Feasts of the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Vilnius:

• The Feast of Divine Mercy is the first Sunday after Easter.
• The Week of Divine Mercy is celebrated from Easter Monday until the Feast of Divine Mercy.
• Every Friday is a minor feast of the Shrine.

House of St. Faustina
Antakalnis area, Grybo 29a, Vilnius
Contacts: Onutė (8 600 84068), Petras (8 613 34460)

House is open to visitors:
10.00 – 17.00

Sister Maria Faustina Kowalska, who was canonized by Pope St. John Paul II in 2000, lived in Vilnius in the convent house of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy from 1933 to 1936. During that time, she experienced several mystical visions of Jesus. It was according to these visions that the Vilnian artist Eugene Kazimierowski, under the constant observation of Sister Faustina, painted the now-famous image of Merciful Jesus. In Vilnius, she also met Fr. Michael Sopoćko, a confessor well-known among the sisters. He encouraged her to start the mission which was entrusted to her: to proclaim the Lord’s Mercy.

The prayers comprising the Chaplet of Divine Mercy were spoken by Jesus to Sister Faustina in her visions in Vilnius as well. This happened on 13-14 September 1935 in the wooden house of the convent of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy.

The convent house itself has survived to the present day almost by miracle. It was badly damaged and fell into ruin in the period after the Second World War because later owners didn’t really care or know about the historical significance of the building. But the number of people was growing who heard the message of mercy and knew where Sister Faustina had lived. In 2008, the house was restored, the cell of Sister Faustina was reconstructed, and space was made for people to pray and reflect in this holy place.

Chaplet of Divine Mercy

Promises

What the Lord Jesus said to Sister Faustina shows how great the graces attached to this prayer are: By saying the chaplet you are bringing humankind closer to Me (Diary 929). The Lord Jesus attached great promises to this prayer provided that the conditions of the correct devotion to the Divine Mercy are met, that is, the spirit of trusting  God and being merciful towards neighbour is required. Perseverance in praying is an expression of this trust; the greater the trust is, the greater the perseverance in saying the Chaplet is. The Lord Jesus said to Sister Faustina that by saying the Chaplet one can obtain everything.

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However, apart from the grace of a good death, He has never claimed that everything can be obtained immediately, having said the prayer once.

The Lord Jesus attached a promise of obtaining all graces to the Chaplet to the Divine Mercy said with trust – He said: It pleases Me to grant everything they [people] ask of Me by saying the chaplet (Diary 1541), adding: if (…) [it] is compatible with My will (Diary 1731). God’s will is an expression of His love for man, thus everything that is not compatible with it is either bad or harmful.

Apart from the general promise, there are promises that concern the hour of death, and to be more precise: the grace of a happy and peaceful death, in other words, death in the state of grace and without experiencing fear and terror. These graces can be obtained not only by those who say the Chaplet with trust themselves but also the dying by whose bedside others will say this prayer.

How to pray Chaplet:

Begin with: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name; Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord; who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell; the third day He arose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, sits at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.

On the five large beads:

Eternal Father, I offer You the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Your dearly beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, in atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.

On the ten small beads:

For the sake of His sorrowful Passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Conclude with (3 times):

Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us and on the whole world.

Being the largest city in the Baltics, Vilnius lies at the crossroads of East and West.

By plane

Vilnius is easily accessible by air from all major European cities. It takes approximately three hours to fly from many European cities and “hubs” including Barcelona, Paris, Copenhagen, London, Frankfurt. The Vilnius International Airport is located just outside the centre of Vilnius. It is only 7 km/15 min driving distance from the centre of the city. Access to the city is quick and inexpensive. For up-to-date information on flights, schedules, new routes and airlines see www.vno.lt

By train

Lithuania has a well-developed rail network. Vilnius is the focal point for rail connections in the region. Vilnius Railway Station is situated close to the Old Town, just accross the street from the bus station. Routes and schedules are available atwww.litrail.lt

By bus

There is a choice of international bus lines connecting Vilnius with other European cities. Buses are the cheapest but least comfortable method of reaching Vilnius. There are direct buses to the capital city from many European countries. Routes and schedules are available at www.eurolines.lt and www.ecolines.lt.

In Lithuanian:

• On Sundays: 12.00, 18.00, 20.00
• On weekdays: 12.00, 20.00

In Polish:

• On Sundays: 16.00
• On weekdays: 16.00

• Chaplet of Divine Mercy: Every day 12.45, 15.00 (in Lithuanian), 15:40 (in Polish)
• Rosary: Every day 11.30, 19.00

• Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament: 24 hours per day, 7 days per week
• Hour of Mercy: Every day 15.00

Travels of the Image of Divine Mercy

After the image of Merciful Jesus was completed in June 1934, it was kept in the corridor of the convent of the Bernardine Sisters beside the Church of St. Michael where Fr. Michael Sopoćko was rector. Jesus, in one of St. Faustina’s visions, had expressed to her His wish that the image be put in a place of honor, above the main altar of the church. In 1937, on the first Sunday after Easter – now Divine Mercy Sunday – the image of Merciful Jesus was hung in the Church of St. Michael next to the main altar.

Sister Faustina, however, never saw Jesus’ wish fulfilled. She fell sick in March 1936, so she was transferred from Vilnius back to Poland by her superiors. In October 1938, at the age of 33, she died near Kraków, where she was buried. After her death, her diary (entitled Divine Mercy in My Soul) was read and unveiled much of the mystery of the revelation of Divine Mercy.

Throughout the Second World War, the Baltic states changed between the hands the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. The end of the war brought with it Soviet occupation for Lithuania. In August 1948, the Church of St. Michael was closed by the communist government, and the convent of the Bernardine Sisters was abolished. All the contents that could be saved from Soviet hands were moved to the Church of the Holy Spirit or placed inside the yard of the Dominicans. But the Image of Divine Mercy was not taken down. For a time, it remained undisturbed in St. Michael’s. Only in July 1951 was it removed when two faithful women – Bronė Miniotaitė and Janina Rodzevič – ransomed the image from the keeper of the church and after a while gave it to the priest of the Church of Holy Spirit. Some people wanted to transport it to Poland, but that proved impossible because of the very strict Soviet border control. One man promised to take it across the border illegally, but changed his mind at the last minute, later admitting that he thought it would be a sacrilege.

In 1956, the Image of Divine Mercy was taken from Lithuania to Belarus, to the small church of Naujoji Rūda, not far from Grodno. There the image remained for over a decade, people coming to see and pray in front of it. In 1970, as had happened years earlier at St. Michael’s, the church was shut down by the government and looted. Everything inside was removed. Everything, that is, except the Image of Divine Mercy. By a miracle, it was untouched.

It was not safe for the image to hang in the neglected church during those long years, so people began planning how to transport it back to Lithuania. In the autumn of 1986, by the efforts of a few priests – among them one Fr. Tadeuš Kondrusievič (now archbishop of the Diocese of the Mother of God in Moscow) and the bishop of Grodno, Aleksander Kaškievič – the Image of Divine Mercy was spirited back to Vilnius. It was given to the care of the Church of the Holy Spirit again, and since a lot of repair work was going on in the church at that time, a new painting did not raise the suspicion of the government.

It was hung on a side altar of the church, where it remained until 2005. In the spring of 2003, the professional restorer Edita Hankovsa-Červinska removed previous signs of preservation and repainting from the image, revealing the image exactly as it was in 1934 when Kazimierowski painted it under Sister Faustina’s guidance.

On 28 September 2005, the Image of Divine Mercy was moved to the restored, nearby Church of the Holy Trinity, which was thereafter named the Shrine of Divine Mercy in Vilnius.