St. Stans Decision Seen As Divine Intervention by Saint Expert, by Jennifer Huberdeau, North Adams Transcript, February 17, 2011

St. Stan's Decision Seen As Divine Intervention by Saint Expert

By Jennifer Huberdeau
North Adams Transcript
February 17, 2011

http://www.thetranscript.com/ci_17399446

This image of ‘The Divine Mercy’ at St.... (Gillian Jones/North Adams Transcript)

For the Rev. Seraphim Michalenko, a world-renowned teacher of the message of the Divine Mercy and a leading expert on the of Saint Faustina Kowalski, the connections between a Vatican decree calling for the re-opening of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church and the sacred image of 'The Divine Mercy' seem to suggest a form of divine intervention.

"Today is the feast day of the Blessed Father Michael Sopocko, confessor of Saint Sister Faustina and the man who commissioned the original image of The Divine Mercy," Michalenko, 80, who recently retired as the head of the Shrine of the Divine Mercy in Stockbridge, said Tuesday, speaking from the pulpit of his home parish. "The Lord wants his divine mercy to be known. There is significance to the image of The Divine Mercy here, in this church. This image was the first image of The Divine Mercy to be publicly exhibited and enshrined in the entire western hemisphere."

The image, a painting of Jesus Christ with red and white light spreading from his chest, first came to the church in the mid-1940s. According to reports, it was to remain at the church until it could be transferred to its permanent home with the Marians of the Immaculate Conception, who were in the process of building their home at Eden Hill in Stockbridge -- known today as the Shrine of the Divine Mercy. The painting was never moved.

Michalenko, then an alter boy at St. Stan’s was charged with caring for the painting and was tapped to help clean the residence in Stockbridge. He would later join the Marian order. In 1979, he was appointed vice-postulator in North America for Sister Faustina’s canonization.

Saint Faustina, a Polish nun, had visions of Jesus Christ from 1931 until her death in 1938. She said he asked her to have the image of The Divine Mercy painted and promised to grant special protection and mercy to any city that venerates the image, any home that displays it and any person who prays before it.

The image arrived in the United States in 1941, with the Rev. Joseph Jarzebowski, a Marian priest, and the order began disseminating pamphlets about the Divine Mercy across the country.

However, a copy of her diary would not reach the United States until it was smuggled out of Poland in 1979 by Michalenko, who would later witness the miracles that led up to her sainthood on April 30, 2000 by Pope John Paul II.

"I believe the Lord wants people to know of his divine mercy through this intervention," Michalenko said Tuesday, before leading a recitation of the Chaplet of the Divine Mercy.

To reach Jennifer Huberdeau, e-mail jhuberdeau@thetranscript.com