The First Sunday of Lent on 22 February 1931 remark the day when St. Faustina received her Divine Mercy vision.
She records the date of her vision of Jesus as Sunday, 22 February 1931, which would have been the Sunday following Ash Wednesday of that year.
In her Diary, she explains what happened on that fateful Sunday night.
“In the evening, when I was in my cell, I saw the Lord Jesus clothed in a white garment. One hand was raised in the gesture of blessing, the other was touching the garment at the chest. From beneath the garment, slightly drawn aside at the chest, there were emanating two large rays, one red and the other pale. (…) After a while Jesus said to me, “Paint an image according to the pattern you see, with the signature: Jesus, I trust in You.“
The first depiction of Divine Mercy was painted by the artist Eugene Kazimirowski on the instructions provided personally by Sister Faustina in 1934 in Vilnius. However, it is the image of Lagiewniki, Krakow, painted by Adolf Hyla, that has gained fame throughout the world.
It is fitting that St. Faustina received this instruction at the beginning of Lent, as the Divine Mercy devotion is connected intimately with the Passion, death and resurrection of Jesus, displaying the love Jesus has for humanity through the rays of his wounds.
Lent is set apart as a special time in the Church’s calendar to meditate on Jesus’ Passion, and Divine Mercy Sunday occurs a week after Easter Sunday, on the Second Sunday of the Easter season.
While St. Faustina received many other private revelations throughout her life, this vision on the First Sunday of Lent is regarded as the most important one.