St. Faustina Prayer: Prayers to the Apostle of Divine Mercy

St. Faustina Kowalska (1905–1938) was a simple Polish nun to whom Jesus entrusted the message of his Divine Mercy. Through her came the Divine Mercy image with the words “Jesus, I trust in you,” the Divine Mercy Chaplet, the Hour of Mercy at three o’clock and the feast of Divine Mercy Sunday. Below are prayers asking St. Faustina’s intercession for trust in Jesus, for sinners, for the sick and for the dying, followed by her remarkable life and the devotions she spread.

A prayer to St. Faustina

Written for this page:

St. Faustina, apostle of Divine Mercy,
you trusted Jesus in darkness, sickness and misunderstanding.
Pray for me, that I may trust him as you did.
Teach me to receive his mercy and to show mercy to others
in my words, my actions and my prayers.
Present to Jesus my intention: (name it).
Jesus, I trust in you. Amen.

A prayer for trust in God

Jesus, I trust in you
when I understand and when I do not,
when I am strong and when I am weak,
when my prayers are answered and when I must wait.
St. Faustina, help me to say these words with all my heart. Amen.

This prayer was written for this page. See also the Catholic prayer for anxiety.

A prayer for sinners

St. Faustina, you prayed and suffered for the conversion of sinners.
Pray for (name) and for all who are far from God.
Let them experience the mercy of Jesus and come home to him. Amen.

This prayer was written for this page.

A prayer for the sick and the dying

St. Faustina, you suffered from tuberculosis and offered your pain with love.
Comfort (name) in his (her) illness.
And for all who are dying today, obtain the grace of trust in Jesus’ mercy at the hour of death. Amen.

This prayer was written for this page. Jesus asked St. Faustina to pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet at the bedside of the dying. See prayers for the dying.

The devotions St. Faustina spread

The image of Divine Mercy: Jesus with one hand raised in blessing, the other touching his breast, from which two rays come forth, one pale and one red, with the signature “Jesus, I trust in you.”
The Divine Mercy Chaplet, prayed on rosary beads.
The Hour of Mercy: three o’clock in the afternoon, the hour of Jesus’ death.
The Divine Mercy Novena, from Good Friday to the Saturday after Easter.
Divine Mercy Sunday, the Second Sunday of Easter.

The life of St. Faustina

Helena Kowalska was born on August 25, 1905, in the village of Głogowiec in central Poland, the third of ten children of a poor farming family. She had only three years of schooling and worked as a housekeeper before entering the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Warsaw in 1925, taking the name Sister Maria Faustina. In the convents where she lived she worked as a cook, gardener and porter.

On February 22, 1931, in Płock, she saw Jesus in the form shown in the Divine Mercy image and was told to have it painted. With the help of her confessor, Blessed Michael Sopoćko, the first image was painted in Vilnius in 1934. At Jesus’ request she kept a diary of her mystical experiences, published today as Divine Mercy in My Soul. Suffering from tuberculosis, she died in Kraków on October 5, 1938, at the age of 33.

St. John Paul II, who as a young man worked at a factory near her convent in Kraków, beatified her in 1993 and canonized her on April 30, 2000, the first saint of the new millennium. Her feast, October 5, has been in the General Roman Calendar since 2020.

Frequently asked questions

When is St. Faustina’s feast day?

October 5, the day of her death.

What is St. Faustina the patron saint of?

She is invoked as the apostle of Divine Mercy, for trust in God, for sinners and for a merciful death.

Where is St. Faustina buried?

At the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Kraków-Łagiewniki, Poland, in the convent chapel where she died.

More Divine Mercy pages

Sources

Dicastery for the Causes of Saints; St. John Paul II, homily for the canonization of St. Faustina, April 30, 2000.
Congregation for Divine Worship, decree inscribing St. Faustina in the General Roman Calendar (May 18, 2020).
The prayers were written for this page.