We are now at the very heart of the Łagiewniki Shrine, the Chapel which contains the Holy Picture of the Merciful Jesus, renowned for the miracles it has wrought, and the Tomb of St. Faustina. This fairly small house of worship was dedicated to St. Joseph and consecrated in 1891. Erected on the premises of the Convent of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, originally it was used only by the Sisters and their wards. Sister Faustina, the Apostle of Divine Mercy, used to pray here. Here she received extraordinary graces; here Jesus and His Blessed Mother appeared to her. When she died, the message of Divine mercy which Jesus wanted her to disseminate in the Church and the world was lodged in this place, and so the Łagiewniki Shrine became the hub of devotion to the Divine Mercy, the place from which this message is spread throughout the world and the destination for pilgrims from every part of the world. They come to ask for many graces, and the walls of the chapel are decorated with votive offerings pilgrims donate in thanksgiving for the graces they have received here.
The Holy Picture of the Merciful Jesus by Adolf Hyła is over the left-hand side altar. It was consecrated on 16 April 1944, the first Sunday after Easter, by Father Józef Andrasz SJ, Sister Faustina’s Cracovian spiritual director. Thousands of copies and reproductions of this image have spread throughout the world, thereby fulfilling the request Jesus made when He first appeared to Sister Faustina, “I want this picture venerated first in your chapel, and in the whole world” (Diary 47).
The Tomb of Sister Faustina is below the mensa of the altar of the Merciful Jesus. The little coffin made of white marble holds her mortal remains, and there is a relic in a marble reliquary in front of the altar, for pilgrims wishing to venerate and ask for her prayers and powerful intercession with the Divine Mercy.
There is a statue of Our Lady of Mercy, the Congregation’s Patroness, over the main altar, flanked by statues of St. Stanislaus Kostka, Patron Saint of young people, and St. Mary Magdalene, Patroness of repentant women. A picture of St. Joseph with the Infant Jesus hangs over the right-hand side altar. St. Joseph was this Community’s first Patron; its Chapel and entire property, originally called “Józefów” in his honour, were dedicated to him. On the side walls there are pictures of St. Sister Faustina (by Helena Tchórzowska), St. Ignatius Loyola, another of the Congregation’s patron, and Bl. Father Michał Sopoćko, Sister Faustina’s spiritual director in Vilnius.
By 1968, so many pilgrims were coming here to pray before the Holy Picture of the Merciful Jesus and at Sister Faustina’s graveside that Cardinal Karol Wojtyła entered the Chapel on the list of sanctuaries in the Archdiocese of Kraków, and in 1992, “in consideration of the rapidly expanding devotion to the Divine Mercy,” Cardinal Franciszek Macharski issued a decree appointing the Chapel the official Sanctuary of the Divine Mercy.
