You're listening to a podcast on Catholic Saints.

This podcast is produced by the Augustine Institute, an Apostolate helping Catholics understand, live, and share their faith.

My name is Dr. Ben Acres, and I'm the executive director of Formed.

Joining me today is a special guest, Father Mateus, who is a priest here in the

Archdiocese of Denver, and also a member of the Neo-Catechuminal Way. Father Mateus is from Poland,

and he's going to be a special guest because of his special devotion to the Polish saint that we're

celebrating today, St. Maria Faustina Kovalska. Her dates are 1905 to 1938. On the

100th anniversary of the birth of Pope St. John Paul II, Pope Francis raised St. Faustina

to the, so she was already canonized to be an optional memorial for the Universal Church. So before she was canonized in, but raised her to be an optional memorial for the universal church.

So before, she was canonized in the year 2000.

She's an incredible saint because she was the very first saint that was canonized in the

year 2000 for the new millennium.

She has a special connection to Pope St. John Paul II, and we're going to explore that

today in our conversation.

But I want to begin by asking my guest,

Father Mateus, what his relation is to St. Faustina and kind of tell us some biographical data and

facts about her. Yeah, so St. Faustina, I really didn't know much about her as I grew up.

He was not, I've seen the image of divine mercy, but there was not like a special devotion on my part. My mom, on the other hand, she was constantly giving me her diary,

trying to help me, to get to know her, and I would always give it back to her, no thanks, no thanks, no thanks.

But before I was, I was ordained a year and a half ago.

And before the ordination, I had this urge in my heart, like, I need to read her diary.

And so I did.

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