The Feast of Divine Mercy is celebrated on the Second Sunday of Easter. On this day, the liturgy recalls the appearances of the Risen Lord to the apostles—especially the encounter with Thomas, as narrated in John 20:19–31—and highlights Christ’s first act of mercy after the Resurrection: breathing on His disciples and entrusting them with the authority to forgive sins. This Sunday proclaims that the Resurrection is not only Christ’s victory over death, but also the beginning of the outpouring of divine mercy upon the world, made visible above all through the Sacrament of Reconciliation. It is on this day that the Church commemorates the institution of this sacrament:
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. (Jesus) said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
This feast was established for the universal Church by Saint John Paul II on April 30, 2000, during the canonization of Saint Faustina Kowalska, the Polish nun to whom Jesus entrusted the message of Divine Mercy in the 1930s. In his encyclical Dives in Misericordia, the Holy Father wrote:
“Throughout the world, the second Sunday of Easter will receive the name Divine Mercy Sunday. A perennial invitation to the Christian world to face, with confidence in divine benevolence, the difficulties and trials that await mankind in the years to come.”
The central purpose of this feast is to bring a powerful message to every heart: God is infinitely merciful and loves each one of us. As Jesus revealed to Saint Faustina:
“and the greater the sinner, the greater the right he has to My mercy” (Diary, 723).
Through this message, entrusted to us by Our Lord through Saint Faustina, we are called to place complete trust in God’s mercy and to show mercy to others through our words, actions, and prayers:
“Faith without works, no matter how strong, is useless” (Diary, 742).
To promote the spread of this feast throughout the world, the Lord promised to grant a plenary indulgence—comparable to the grace received in Baptism—by which all guilt and temporal punishment due to sin are wiped away. In response to this request, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments decreed:
“A plenary indulgence is granted, under the usual conditions (sacramental confession, Eucharistic communion, and prayer for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff) to the faithful who, on the second Sunday of Easter, called Divine Mercy Sunday, in any church or oratory, with a spirit completely detached from affection for any sin, even venial, participate in acts of piety performed in honor of Divine Mercy, or at least pray, in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist, publicly exposed or reserved in the Tabernacle, the Our Father and the Creed, adding a pious invocation to the merciful Lord Jesus (for example, ‘Merciful Jesus, I trust in you’)”.
Jesus also asked Saint Faustina that an image of Divine Mercy be painted for veneration. In this post, discover the story behind the image, the meaning of its elements, and the three paintings that shaped the origins of this devotion.
The Revelations of Saint Faustina
Everything begins on the night of February 22, 1931. Saint Faustina was in her convent cell in Płock, Poland. In her Diary, she recorded what she saw:
“In the evening, while I was in my cell, I saw the Lord Jesus clothed in a white garment. One hand was raised in blessing, and the other was touching the garment at His chest. From the opening in the garment at His chest, two large rays came forth—one red and the other pale. The Lord said to me: ‘Paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the inscription: Jesus, I trust in You. I desire that this image be venerated, first in your chapel and then throughout the world.’”
Saint Faustina was not a painter. But she had a confessor: Blessed Father Michał Sopoćko, a priest and professor of theology at the University of Vilnius. And Sopoćko knew someone who could paint.
Divine Mercy: The Image
The first painting: Kazimirowski and Saint Faustina’s tears
By Eugene Kazimierowski – cisza2.krakow.dominikanie.pl, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9049047
Following the revelation of 1931, Faustina asked the artist Eugeniusz Kazimirowski to create the painting. He did so following her instructions and finished it in 1934.
Kazimirowski was no ordinary painter. Trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow and specialized in Munich, Paris, and Rome, he was one of Poland’s most recognized portraitists. Given his reputation as a realist artist and his friendship with Father Sopocko, the latter entrusted him with the creation of the first image. Faustina visited the studio at least once a week to guide the work.
But when she saw the finished painting, she cried. She recounts this in her diary:
“Once, when I was at that painter’s who’s painting this image, I saw that it is not as beautiful as Jesus is. I was very much saddened by this. I went to the chapel and wept a good deal. Who will paint You as beautiful as You are?”
The response she received is one of the keys to understanding the entire devotion. Jesus said to her:
“Not in the beauty of the color, nor of the brush lies the greatness of this image, but in My grace.”
In 1935, during the closing celebrations of the Jubilee Year of the Redemption of the World, the image was moved to Ostra Brama and placed high in a window so it could be seen from afar, from April 26 to 28, 1935. It was the first time the world saw the image of Divine Mercy.
This painting is currently preserved in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Vilnius, Lithuania. It is the most faithful to the saint’s direct instructions.
The second painting: Batowski and two paintings
By Chrisiek at pl.wikipedia, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=8386762
The second painting was commissioned by the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in 1942, the work of the painter Stanisław Batowski. However, during the Warsaw Uprising, the chapel and the image were consumed by fire. Despite this, Batowski painted a second image, which is the one currently located in the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Plock.
The third painting: Adolf Hyła’s Votive Offering
By After Adolf Hyła – Archives of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=117475300
In the midst of the devastation of World War II, a painter named Adolf Hyła arrived at the Congregation’s house in Krakow with an unusual proposal. He told them he wanted to give them a painting as a vow for having been saved in the war. The sisters, perhaps seeing it as a sign, gave him a prayer card of Divine Mercy and the descriptions from Saint Faustina’s diary.
The work begun in November 1942 was finished in March 1943 and solemnly blessed in the chapel by Father Andrasz, Saint Faustina’s confessor. In October of that same year, Batowski’s painting also arrived. A problem then arose: which of the two images should remain in the chapel? The matter was resolved by Cardinal Adam Sapieha during an unexpected visit. Upon seeing the two images, he said: “Since Mr. Hyła painted the picture as a vow, let it remain in the sisters’ chapel.”
Hyła’s painting was a bit large for the altar. In 1954, the painter repainted the canvas, removing some bushes he had painted and placing Jesus against a dark background, making him stand out. This is the image we know today and which became world-famous, especially for the graces that the faithful have received.
Today it is located in the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakow-Łagiewniki. It is the one reproduced on most prayer cards, paintings, and replicas found in churches and homes around the world.
Elements of the Image of Divine Mercy
Every detail of the image has a revealed meaning. Jesus explained to Saint Faustina in her Diary:
“The two rays denote Blood and Water. The pale ray stands for the Water which makes souls righteous. The red ray stands for the Blood which is the life of souls .”
And he added something that connects the image directly to the Passion:
“These two rays issued forth from the very depths of My tender mercy when My agonized Heart was opened by a lance on the Cross. These rays shield souls from the wrath of My Father. Happy is the one who will dwell in their shelter, for the just hand of God shall not lay hold of him.”
The red ray symbolizes the Blood of Christ — the sacrament of the Eucharist. The pale ray symbolizes the Water — representing the sacrament of Baptism. The image is not simply a portrait: it is a visual synthesis of the two great sacraments that sustain the life of the Church and that flowed from the opened side of the Lord, as recounted by Saint John (Jn 19:34).
Christ wears a white tunic expressing purity and also the resurrection of the Lord in a glorious body. The hand performs a gesture of blessing as a sign of mercy for the whole world. Finally, the inscription “Jesus, I trust in You” is the act of faith and trust of the faithful that opens the depths of divine mercy.
Homily of Saint John Paul II at the canonization of Saint Faustina
“Confitemini Domino quoniam bonus, quoniam in saeculum misericordia eius”; “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good; his steadfast love endures for ever” (Ps 118: 1) 118, 1). So the Church sings on the Octave of Easter, as if receiving from Christ’s lips these words of the Psalm; from the lips of the risen Christ, who bears the great message of divine mercy and entrusts its ministry to the Apostles in the Upper Room:
“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you…. Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (Jn 20: 21-23).
Before speaking these words, Jesus shows his hands and his side. He points, that is, to the wounds of the Passion, especially the wound in his heart, the source from which flows the great wave of mercy poured out on humanity. From that heart Sr Faustina Kowalska, the blessed whom from now on we will call a saint, will see two rays of light shining from that heart and illuminating the world:
“The two rays”, Jesus himself explained to her one day, “represent blood and water” (Diary, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, p. 132).
2. Blood and water! Our thoughts go to the testimony of the Evangelist John, who, when a soldier pierced Christ’s side with his spear on Calvary, saw “blood and water” flow out (Jn 19:34). And if the blood evokes the sacrifice of the Cross and the gift of the Eucharist, the water, in Johannine symbolism, recalls not only Baptism but also the gift of the Holy Spirit (cf. Jn 3:5; 4:14; 7:37-39).
Divine mercy reaches human beings through the heart of Christ crucified:
“My daughter, say that I am Love and Mercy itself,” Jesus will ask Sister Faustina (Diary, p. 374).
Christ pours out this mercy on humanity through the sending of the Spirit who, in the Trinity, is the Person-Love. And is mercy not a “second name” of love (cf. Dives in misericordia, 7), understood in its deepest and most tender aspect, in its attitude of relieving any need, especially in its immense capacity for forgiveness?
Today my joy is truly great in proposing to the whole Church, as a gift of God for our time, the life and witness of Sister Faustina Kowalska. Divine Providence completely linked the life of this humble daughter of Poland to the history of the 20th century, the century which has just ended. In fact, between the First and Second World Wars, Christ entrusted his message of mercy to her. Those who remember, who were witnesses and participants in the events of those years and the horrible sufferings they caused for millions of people, know well how necessary the message of mercy was.
Jesus said to Sister Faustina:
“Humanity will not find peace until it turns with trust to divine mercy” (Diary, p. 132).
Through the work of the Polish religious, this message has become linked forever to the 20th century, the last of the second millennium and the bridge to the third. It is not a new message, but it can be considered a gift of special enlightenment, helping us to relive the Gospel of Easter more intensely, to offer it as a ray of light to the men and women of our time.
3. What will the coming years bring us? What will the future of man on earth be like? We cannot know. However, it is certain that, in addition to new progress, there will unfortunately be no lack of painful experiences. But the light of divine mercy, which the Lord wished to return to the world through the charism of Sister Faustina, will illumine the path for the men and women of the third millennium.
But, as happened with the Apostles, it is necessary that humanity today also welcome the risen Christ in the upper room of history, who shows the wounds of his crucifixion and repeats: “Peace be with you.” It is necessary for humanity to let itself be penetrated and permeated by the Spirit that the risen Christ breathes into it. The Spirit heals the wounds of our hearts, breaks down the barriers that separate us from God and divide us among ourselves, and restores to us the joy of the Father’s love and that of fraternal unity.
4. It is important then that we accept in its entirety the message that the word of God transmits to us on this Second Sunday of Easter, which from now on throughout the Church will be designated by the name “Divine Mercy Sunday.” Through the various readings, the liturgy seems to trace the path of mercy which, while rebuilding each person’s relationship with God, also creates new relationships of fraternal solidarity among people. Christ taught us that “man not only receives and experiences the mercy of God, but that he is also called ‘to practice mercy’ towards others: ‘Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy’ (Mt 5:7)” (Dives in misericordia, 14). He also showed us the many paths of mercy, which not only forgives sins but also meets all human needs. Jesus bent down over all human miseries, both material and spiritual.
His message of mercy continues to reach us through the gesture of his hands extended towards suffering man. This is how Sister Faustina saw him and announced him to the people of all continents, who, hidden in her convent in Lagiewniki, in Krakow, made her existence a song to mercy: “Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo.”
5. The canonization of Sister Faustina has a particular eloquence: with this act I intend today to pass this message on to the new millennium. I pass it on to all people so that they may learn to know ever better the true face of God and the true face of their brothers and sisters.
Love for God and love for one’s brothers and sisters are indeed inseparable, as the first letter of the Apostle John has reminded us: “By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments” (1 Jn 5, 2). The Apostle reminds us here of the truth of love, showing us that its measure and its criterion lie in the observance of the commandments.
Indeed, it is not easy to love with a deep love, consisting of an authentic gift of self. This love is learned only in the school of God, in the warmth of his charity. By fixing our gaze on him, by tuning in to his Fatherly heart, we become capable of looking at our brothers and sisters with new eyes, with an attitude of gratuity and communion, of generosity and forgiveness. All this is mercy!
To the extent that humanity learns the secret of this merciful gaze, it will be possible to realize the ideal picture proposed by the first reading:
“Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common” (Acts 4:32).
Here the mercy of the heart also became a style of relationships, a community project, and a communion of goods. Here the “works of mercy,” spiritual and corporal, flourished. Here mercy was transformed into concretely becoming a “neighbor” to the most destitute brothers and sisters.
6. Sister Faustina Kowalska wrote in her Diary:
“I experience a tremendous pain when I observe the sufferings of my neighbor. All my neighbor’s pains reverberate in my heart; I carry their anxieties in my heart in such a way that they destroy me physically as well. I would wish that all pains fell upon me, to relieve my neighbor” (p. 365).
To that point of communion does love lead when it is measured according to the love of God!
Humanity today must be inspired by this love to face the crisis of meaning, the challenges of the most diverse needs and, above all, the requirement to safeguard the dignity of every human person. Thus, the message of divine mercy is, implicitly, also a message about the value of every human being. Every person is precious in God’s eyes, Christ gave his life for each one, and to all the Father grants his Spirit and offers access to his intimacy.
7. This consoling message is addressed above all to those who, afflicted by a particularly hard trial or overwhelmed by the weight of sins committed, have lost confidence in life and have felt the temptation to fall into despair. To them the gentle face of Christ presents itself and to them reach the rays of light that start from his heart and illuminate, warm, show the way and instill hope. How many souls has the invocation “Jesus, I trust in you,” which Providence suggested through Sister Faustina, already comforted! This simple act of abandonment to Jesus dispels the thickest clouds and introduces a ray of light into the life of each person.
8. “Misericordias Domini in aeternum cantabo” (Ps 89, 2). To the voice of Mary Most Holy, the “Mother of Mercy,” to the voice of this new saint, who in the heavenly Jerusalem sings of mercy together with all the friends of God, let us also, the pilgrim Church, join our voice.
And you, Faustina, a gift of God to our time, a gift from the land of Poland to the whole Church, grant us to perceive the depth of divine mercy, help us to experience it in our lives and to bear witness to it to our brothers and sisters. May your message of light and hope spread throughout the world, move sinners to conversion, eliminate rivalries and hatreds, and open people and nations to the practice of brotherhood. Today, we, fixing our gaze with you on the face of the risen Christ, make our own your prayer of trustful abandonment and say with firm hope: “Christ Jesus, I trust in you.”
Do you want to live the Easter Season with fervor? Here are some articles that may help you do so:
- Jewish Passover and Catholic Easter: What is the difference between Jewish Passover and Catholic Easter? Discover their common origin, the symbolism of the Paschal Lamb, and the difference in dates.
- The 6 Apparitions of Easter Sunday: Learn about the apparitions of the Risen Christ on Easter Sunday.
What is celebrated on the Second Sunday of Easter?
The Second Sunday of Easter is the Feast of Divine Mercy.
What does the image of Divine Mercy represent?
It represents the vision that Saint Faustina Kowalska had on February 22, 1931, in which Jesus appeared to her in a white tunic, his right hand raised in a sign of blessing and two rays emanating from his chest: one red, symbolizing the Blood of Christ and the Eucharist, and one pale, symbolizing the Water that justifies souls and Baptism. The inscription “Jesus, I trust in You” is the prayer that Jesus himself asked to accompany the image.
How many versions of the Divine Mercy image exist?
There are three main historical images: that of Eugeniusz Kazimirowski (1934), painted under the direct guidance of Saint Faustina in Vilnius; that of Stanisław Batowski (1942), destroyed during the Warsaw Uprising; and that of Adolf Hyła (1943), painted as a vow of gratitude for having survived the war and today the most widespread in the world.
Where is the original painting of Divine Mercy?
The first image painted under the direct supervision of Saint Faustina, the work of Eugeniusz Kazimirowski (1934), is currently preserved in the Church of the Holy Trinity in Vilnius, Lithuania. The most venerated image worldwide, the work of Adolf Hyła, is located in the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Krakow-Łagiewniki, Poland. If you want to visit these shrines, you can check the schedules in the Mass Times app.
What does "Jesus, I trust in You" mean?
It is the inscription that Jesus himself asked to accompany the image in Saint Faustina’s vision. It expresses the fundamental attitude of those who approach Divine Mercy: not trust in one’s own merits, but total surrender to God’s mercy. According to the words recorded in Faustina’s Diary, Jesus promised that the soul that venerated this image with that trust would not perish.
What is Eastertide and how long does it last?
Eastertide is the joyful period that follows the Resurrection.
Where can I find Divine Mercy Sunday Masses near me?
The Mass Times app allows you to locate nearby Catholic churches and check Mass, confession, and adoration times in real time.
When is Divine Mercy Sunday 2026 celebrated?
In 2026, Divine Mercy Sunday will be celebrated on April 12.
