Saint Faustina and Blessed Michael Sopocko were two lives inextricably linked in bringing the message of Divine Mercy to the world.
Saint Faustina was the visionary and recipient of the revelations, chosen by God for her total innocence and boundless faith.
Blessed Sopocko was the messenger, chosen by God not only for his extraordinary faith but also his intellect to be able to understand and analysis the importance of the message. This coupled with a unique ability to do battle with the forces of evil that surrounded him and tried to eliminate him. The Gestapo in WW2, and the Soviet Communist occupation of his country thereafter. During all of this he was able to bring these urgent revelations to the attention of the Church and the world.
Without him you would have to wonder, would the world have ever heard of the message of Divine Mercy?
Sr. Faustina met Fr. Sopocko for the first time during her stay in Vilnius (Lithuania) between 1933-1936. She knew from an interior vision that he was chosen to play an indispensable role in helping her discern and interpret the messages she was given by Jesus. Being present at a Holy Mass celebrated by Father Sopocko, she records in her diary:
“During the Mass, I saw Jesus touching Fr. Sopocko’s forehead with His finger, and He said to me: “His thought is closely united to Mine, so be at peace about what concerns My work. I will not let him make a mistake, and you should do nothing without his permission. (St. Faustina’s Diary 1408)
Thereafter Sr. Faustina always turned to Fr. Sopocko seeking his help in fully understanding the message from Jesus, and it was in obedience to his requests that she wrote her Diary, which is now an extraordinarily valuable document of Catholic mysticism.
“I prayed ardently that the Lord would give me that great grace – that is, a holy spiritual director. But my prayer was answered only after I went to Vilnius. The priest was Father Michael Sopocko. God had allowed me to see him in an interior vision even before I came to Vilnius”. (Diary 34)
*NOTE: FR.SOPOCKO’S SURNAME IS PRONOUNCED: SO POTCH CO
Meeting of Fr. Sopocko and Sr. Faustina for the first time.
Thursday 25th May 1933: It was the day a young sister came into Fr. Sopocko’s confessional and after she confessed a few simple sins, she then started to tell him about Jesus appearing to her in a vision. She said Jesus had spoken to her about an important message He wanted to give to the world. She also told him Jesus asked her to paint His image as He had appeared to her.
Fr. Sopocko was taken aback at first. He told her he would have to speak to her superior before he could discuss this any further with her. He gave her absolution for the simple sins she had confessed. She recited her act of contrition and he gave her a penance. He was slightly relieved when she left the confessional. Some weeks later he was hearing confessions in the same convent when the same sister came into the confessional, she started telling him again about a message from Jesus. He had forgotten to speak to her superior, so he suggested she should write everything down for him and he would look at it when he had more time. Then she told him that Jesus had allowed her a vision of him before she had come to Vilnius, and then she startled him by saying something only God could know about his personal life. A week later she appeared in his confessional again, she handed him a notebook and told him this was what he had asked her to do. That evening he took out this notebook from his briefcase and left it on his desk. Some hours later he took it up to glance through it, the first thing he noticed was the untidy handwriting and bad spelling, but nevertheless he continued to wade through it as he had promised. An hour later he was deep in thought about what he had read, it was not disjointed meanderings which he was ready for, but profound words that staggered him. He next met her by arrangement and after talking to her at length asked her would she be willing to talk to a psychoanalyst, and he was impressed when she immediately answered yes.
His part in making the message and devotion to Divine Mercy known in the Church and the world can not be under estimated.
Blessed Sopocko was there with Saint during the painting of the original Image.
He celebrated the first ever Feast of Divine Mercy.
He founded the Sisters of Merciful Jesus, asked for by God, to spread His message of Divine Mercy, he did this after Saint Faustina died.
He went to Cardinal Karol Wojtyla in Krakow to tell him about Sr. Faustina and asked him to bring her cause forward.
Sr. Faustina met Fr. Sopocko for the first time during her stay in Vilnius (Lithuania) between 1933-1936. She knew from an interior vision that he was chosen to play an indispensable role in helping her discern and interpret the messages she was given by Jesus. Being present at a Holy Mass celebrated by Father Sopocko, she records in her diary:
“During the Mass, I saw Jesus touching Fr. Sopocko’s forehead with His finger, and He said to me: “His thought is closely united to Mine, so be at peace about what concerns My work. I will not let him make a mistake, and you should do nothing without his permission. (St. Faustina’s Diary 1408)
Thereafter Sr. Faustina always turned to Fr. Sopocko seeking his help in fully understanding the message from Jesus, and it was in obedience to his requests that she wrote her Diary, which is now an extraordinarily valuable document of Catholic mysticism.
“I prayed ardently that the Lord would give me that great grace – that is, a holy spiritual director. But my prayer was answered only after I went to Vilnius. The priest was Father Michael Sopocko. God had allowed me to see him in an interior vision even before I came to Vilnius”. (Diary 34)
There is a lot of His diary devoted to the war years where he was involved in getting persecuted Jews to a safe sanctuary. He was chased by the Gestapo and was jailed in the infamous jail in Vilnius. But he escaped after only two weeks. Again his dwelling place was surrounded by Gestapo when he was saying mass one morning, but an astute neighbour went to the church and warned him. He escaped to the black forest under a wagon load of hay. Divine Mercy seemed to protect him throughout his life.
“There have been ‘Truths’ known, heard and talked about, but do we really understand them? This was my position as far as Divine Mercy was concerned. I mentioned it in preaching, I prayed it in church, but did not grasp the real meaning of that Truth. I did not really study its essence which says it is the greatest attribute of God. To meet and get to know that humble nun Sr. Faustina from the convent of the Mother of God (the Magdalene Sisters*) was so necessary for me then. It was Sr. Faustina who revealed that Truth to me. She repeated it often, which made me feel eager to research what she spoke about, it led me to study and think about that Truth.
I cannot cite here the details of our talks but I can mention that at the beginning, I did not understand what it was all about – I listened, doubted, wondered, did research and asked others for advice – until sometime passed and then I grasped the significance of the greatness attribute of God and I convinced myself of the effectiveness of that neglected Truth, which needed to be renewed in our time, as an important constant devotion on life’s journey to mankind’s salvation.
Trust in the Divine Mercy, spreading the devotion among others and the entire message, my thoughts, words and deeds concerning the Divine Mercy will be the main driving force for the rest of my life, hopefully without looking for myself in it all, and supported by the endless Mercy of God”. (Journal, n. 2, p. 50, 54)
Saint Faustina said that in the beginning she struggled very much with the message that Jesus gave her because she did not have a confessor who truly understood her soul. But then she states in her diary:
"The goodness of Jesus is infinite; He had promised me visible help on earth, and a little while later I received it in Vilnius in the person of Fr. Sopocko. I had already known him before coming to Vilnius, thanks to an interior vision. One day I saw him in our chapel between the altar and the confessional and suddenly heard a voice in my soul say: "This is the visible help for you on earth. He will help you carry out My will on earth." (Diary of Saint Faustina, Parg 53).
His cause is now going forward for Sainthood.
