DIVINE MERCY Painting (1934)
When Sister Maria Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938) told her priest confessor (Blessed Rev. Michael Sopoćko) that Jesus asked her to have an image made, Father Sopoćko introduced Sister Maria Faustina (now Saint) to the artist Eugeniusz Kazimirowski. She met with Eugeniusz two to three times a week for about 4 1/2 months in 1934. She would describe what Jesus looked like and the artist would make updates as they went along. The painting is 2 meters tall, so pretty much life-sized. St. Faustina wasn’t totally happy with the final painting because it didn’t show how glorious Jesus is. In the 21st century with our technology, they have scanned the painting and the face matches up with the Shroud of Turin (Torino), Italy.
The Divine Mercy image which hangs at the Divine Mercy shrine in Krakow, Poland is an original painting by a Krakow artist done in 1945, seven years after St. Faustina died. That Krakow painting is the artist’s interpretation of what he read in St. Faustina’s diary, this is why that image has Jesus looking like a European and also has a couple of errors from what St. Faustina described to her artist in 1934. As depicted in the 1945 painting, the water flowing from Jesus is blue and HIS raised right hand is above his shoulder, which you can see in the photo below is not the case.
When the Soviets occupied Lithuania in 1944, this original painting along with many other religious articles were hidden for fear they would be destroyed. Father Sopoćko was transferred to their Order’s house in Bialystok, Poland in 1950. When he went into the church he saw a painting and asked what it was. The person responding, who didn’t know he had been Sister Faustina’s confessor, told Fr. Sopoćko it is the image of Divine Mercy. He responded that is was not the image of Divine Mercy, that is hidden away in Vilnius.
