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The original Divine Mercy
image painted by Eugene Kazimirowski in Vilnius, Poland. Source:
www.faustyna.pl |
On February 22, 1931, while staying in Plock, Sister Faustina
received Jesus’ order to paint a picture according to the vision shown
to her (cf. Diary 47). She tried to fulfill the command, but not knowing
painting techniques, she was unable to do it by herself. Still, she did
not give up the idea. She kept returning to it and sought help from
other sisters and from her confessors.
A few years later her superiors sent her to Vilnius
(Wilno), where her confessor, Rev. Prof. Michael Sopocko, interested to
see what the picture of a hitherto unknown theme would look like, asked
the painter Eugene Kazimierowski to paint the picture according to
Sister Faustina’s directions. This is the only image that was
painted under her direction. Kazimirowski painted the original image
between January and June of 1934. During this time St. Faustina had the
artist change the face at least 10 times but was still not pleased with
it. The picture was
finished in June 1934 and hung in the corridor of the Bernardine
Sisters’ convent near St. Michael’s Church in Vilnius, where Father
Sopocko was rector.
From April 26-28, 1935, during the celebrations concluding the
Jubilee Year of the Redemption of the World, the image of The Divine
Mercy was transferred to the Ostra Brama [“Eastern Gate” to the city of
Vilnius] and placed in a high window so that it could be seen from far
away. Here the image was seen for the first time by the public. By
permission of Archbishop Romuald Jalbrzykowski, on April 4, 1937, the
image was blessed and placed in the St. Michael’s Church in Vilnius.
In 1944, a committee of experts was formed, at the order of
Archbishop Jalbrzykowski, to evaluate the image. The experts’ opinion
was the the image of The Divine Mercy, painted by E. Kazimierowski was
artistically executed and an important contribution to contemporary
religious art.
You will notice that the Image resembles the Shroud of Turin very
closely. For more on this
see the
Shroud section.
The original image deteriorated but was restored in 2003. |