Michael Sopoćko ( pl, Michał Sopoćko ; 1 November 1888 – 15 February 1975) was a Polish

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

priest and professor at

Vilnius University Vilnius University ( lt, Vilniaus universitetas) is a public research university, oldest in the Baltic states and in Northern Europe outside the United Kingdom (or 6th overall following foundations of Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrews, Glasgow and ...

. He is best known as the

spiritual director Spiritual direction is the practice of being with people as they attempt to deepen their relationship with the divine, or to learn and grow in their personal spirituality. The person seeking direction shares stories of their encounters of the di ...

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 ...

. He was beatified by

Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...

in 2008.

Life

Sopoćko was born to Polish parents in 1888 in Juszewszczyzna (also known as Nowosady) near

Valozhyn Valozhyn, Vałožyn or Volozhin ( be, Вало́жын, , russian: Воло́жин, lt, Valažinas, pl, Wołożyn, yi, וואָלאָזשין ''Volozhin''; also written as Wolozin and Wolozhin) is a town in the Minsk Region of Belarus. The pop ...

within the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

, now

Belarus Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

. He entered

Vilnius Priest Seminary The Vilnius St. Joseph Seminary is a Roman Catholic seminary in Vilnius, Lithuania. It traces its history to an institution founded by Cardinal Jurgis Radvila in 1582. After being closed and reopened several times, it was re-established in 1993 ...

in 1910 and was ordained in 1914. He was a priest in Vilnius (1914–1918) and then a chaplain in the army in Warsaw and Vilnius during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. After obtaining his doctorate in theology in 1926, he became the spiritual director at the seminary in Vilnius and, in 1928, professor of

pastoral theology Pastoral theology is the branch of practical theology concerned with the application of the study of religion in the context of regular church ministry. This approach to theology seeks to give practical expression to theology. Normally viewed as a ...

Stefan Batory University Vilnius University ( lt, Vilniaus universitetas) is a public research university, oldest in the Baltic states and in Northern Europe outside the United Kingdom (or 6th overall following foundations of Oxford, Cambridge, St. Andrews, Glasgow and ...

, in Vilnius.

Divine Mercy

Sopoćko was very supportive of 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 ...

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 ...

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 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 perish ...

'' until Sopoćko became her confessor in the middle of 1933. By January 1934, Sopoćko arranged for the 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 ...

(who was also a professor at the university) to paint the image. On Friday 26 April 1935 Sopoćko delivered the first sermon ever on the Divine Mercy – and Kowalska attended the sermon. The first Mass during which the

was displayed was on 28 April 1935, the

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 ...

(the first after Easter). Sopoćko managed to obtain permission to place the painting within 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 ...

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 ...

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 An ''imprimatur'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''impr.'', from Latin, "let it be printed") is a declaration authorizing publication of a book. The term is also applied loosely to any mark of approval or endorsement. The imprimatur rule in the R ...

of Archbishop Jałbrzykowski for it. The brochure carried the Divine Mercy image on the cover.

Congregation of Sisters of Merciful Jesus

In 1942 during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Sopoćko and other professors and students had to go into hiding near Vilnius for about two years. However, he used the time to establish a new religious congregation, based on the Divine Mercy messages reported by Kowalska. After the war, Sopoćko wrote the constitution for the congregation and helped the formation of what is now the Congregation of the Sisters of Merciful Jesus. In an entry in her diary on 8 February 1935, (Notebook I, item 378), Kowalska had written that the Divine Mercy devotion would be suppressed for some time after her death but then be accepted again although Sopoćko would suffer for it.Catherine M. Odell, 1998, ''Faustina: Apostle of Divine Mercy'', OSV Press, , pp. 153–160 In 1959, the Vatican forbade the Divine Mercy devotion and censured Sopoćko. In 1965

Karol Wojtyła Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

, then Archbishop of Kraków and later Pope John Paul II, opened a new investigation and submitted documents in 1968, which resulted in the reversal of the ban in 1978. After the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, when the boundaries of Poland had changed so much, Sopoćko left Vilnius. Until 1962, he had been a professor of pastoral theology at the

seminary A seminary, school of theology, theological seminary, or divinity school is an educational institution for educating students (sometimes called ''seminarians'') in scripture, theology, generally to prepare them for ordination to serve as clergy, ...

Białystok Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area. Białystok is located in the Białystok Up ...

. Meanwhile, he wrote a book ''Miłosierdzie Boga w dziełach Jego'' (''Mercy of God in His works'') in four volumes. He died on 15 February 1975 in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

, and was buried there. In 1988, his remains were transferred to the Church of Divine Mercy in Białostoczek.

Quote

Veneration

Sopoćko's case for

beatification Beatification (from Latin ''beatus'', "blessed" and ''facere'', "to make”) is a recognition accorded by the Catholic Church of a deceased person's entrance into Heaven and capacity to intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in their nam ...

was started at the Vatican in 1987. In 2004,

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

issued a decree on Sopoćko's virtues.''Purest of All Lilies: The Virgin Mary in the Spirituality of St. Faustina'' by Donald H. Calloway, 2008, , p. 29 In December 2007, Pope

Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...

approved of a miracle through his intercession. His solemn beatification took place on 28 September 2008 at the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy, in Białystok. An estimated 80,000 people attended, including the Polish president,

Lech Kaczyński Lech Aleksander Kaczyński (; 18 June 194910 April 2010) was a Polish politician who served as the city mayor of Warsaw from 2002 until 2005, and as President of Poland from 2005 until his death in 2010. Before his tenure as president, he prev ...

, and the speaker of the

Parliament of Poland The parliament of Poland is the bicameral legislature of Poland. It is composed of an upper house (the Senate) and a lower house (the Sejm). Both houses are accommodated in the ''Sejm'' complex in Warsaw. The Constitution of Poland does not ref ...

, Bronislaw Komorowski.

References

Sources

* *

External links

*
Blessed Fr. Sopocko - TheDivineMercy.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sopocko, Michal 1888 births 1975 deaths Polish beatified people 20th-century Polish Roman Catholic priests Vilnius University faculty People from Białystok Catholic devotions Visions of Jesus and Mary Divine Mercy 20th-century venerated Christians Beatifications by Pope Benedict XVI Venerated Catholics by Pope John Paul II