Convents of St.Faustina

The Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy

The Congregation was founded in 1862 by Mother Teresa Ewa Sułkowska Potocka, who patterned her methods of apostolic work on those of Theresa Rondeau’s. The Sisters have accepted Sr. Faustina, who spent 13 years in the Congregation, as a spiritual co-founder of the Community. The Sisters’ charisma lies in saving lost souls through co-operation with the salvific mercy of God. Houses of Mercy, centres of the Congregation’s apostolate, have since the beginning gathered girls and women who of themselves desired a profound moral conversion. Between the two world wars Houses of Mercy were converted into closed educational centres providing elementary and vocational education. The girls were directed there by custodians, juvenile courts and individual persons. This form of apostolate survived until 1962, when the state authorities took over the educational centres run by the Congregation. The Sisters began to take care of mentally and physically handicapped children, sick women and single mothers. Work with socially challenged youth was conducted in day-care centres in Cracow and Warsaw. The Sisters were likewise committed to spreading the devotion to the Divine Mercy.
Today the Congregation is also active in the re-socialisation of girls and women; for instance, the Sisters run an educational centre and a vocational school for girls in Cracow. The Sisters also teach religious education to children and teenagers in Biała, Gdańsk, Łódź, and Radom, provide assistance to prisoners, and give out free meals to the poor. Their mission likewise comprises the propagation of the message of the Divine Mercy as handed down to Sr. Faustina. This activity takes the form of lectures, retreat meetings and formative work with the apostles of the Divine Mercy in the Faustinum Association. Additionally, the Sisters publish a periodical titled „Orędzie Miłosierdzia” [The Message of Mercy].
Currently the Congregation numbers 430 nuns. They work in 18 houses in Poland and 5 abroad (two in Rome, one in Boston, USA, Belarus and, for a short time now, in the Czech Republic). Sister General resides in Warsaw, while the novitiate and the formation house are located in Cracow. Sr. Paulina Słomka is currently Mother General of the Congregation.

Sisters of the Merciful Jesus
The Congregation of the Sisters of the Merciful Jesus, commonly referred to as Faustina’s Sisters, was set up by Fr. Michał Sopoćko in 1947. Fr. Sopoćko took on the implementation of the mission of St. Faustina Kowalska. The motto of the Congregation of Faustina’s Sisters is “Jesus, I trust in You. The charisma of the Community was delineated in St. Faustina Kowalska’s Diary and the Constitutions of the Sisters. It is to be the glorification of, preaching about and entreating for the Divine Mercy through prayer, especially at the Hour of Mercy. The Sisters teach catechism to children, care for the sick, the elderly, the lonely, and the terminally ill.
The first marked stimulus for the new congregation was noted by St. Sr. Faustina in June 1935: “God wills it to be a congregation preaching God’s Mercy to the world and entreating it for the world” (Diary 436). Apart from urging Sr. Faustina to expedite measures leading to the foundation of a new religious community, a more exact idea about the community’s objectives and spirituality was expressed by Lord Jesus’ words: “My Spirit shall be the rule of your life. Your life is to be patterned on mine from the birth in the manger to the death on the Cross. Reach deep into my mysteries and learn the depth of My Mercy for the creation and My most profound goodness, and you will make the world aware of it. Through prayer you will intercede between heaven and earth.”
The foundation of a new congregation was beyond Sr. Faustina’s power. She found help, however, in her confessor, Fr. Sopoćko. He continued the implementation of her mission after her death. While providing spiritual assistance to the Sodality of Varsity Women of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Vilnius, Fr. Sopoćko spiritually shaped those entrusted to his care with a view to creating a congregation in the future. It was this community that eventually took the desired initiative. On April 11, 1942 the first candidates took religious vows.
After World War II, in 1945 and 1946, the Sisters left Vilnius and settled in the Western Territories in Poland. Currently the Congregation numbers over 100 nuns, including 80 sisters in Poland. Convents of the Congregation are also located in Germany, Canada, Brazil, Italy, Lithuania, and Belarus.