Divine Mercy Sunday is the Sunday after Easter — the Octave of Easter, which Christ himself, in the visions of St. Faustina Kowalska, asked to be celebrated as the feast of his mercy. In the diary of the Polish sister, who died in 1938, Jesus promises that the soul who goes to confession and receives communion on this day "will obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment." In 2000, Pope John Paul II canonized Faustina in Rome and, on the same day, decreed the Sunday after Easter to be Divine Mercy Sunday for the universal Church.
Faustina's visions took place in Krakow, where she entered the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy and where her remains rest in the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy at Łagiewniki. The image she was told to paint — Christ with red and pale rays streaming from his heart, inscribed Jezu, ufam Tobie ("Jesus, I trust in you") — became the icon of the devotion and now hangs above the altar at Łagiewniki.
Before Faustina, the devotion to the merciful Christ was already alive in Vilnius, where she was transferred in 1933 and where the first painting of the Divine Mercy image was made by Eugeniusz Kazimirowski in 1934, under her direction. The painting is still venerated in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Vilnius. From Krakow to Vilnius to Rome, the feast binds three cities to a single revelation.
Connected Destinations
Kraków
Poland · Europe
Kraków is a profound Catholic pilgrimage destination, home to the Divine Mercy Sanctuary where St. Faustina's tomb resides and beloved by Pope John Paul II.
Vilnius
Lithuania · Europe
Vilnius holds profound Catholic significance as home to the original Divine Mercy image and the relics of St. Casimir, Lithuania's patron saint.
Rome
Italy · Europe
Rome holds the tombs of Peter and Paul, the four papal basilicas, the Holy Stairs and the catacombs of the early Church.