Flora Cantábrica

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María Faustina Kowalska

PRIMERO

1. A Blessed Child

Stanisław Kowalski and Marianna née Babel after the wedding bought a few acres of farmland in the village of Głogowiec, far away from towns and busy thoroughfares. They soon bulit there a single-storey cottage and farm buildings. All the Kowalski children were baptised in the Parish Church of St. Casimir at Świnice Warckie; here they made their First Holy Communion and attended Mass on Sundays and holy days. The parish priest, Father Józef Chodyński, made the following entry for 27 August 1905 in the parish register: On this day, 27 August 1905, at one o’clock in the afternoon, Stanisław Kowalski, farmer, aged 40 years, came accompanied by Franciszek Bednarek, aged 35 years, and Józef Stasiak,  aged 40 years, farmers of Głogowiec, presenting to us an infant of the female sex, born of his wife Marianna née Babel, aged 30, at eight o’clock in the morning of 25 August 1905 in the village of Głogowiec. The child received the name Helena in Holy Baptism administered on this day, and the godparents were Konstanty Bednarek and Marianna Szewczyk (Szczepaniak).

Life in the Kowalski household went on at a tranquil place marked out first by prayer and then work, never the other way round. God came first, not only on Sundays and family occasions, but every day. In the early morning Father would sing the Hours or other hymns, and when Mother rebuked him that he would wake the children, he replied that they had to learn from their youngest years that God was the most important. There were holy pictures on the walls, and a little altar stood in the middle of the bedroom, with a crucifix and two holy statues, the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. At night the whole family would kneel for evening prayers, in May they would sing the Loreto Litany in front of the outdoor chapel outside the house, and in October recite the rosary. On Sunday afternoons Father would take out the Lives of the Saints from the bookcase and read in the family circle.

Father supplemented his income from the farm with work as a carpenter. He was strict with himself and his children and did not tolerate even the slightest misdemeanour. Mother ran the house and brought the children up. With her inborn gentleness, she trained them from their youngest years in jobs about the house and farm, and responsibility in carrying out their duties. Although she could not read she was the one who instructed them in the faith and the principles of morality, and prepared them for their First Holy Communion.

That was the family atmosphere of little Helenka, God’s chosen one to be the prophet of our times. But there was something that set her apart from the rest of the children in the village. Her mother noticed that she loved to pray and would even get up at night and kneel down. When she tried to curb her daughter’s enthusiasm saying, You’ll go mad if you keep getting up in the middle of the night, Helenka told her, Mummy, it must be an angel that wakes me up for prayers.

At the age of seven she had her first undeniable experience of God’s love. Once, when I was seven years old, at a Vesper Service, conducted before the Lord Jesus in the monstrance, the love of God was imparted to me for the first time and filled my little heart; and the Lord gave me understanding of divine things (Diary 1404). She prepared with deep reverence for her First Holy Communion, which was administered to her by Father Roman Pawłowski during a ceremony in the Parish Church. She returned home aware of the Divine Visitor in her soul. When a friend asked her why she was walking alone, not with the other girls, she said, I’m not alone, I’m walking with Jesus. Her awareness of the presence of God in her soul could be observed already in childhood, and grew throughout her life, just as did her responsiveness to the needs of others.

As a little girl she was already distinguished from others by a “sense of mercy”. She would notice the poor people and those in need around her, who came into the village for a piece of bread and a donation of any kind. Not only did she notice them, but she would also think of ways to help them. One day she held a lottery, another time she put on her mother’s old clothes and as a beggar went from house to house and the collected money gave to the parish priest for the poor. Everyone loved her, her mother recalled, she was chosen, the best of the children. She was modest and quiet, ready to do any chore and help anyone, but at the same time cheerful and always with a smile on her face

Not only her parents noticed little Helenka’s goodness, and her open attitude to God and other people. You have a good, humble and such an innocent child, a neighbour, Marianna Berezińska, praised Helenka. Kowalska has such a blessed child! she used to say in the village. Her siblings and peers also saw that Helenka was someone with a different mentality, who did not go to village dances and liked to pray and read the lives of the saints. From her youngest years she would tell us about the saints, pilgrims, and hermits who fed only on roots, berries and forest honey, her brother Stanisław recalled. When she wanted to please her father she would take the Lives of the Saints or some other religious book from our modest bookcase and read aloud. She memorised the stories of the hermits and missionaries, and the next day while out grazing the cattle would recite them word for word to us and others. She told us children that when she grew up she would enter a convent, but we laughed. We did not understand her.

Helenka went to school in 1917, aged twelve, when the area was liberated from Russian occupation and a primary school was established in Świnice Warckie. Her father had already taught her to read, but at school she had the opportunity to learn more. She was an able pupil and a keen learner, but had to leave after just three years to make room for the younger children. The family was not well off, so l so like her older sisters she went into domestic service.