Sanctuary of Divine Mercy

Sister Faustina Kowalska (1905-1938) joined the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy at the age of 20, and remained a member for the last 13 years of her life, most of which she spent in Kraków, Płock, and Vilnius. The 19th-century convent in Kraków’s Łagiewniki district was the place where she spent her novitiate and the last years of her life. She became famous for her mystic visions of the Merciful Christ which she described in the Little Diary she kept, and which was later published and translated into many languages. She died prematurely of tuberculosis, already surrounded by the aura of sanctity. At that time, the convent – previously enclosed – was already the target of numerous pilgrimages connected to the worship of Divine Mercy. The veneration of Saint Sister Faustina continued to spread and was crowned with her beatification in 1993, and canonisation in Rome in 2000.

Faced with the ever-growing number of pilgrims, the Metropolitan Bishop of Kraków, Cardinal Franciszek Macharski, established the Foundation for the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy, which – with the personal involvement of Pope John Paul II – gathered the funds necessary to build the new church. The basilica was designed by a Kraków architect, Professor Witold Cęckiewicz. After three years of construction, Pope John Paul II consecrated the new church on 17th August 2002.

The complex of the sanctuary consists of a two-level church in the shape of a ship, the 77-metre-high (250 ft) free standing panorama tower, the Chapel of Perpetual Veneration, and the Way of the Cross with relief sculptures by Czesław Dźwigaj. The lower part of the basilica houses five chapels, including the Communio Sanctorum with mosaic decorations by a Hungarian artist, Laszlo Puskás.

Capable of housing a congregation of 5000 persons, the Basilica of Divine Mercy is the largest church in the Archdiocese of Kraków. In 2006, during the pilgrimage of Pope Benedict XVI, a 5-metre-high monument to John Paul II, designed by Cęckiewicz, was unveiled here.

The Divine Mercy image of Jesus, famous for its graces, was executed in the 1940s by Adolf Hyła along the guidelines left by the Saint. It is situated on the side altar of the convent chapel, in the old nunnery building. The relics of Saint Sister Faustina were laid at the foot of the painting.