The Divine Mercy Sanctuary of Vilnius or the Holy Trinity Church ( lt, Vilniaus Dievo Gailestingumo šventovė) is a

shrine A shrine ( la, scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred or holy sacred space, space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor worship, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, Daemon (mythology), daem ...

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

dedicated to the

Divine Mercy The Divine Mercy is a form of God's compassion, an act of grace based on trust or forgiveness. In Catholicism, it refers specifically to a devotion which had its origin in the apparitions of Jesus Christ reported by Faustina Kowalska. Etymolog ...

, a

devotion Devotion or Devotions may refer to: Religion * Faith, confidence or trust in a person, thing, or concept * Anglican devotions, private prayers and practices used by Anglican Christians * Buddhist devotion, commitment to religious observance * Cat ...

originated by

Faustina Kowalska Maria Faustyna Kowalska, OLM (born Helena Kowalska; 25 August 1905 – 5 October 1938), also known as ''Maria Faustyna Kowalska of the Blessed Sacrament'', Faustyna popularly spelled "Faustina", was a Polish Catholic religious sister an ...

History

On the site of the present

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chris ...

(Dominikonų St. 12) a Gothic single-nave church was built in the 15th century and named Holy

Trinity The Christian doctrine of the Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the central dogma concerning the nature of God in most Christian churches, which defines one God existing in three coequal, coeternal, consubstantial divine persons: God the F ...

Church. It was reconstructed after the 1748 and 1749 fires: a new presbytery and two towers were built on, and in a place of a Gothic apse a new portal was erected. The church belonged to the university; one of its deans was the university rector,

Jesuit , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

astronomer

Marcin Odlanicki Poczobutt Marcin Odlanicki Poczobutt ( lt, Martynas Počobutas; 30 October 1728 near Grodno – 7 February 1810 in Daugavpils) was a Polish–Lithuanian Jesuit, astronomer and mathematician. He was professor of Vilnius University for over 50 years ...

. The tsarist authorities converted it into a

Russian Orthodox church , native_name_lang = ru , image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg , imagewidth = , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia , abbreviation = ROC , type ...

in 1821, but in 1920 it was returned to the

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

s. In Soviet times the church was abandoned. On

Divine Mercy Sunday Divine Mercy Sunday (also known as the Feast of the Divine Mercy) is celebrated on the Second Sunday of Easter, which concludes the Octave of Easter. The feast day is observed in the Roman Rite calendar, as well as some Anglo-Catholics of the ...

, 18 April 2004 under the care of

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

Audrys Bačkis Audrys Juozas Bačkis (born 1 February 1937) is a Lithuanian prelate of the Catholic Church, a cardinal since 2001. He worked in the diplomatic service of the Holy See from 1964 to 1991, when he became Archbishop of Vilnius. He retired in 2013. ...

, the church was restored, blessed, and given the title Shrine of the Divine Mercy. The church was adapted for the display of the original Image of Merciful Jesus, painted according to the vision of

Saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...

by artist

Eugeniusz Kazimirowski Eugeniusz Marcin Kazimirowski (November 11, 1873 – September 23, 1939 in Białystok) was a Polish painter member of the realism movement. He is best known for the first depiction of the Divine Mercy image in 1934, based on a request from Faus ...

in 1934. The Shrine is also decorated with two

sgraffiti ''Sgraffito'' (; plural: ''sgraffiti'') is a technique either of wall decor, produced by applying layers of plaster tinted in contrasting colours to a moistened surface, or in pottery, by applying to an unfired ceramic body two successive laye ...

made by Nijolė Vilutytė: the

Virgin of Mercy The Virgin of Mercy is a subject in Christian art, showing a group of people sheltering for protection under the outspread cloak, or pallium, of the Virgin Mary. It was especially popular in Italy from the 13th to 16th centuries, often as a speci ...

of the

Gate of Dawn The Gate of Dawn ( lt, Aušros vartai), or Sharp Gate ( pl, Ostra Brama, la, Porta Acialis, be, Вострая Брама, lt, Ašmens vartai, russian: Острая брама) is a city gate in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, and one of ...

and the prayer ''

Jesus I trust in you The Image of the Divine Mercy is a depiction of Jesus Christ that is based on the devotion initiated by Faustina Kowalska. According to Kowalska's diary, Jesus told her "I promise that the soul that will venerate this image will not peris ...

'' in eleven languages.

Image of Divine Mercy

In his painting,

depicted

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

in the way

Sister Faustina Maria Faustyna Kowalska, OLM (born Helena Kowalska; 25 August 1905 – 5 October 1938), also known as ''Maria Faustyna Kowalska of the Blessed Sacrament'', Faustyna popularly spelled "Faustina", was a Polish Catholic religious sister an ...

saw Him in her visions. His right hand lifted to

bless In religion, a blessing (also used to refer to bestowing of such) is the impartation of something with grace, holiness, spiritual redemption, or divine will. Etymology and Germanic paganism The modern English language term ''bless'' likely ...

and two rays (symbolizing life and

forgiveness Forgiveness, in a psychological sense, is the intentional and voluntary process by which one who may initially feel victimized or wronged, goes through a change in feelings and attitude regarding a given offender, and overcomes the impact of th ...

) coming out of His Heart. After the Image of Merciful Jesus was completed in June 1934, it was kept in the corridor of the

convent A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Anglican ...

of the Bernardine Sisters beside the Church of St. Michael where

Blessed Blessed may refer to: * The state of having received a blessing * Blessed, a title assigned by the Roman Catholic Church to someone who has been beatified Film and television * ''Blessed'' (2004 film), a 2004 motion picture about a supernatural ...

Michał Sopoćko Michael Sopoćko ( pl, Michał Sopoćko ; 1 November 1888 – 15 February 1975) was a Polish Roman Catholic priest and professor at Vilnius University. He is best known as the spiritual director of Faustina Kowalska. He was beatified by Pope Bene ...

was rector. Jesus, in one of Saint Faustina’s visions, had expressed to her His wish that the image be put in a place of honor, above the main

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in paga ...

of the church. Fittingly, the first place that the Image of Merciful Jesus was publicly

venerated Veneration ( la, veneratio; el, τιμάω ), or veneration of saints, is the act of honoring a saint, a person who has been identified as having a high degree of sanctity or holiness. Angels are shown similar veneration in many religions. Etymo ...

was at His Merciful Mother’s

Chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

, the

. In April 1935, for three days leading up to the first Sunday after Easter, the image was honored by crowds of faithful people. This occasion also marked the closing of the

Jubilee Year A jubilee is a particular anniversary of an event, usually denoting the 25th, 40th, 50th, 60th, and the 70th anniversary. The term is often now used to denote the celebrations associated with the reign of a monarch after a milestone number of ...

of the Redemption of the World, as it had been nineteen hundred years since the Passion,

death Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain an organism. For organisms with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the whole brain, including brainstem, and brain ...

, and

Resurrection of Jesus The resurrection of Jesus ( grc-x-biblical, ἀνάστασις τοῦ Ἰησοῦ) is the Christian belief that God raised Jesus on the third day after his crucifixion, starting – or restoring – his exalted life as Christ and Lo ...

. In 1937, on the first Sunday after

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

– now

– the image was hung in the

Church of St. Michael, Vilnius St Michael's Church or St. Michael the Archangel Church ( lt, Šv. Mykolo bažnyčia) is a former Roman Catholic church in Vilnius' Old Town, on the right bank of the Vilnia River. It now hosts the Church Heritage Museum. History In 1594-97 the ...

next to the main

References

Catholic pilgrimage sites Roman Catholic churches in Vilnius Divine Mercy (Catholic devotion) {{VilniusCounty-geo-stub

History

Image of Divine Mercy

See also

References