(Helen Kowalska) was born in Glogowiec, Poland, on August 25, 1905. Raised in piety in the bosom of a large and poor family, she very soon had to go and work as handmaid.
When she turned 18, while attending a ball party, Jesus, under the sorrowful form of the Ecce Homo, presented himself to her, inviting her not to make him suffer any longer, and offering her to enter a convent.
At 20, she was admitted as a lay sister at the Nun's of Our Lady of Mercy in Warsaw.
Saint Mary Faustina stood out through her activity, both laborious and prudent, her gaiety and piety, her vivacity of character and taste for beauty. She was employed in turn in the various convents where obedience would send her, as a cook, baker, garden keeper and turn sister.
Affected with intestine, lung and throat tuberculosis, she remained a heroin, always wearing a smile for everyone, for she "wanted to be a Host offered to serve the Church and the souls." Desirous to die with full lucidity of mind, she refused the injection that would have soothed her sufferings, and quietly, without a rattle, but staring at the cross, she rendered her soul to God on October 5, 1938, at the age of 33, such as she had predicted.
But we know that she remains faithful to her promise:

"...Now, I shall not forget you, poor earth. Lost in God, and wholly surrendered into His bliss, I shall not fail because of it to come back here below, and help the souls and exhort them to a boundless confidence in Divine Mercy. Quite to the contrary, consumed in God, I shall have an unlimited power of action."

Mother Marie Faustine, snd +