Bishop John Noonan | Diocese of Orland website

On Sept. 14 and 15, Father Eugene Grytner, pastor of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in Bartow, blessed the installation of a relic of St. Faustina Kowalska. Father Grytner traveled to Kraków, Poland, earlier this summer to collect the relic, a piece of her religious habit.

The installation dates coincided with the anniversary of the Divine Mercy devotion, given to St. Faustina on Sept. 13-14, 1935. “Jesus taught only two prayers: The Lord’s Prayer and The Chaplet of Divine Mercy,” said Father Grytner.

“St. John Paul II emphasized the importance of the devotion to Divine Mercy. Because the devotion to Divine Mercy is spreading like a bush fire, we already had a small chapel in the Narthex devoted to Divine Mercy with a painting of Divine Mercy Jesus, painted by a Polish artist,” explained Father Grytner. He said they wanted a relic of the Polish saint to remember that Jesus gave the Chaplet of Divine Mercy to St. Faustina.

A request to obtain a relic of the saint was granted by the superior general of the Sisters of Divine Mercy in Kraków, Poland, where the saint lived, died and was buried.

Staff Report