St. Faustina and St. Kolbe and Fr. Popieluszko Catholic Tour

Saint Faustina. Image of Jesus, I trust in You. It is painted according to the instructions of Saint Faustina gives a detailed image of Jesus, which has been revealed to her, and what he ordered to present people. According to the statement of stain, it does not reflect in any way the real beauty of the vision. Saint Faustina during the first apparition was instructed to join the Order, and therefore a poor girl from the village came to Warsaw to ask for permission to enter the convent, but without a required dowry not any convent want to accept her. For a year she worked, therefore, as a maid collecting the appropriate amount, and after she collected it, she was taken to the monastery where he served as a cook, gardener and caretaker. She humbly accepted her fate just worrying that the physical work will not allow her to fulfill the will of God.

The teachings of Jesus she wrote down in the Diary, which was banned by the Vatican until 1978. To new forms of worship belongs Image Jesus I trust in You, the Feast of Mercy (the first Sunday after Easter) and the Hour of Mercy – the time from 15 to 16, which brings a special grace for prayer to the Divine Mercy. 

Saint Maximilian Kolbe. Monk, missionary (missions in Japan, China and India), after the first war founded in Niepokalanow the largest Catholic monastery in the world (700 monks). In the monastery, next to the pastoral activity, he worked in printing house, radio station, and even fire brigade.

In 1941 he was sent to Auschwitz. There, after one of the prisoners escaped, when Germans appointed 10 people to the starvation death – Maximilian Kolbe volunteered instead of appointed, strange man. He said to surprised Nazi that he has lived his life and that man has a wife and children. St. Maximilian Kolbe was dying of starvation for 14 days in block 11. So long that finished him off by phenol injection into the heart.

Franciszek Gajowniczek, rescued prisoner, survived the war and died at the age of 94 years.

After saint was beatified, saluting to German bishops, Pope John Paul II asked Father Maximilian Kolbe to intercede with God to the German people and the country will forever have peace and freedom. 

Blessed Father Jerzy Popieluszko. Chaplain of Warsaw Solidarity in the 80’s. During strikes he celebrated the Holy Mass in factories and other places where the workers gathered. Every Sunday he organized Masses for the Homeland in the church of St. Stanislaus Kostka, which became increasingly popular meeting place for all believers which do not agree with the Communist reality.The main message of teaching of Popiełuszko were the words of St. Paul:  “Overcome evil with good.”

After the first threats in the Soviet press (Izwiestija of September 2, 1984): (…) he transformed own apartment into a repository of an illegal literature and he works closely with a fierce counter-revolutionaries. One gets the impression that he does not read from the pulpit sermons, but leaflets (…). They are full of hatred for socialism.” In the Polish press attacks took place, temporary arrests and searches and in the end trying to cause a car accident.

Finally, in October 1984, security officials abducted priest Popiełuszko, they tortured him and drowned in the Vistula River. The perpetrators were caught only because fled a driver of the priest who saw the attackers.