On February 22, 1931, Jesus said to Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska in one of His well-documented apparitions to her, “Paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the signature: Jesus, I trust in You.”

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She was not an artist, so it took her several years to arrange for the painting to finally be painted. This masterpiece was painted by the artist Professor Eugeniusz Kazimirowski under the direction of the mystic saint herself, in Vilnius, Lithuania. Her story is well known because, at the insistence of her spiritual director, Blessed Fr. Michał Sopoćko, she wrote a now-famous diary about the conversations she was having with Jesus in visions. What is much less known is the Original Image of Divine Mercy, the painting that Jesus asked to be painted of Himself.

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The greatness of the painting was more than what could be seen. Jesus Himself set it apart. But also, unlike any other work of art on the planet, Kazimirowski’s painting reveals Divine Mercy in the way that was being expressed to Saint Faustina by Jesus. We know from her diary that she was in the artist’s studio giving her own detailed description of Jesus to Kazimirowski, and that the artist tried very hard to make visible what he could not himself see.

 

Together they accomplished what they set out to do – paint an image according to the pattern that Saint Faustina saw. A painting that reveals for all posterity, the Divine Mercy of Jesus.

 

Daniel diSilva is the founding president of the Original Divine Mercy Institute. He has dedicated his life to traveling the world speaking about the Original Image of Divine Mercy and promoting devotion to Jesus through the Original image. He lives in North Texas. You can contact him HERE.