St. Maria Faustina Kowalska

She was born on August 25, 1905 in Poland. Her parents were Stanislaus and Marianna Kowalska. Her father was a carpenter and theirs was a poor family. Her original name was Helena Kowalska. She joined the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, Warsaw at the age of 20 years and a new name Maria Faustina was given to her at time when she received the religious habit. Her name "Faustina" means "fortunate or blessed one" and it is a feminine form of the name a Christian martyr Faustinus. She saw visions of Jesus but others ignored her when she told them about the visions. She requested an artist to paint the first Divine Mercy image based on the vision of Jesus she saw. Her Divine Mercy devotion was banned by the Vatican in the year 1958 but the ban was lifted in the year 1978 at the request of Cardinal Carol Wojtyla (later Pope John Paul-II) the then Arch Bishop of Krakow. One lady called Maureen Digan of Massachusetts reported a healing from Lymph edema, after praying at the tomb of Maria Faustina in March 1981, which was approved by Vatican in 1982. She died on October 5, 1938 of tuberculosis. She was beatified on April 18, 1993 and canonized on April 30, 2000 by Pope John Paul-II. She is called as the apostle of Divine Mercy devotion.