When Saint Faustina arrived in Vilnius, she met Fr. Michael Sopoćko and recognized him from a vision; two, in fact! Saint Faustina spoke much of him in her Diary noting that God gave her a confessor who understood her soul. It was Blessed Fr. Michael Sopoćko, Faustina writes, who guided her along the difficult road to perfection. Fr. Sopoćko was present when Sr. Faustina recounted her vision of Jesus for the Artist, Eugeniusz Kazimirowski. In fact, at one point, Fr. Sopoćko stood in as model for the figure of Jesus. After Saint Faustina's early death, the responsibility to carry out the request made of her by Jesus to start a new order of nuns, The Congregation of the Sisters of Merciful Jesus, fell to Fr. Michael Sopocko.

Fr. Michael Sopocko was born in 1888 in Juszewszczyzna, a town that was located within the Russian Empire, now Belarus. Fr. Michael Sopoćko is primarily responsible for spreading the devotion of Divine Mercy throughout the world until his death in 1975.

This particular painting of Fr. Sopoćko was done by artist Ludomir Sleńdziński when Fr. Michael was 66 years old. It is rare to see him without his trademark round glasses on, but it is also nice to see what he really looked like without them.

Ludomir Sleńdziński was a Vilnius-born friend of Sopoćko who was once commissioned by Fr. Michael to paint the "Second Image of Divine Mercy.” This image was commissioned in response to the ubiquitous paintings being done by Adolf Hyła whose work was deemed unsuitable for devotion by a committee of Polish bishops and clergy. At the time of the painting of the "Second Image," Fr. Sopoćko thought the Original Image of Divine Mercy might be lost, so he shared with Sleńdziński everything he could remember that Saint Faustina said in her description to Kazimirowski so that this new image could be faithful to her vision. The idea was not to simply show a Christ figure with red and white rays, but to incorporate all the details that Saint Faustina herself considered important.

Our beautiful greeting cards feature the same high quality images as our fine art reproductions and are printed on exquisitely textured super-heavy watercolor paper.

The back of each card has a short descriptive history of the image on the front and inside there is plenty of blank space for any hand-written correspondence or greeting! The quality of these cards will show that you really found something special for someone.

Cards measure approximately 5"x7" and include an envelope. You will like these cards so much that you will want one just to have for yourself so order extra!