page_title: Michał Sopoćko
section_title: Divine Mercy
hierarchical_section_title: Michał Sopoćko / Divine Mercy
caption_attribution_description: English: Church of the Holy Cross in Łomża - pictures of sister Faustyna Kowalska e rev. Michał Sopoćko Polski: Łomża, kościół pw. Krzyża Świętego - obrazy św. Faustyny Kowalskiej i bł. Michała Sopoćki Italiano: Chiesa di Santa Croce nella parrocchia di Łomża - i quadri di santa Faustyna Kowalska e benedetto Michał Sopoćko
context_page_description: Michael Sopoćko was a Polish Roman Catholic priest and professor at Vilnius University. He is best known as the spiritual director of Faustina Kowalska.
context_section_description: Sopoćko was very supportive of the Divine Mercy devotion of Faustina Kowalska and in her diary (Notebook V, item 1238) she stated: "This priest is a great soul, entirely filled with God." Since 1931 Kowalska had been trying (without success) to find someone to paint the Divine Mercy image until Sopoćko became her confessor in the middle of 1933. By January 1934 Sopoćko arranged for the artist Eugeniusz Kazimirowski (who was also a professor at the university) to paint the image.
  On Friday April 26, 1935, Sopoćko delivered the first sermon ever on the Divine Mercy – and Kowalska attended the sermon. The first Mass during which the Divine Mercy image was displayed was on April 28, 1935, the Divine Mercy Sunday (the first after Easter). Sopoćko managed to obtain permission to place the painting within the Gate of Dawn in Vilnius as he celebrated the Mass that Sunday.
  In the summer of 1936 Sopoćko wrote the first brochure on the Divine Mercy devotion and obtained the imprimatur of Archbishop Jałbrzykowski for it. The brochure carried the Divine Mercy image on the cover.
caption: Paintings of Faustina and Sopoćko in Łomża
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