Memorial of Blessed Michael Sopocko

Today, February 15, is the memorial of Blessed Michael Sopocko.

Spiritual director of St. Faustina Kowalska.

Michael was born in 1888 in what is now Belarus. After obtaining his doctorate in theology, he became the spiritual director at a seminary and a professor of pastoral theology at Stefan Batory University in Vilnius.

Now, St. Faustina had been praying for a spiritual director. In a vision, she saw Father Michael and understood that he was the one. Fr. Michael told St. Faustina to keep a diary of her spiritual life. That diary was to become the basis of her now-world famous ‘The Diary of Saint Maria Faustina Kowalska: Divine Mercy In My Soul.’

The Devotion to the Divine Mercy gained its important supporter in Michael. St. Faustina wrote in her diary that “This priest is a great soul, entirely filled with God.”

He helped Faustina find a suitable painter for the Divine Mercy image. In 1935, he delivered the first sermon ever on the Divine Mercy. Accounts say Faustina attended this sermon. In 1936, Michael wrote the first brochure on the Divine Mercy Devotion.

He founded the Congregation of Sisters of the Merciful Jesus right after World War II. The goal of the Sisters is to promote the Divine Mercy.

He died of natural causes in Poland in 1975. He was beatified in 2008 by Cardinal Angelo Amato in Poland.