Faustina Kowalska significant event novitiate
Entering a Warsaw convent
In 1924, at the age of 18 and a half, Kowalska went with her sister Natalia to a dance in a park in Łódź. Kowalska said that at the dance, she had a vision of a suffering Jesus, who she believed asked her: 'How long shall I put up with you and how long will you keep putting Me off?" She then went to the Łódź Cathedral, where, as she later said, Jesus instructed her to depart for Warsaw immediately and to enter a convent. She took a train for Warsaw, some 85 miles (137 km) away, without asking her parents' permission and despite the fact that she knew nobody in Warsaw. The only belongings she took were the dress that she was wearing. Upon arrival, she entered the first church that she saw (Saint James Church, in the Ochota district) and attended Mass. She asked the priest, Father Dąbrowski, for suggestions, and he recommended staying with Mrs. Lipszycowa, a local woman whom he considered trustworthy, until she found a convent.
The girl approached several convents in Warsaw but was turned down each time, in one case being told that "we do not accept maids here", a reference to her evident poverty. Kowalska could read and write and had three or four years of education. After several weeks of searching, the Mother Superior at the convent of Zgromadzenie Sióstr Matki Bożej Miłosierdzia (Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy) decided to give Kowalska a chance and accepted her under the condition that she pay for her religious habit. Kowalska knew nothing of the convent that she was entering except that she believed she was being led there.
In 1925, Kowalska worked as a housemaid to save the money she needed, making deposits at the convent throughout the year and was finally accepted, as the Mother Superior had promised. On 30 April 1926, at the age of 20 years, she was clothed in the habit and received the religious name of Sister Maria Faustina of the Blessed Sacrament. Richard Torretto sees it as the feminine form of the name of a Roman martyr Faustinus, who was killed in AD 120. In April 1928, having completed the novitiate, she took her first religious vows as a nun, with her parents attending the rite. She was to be a nun for the rest of her short life.
From February to April 1929, she was posted to the convent in Wilno, then in Poland, now known as Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, where she served as a cook. Although her first posting to Vilnius was short, she returned there later and met the priest Michael Sopoćko, who supported her mission. A year after her first return from Vilnius, in May 1930, she was transferred to the convent in Płock, Poland, for almost two years.
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