dying person, preying upon him in the hope of controlling the remains of the consciousness he m igh t a t times recover, in order to snatch him then forever from God! The sight of the soul’s la s t deathly contest with evil com­ pelled S is ter F au s tina ’s generous h e a r t to help im­ mediately to save the soul of the sinner. Heedless of he r own illness and its consequences, she has tened to the bedside of the dying person day or night, and kne lt in p rayer until she had obtained w ha t she was asking for, and the person sorely tried by a protracted agony was calm. In the moment of consciousness still left to him, begged for by the ferven t p rayer of S is ter F au s ­ tina , i t would be clear th a t in repentance and sorrow he had reached God and th a t a t the very gates of death the grace of salvation had been poured out upon his soul. In her diary time a fte r time can be found notes on the dying. I t was one of th e chief themes of th is period. The knowledge th a t one of th e pa tien ts was dying came to S is ter Fau s tina in a variety of ways, bu t usually superna tura lly , through an inner voice: from 316