When the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy gave Pallottine Father Wojciech Stachura, SAC, a first-class relic of St. Faustina Kowalska last September in Poland to bring back to Columbus St. Christopher Church, it came with the stipulation that his order would spread the Divine Mercy devotion.

Not just on Divine Mercy Sunday, which the Catholic Church observes worldwide this year on April 24, but also throughout the year.

At least a dozen churches in the diocese this Sunday will offer special Divine Mercy devotions outside of their regular Masses, which include recitation of the Divine Mercy Chaplet, Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, holy hours, the sacrament of reconciliation and, at some parishes, a Mass.

St. Christopher Church, 1420 Grandview Ave., will do all of that and also provide something extra at the end of Mass, which starts at approximately 3:15 p.m. after the chaplet is recited.

Father Marek Kasperczuk, a native of Poland who is director of sacred liturgy and an assistant professor at the Pontifical College Josephinum, will serve as the principal celebrant for the Mass at St. Christopher. Last year, Bishop Robert Brennan presided at the Mass there on Divine Mercy Sunday.        

Those in attendance can venerate not only the relic of St. Faustina but also one from Pope St. John Paul II. 

The Church considers a first-class relic an authenticated part of a saint’s body. The St. Faustina relic at St. Christopher is a piece of her bone, and the Pope St. John Paul II relic is a drop of his blood.

Father Stachura obtained the pontiff’s relic during a visit to his native Poland in 2020. It was presented to him by Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the former archbishop of Krakow and the late pope’s personal secretary for 40 years.

Both relics came with certificates of authenticity verifying that they came from the bodies of the two Polish saints.

“I met the cardinal in his office, and we’d been talking awhile, and he gave me the relic with an authentic letter,” Father Stachura said. “He gave a few pictures of John Paul II, I told him about my work here in the United States in the parish, and he asked me a few questions. It was beautiful.”

Father Stachura is carrying through on his promise to spread devotion with a daily Divine Mercy hour in the church, which starts at 3 p.m. Monday through Friday (the time when Jesus Christ died on the cross) and includes the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, confessions and Adoration, and ends with Mass at 4 p.m. Anyone is welcome to attend.

The priest received the relic of St. Faustina during a trip to Poland last September. It was given to him by one of the sisters of Faustina’s congregation, the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy, with the approval of the mother general of the order. 

“One of the conditions the sisters gave us is that every month we’re supposed to have a special retreat or days for people who have devotion to Divine Mercy, and we have, especially Divine Mercy Sunday,” he said. “We will be praying with the two relics.”

The Pallottine Fathers came to the Diocese of Columbus in 2020, and Bishop Brennan assigned them to St. Christopher Church. Father Stachura, the pastor, is assisted by Father Andrzej Kozminski, SAC, the parochial vicar. The order also has priests, who are from India, located in Toledo.

Divine Mercy devotion has grown by leaps and bounds throughout the world over the past 30 years. Nowhere is the devotion stronger than in Poland, the Pallottines’ home base.

Pope John Paul II added Divine Mercy Sunday to the Church calendar on the Sunday after Easter in 2000 following the canonization of St. Faustina.

The pontiff felt an obvious connection to his fellow Pole, St. Faustina, and last visited his home country in 2002, three years before he died, when he consecrated the world to the Lord’s Divine Mercy from a basilica and shrine in Krakow that is the resting place for her body. 

“His homily from the consecration Mass at the basilica is beautiful,” Father Stachura said. “Everyone should read it. It’s absolutely beautiful. The last words are the consecration of the whole world to Divine Mercy, and that was amazing.”

Father Stachura first became aware of the Divine Mercy devotion when he started seminary in the mid-1980s. One of his colleagues had been studying Sister Faustina’s diary, which has become a popular book that contains the messages she received from Christ in the 1930s.

“The messages were sent to Sister Faustina, but the one who helped spread the message was John Paul II,” Father Stachura said. “He started this as the bishop of Krakow” (long before he became pope). 

Father Stachura pointed out that John Paul II’s first encyclical as pope was titled Dives in Misericordia, which is translated to Rich in Mercies and God in All Comfort, and promulgated on Nov. 30, 1980, two years after he became the vicar of Christ.

“As Pallottines, we have a very big devotion to Divine Mercy,” Father Stachura said. “We want to make this place a center for Divine Mercy in Columbus in the future. Bishop Brennan asked us to do this.” 

Father Stachura emphasized the importance of mercy in the present age, pointing to the conflict in Ukraine as an example.

“Why has devotion to Divine Mercy spread? Because, first, people need conversion,” he said. “People need to know faith. People need to love. They need forgiveness. 

“People should read the Divine Mercy diary. It is long, but the messages are straight from Jesus through Sister Faustina to us. Mercy is missing in the world, especially with this war in Ukraine. 

“Look what tragedy there is there now. People couldn’t accept this type of love.”