Sister Faustina Kowalska: Her LIfe and MIssion

HELENA OBIIT, HIC NATA EST FAUSTINA Three different M istresses were responsible for the sp iritua l formation of Helena in the convent. For the f i rs t six months of h e r postulancy in Warsaw there was Mother Ja n e Bartkiewicz. When Helena was transfe rred to Cracow a t th e beginning of 1926, where she rem a in ­ ed for the re s t of h e r postulancy and throughou t h e r novitiate, she came unde r th e care of S ister M argare t G imbutt. Th is S is te r guided h e r through the f irs t two months of the novitiate (and a few years la te r - in 1932 - over the five-month probation before Helena’s perpe tua l vows). In Ju n e 1926 S is ter M argare t was tran s fe rred to th e same post in Warsaw , and h e r place in Cracow was taken by S is te r Mary Joseph Brzoza, a much younger woman of 37 who had ju s t arrived a fte r tra in ing in France. Thus S is te r F au s tin a h ad almost the whole period of h e r novitiate, which lasted two years, unde r the direction of S is te r Mary Joseph, and i t is principally to h e r th a t she owed h e r sp iritual formation. B u t before we discuss in more detail the role of the last-named S ister le t us pause with th e two previous Directresses, for i t was they who la id the foundations for th a t formation, and each of them had a specific p a r t to play in it. The f irs t instruction on th e requ irem en ts of the religious life was im parted to th e newly-arrived can­ didate by Mother Ja n e Bartkiewicz. Under th is M istress of Postu lan ts Helena became seized w ith doubts as to whether she was in th e righ t convent for her. I t is 69