Over the past few years years our website has posted information about the painting of the original
Divine Mercy Image which astoundingly took place on the property of the Visitation Monastery
in Vilnius Lithuania, under the direction of St Faustina, who visited the artist, Eugeniusz
Kazimirowski, who lived in a small building on the premises of the Monastery.
https://visitationspirit.org/2020/04/recap-on-divine-mercy-and-the-visitation-order/
This year we have discovered the life of a holy Polish Visitandine, Sr. Maria Andrzei
Korytkowny, a holy Visitandine of Vilnius whose biography we will cover in a few future posts
at greater length.
This Sister lived in the Vilnius Visitation Monastery from 1921 to 1934. The last 6 months of
her life corresponded to the six months that it took for Mr. Kazimirowski to paint the Divine
Mercy image.
Those 6 months were a time of extreme suffering for the Visitandine Sister.
The artist painted the picture on the Monastery’s property from January to June, 1934. Sister
Maria Andrzei deeply suffered in the Monastery’s infirmary during those same months, dying
July 14, 1934.
She had a deep devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, and of course His Mercy proceeds from
that Heart.
Sister Maria Andrzeja from childhood knew how to love in the purest spiritual way. This love,
especially since First Communion she gave to the Lord Jesus, especially hidden in the Holy.
Sacrament the altar, but then also to all the things of Christ on earth, to souls who could help her,
or whom she could help in the great work of sanctification. This is why The Divine Master gave
her the gift of suffering, which was to create two things in her, sacrificial bravery first, ready to
carry the cross with the Savior, and the thirst for the cross, and secondly, ever deeper humility,
up to the latter years spent in the Vilnius house of the Visitation, especially in those seven
terrible months of her final disease, culminating in a living flame of the most wonderfully made
sacrifice. Therefore, it is not surprising that to the Divine Heart to whom she has been giving
herself since she was a child, she brought it joy and glory with her life and such a death.
Sr Andrzei was born was born on September 24, 1888 and on July 14, 1934. and in the convent
of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary, Vilnius monastery she passed away to a better life, S
MARIA ANDRZEJA parents were her father KSAWERA Z POHORZEC KORYTKO and
MARIA Z ROSTWOROWSKI, her mother. From this marriage four children were born
The only and eldest son Pawel, after a short period of farm work, fought as hard as possible on
almost all fronts of the First World War, and in the Second World War he died gloriously in
1939 in the defense of Lublin.
The second, in turn, was the daughter Maria who, in 1907, joined the Sacred Heart Sisters; the
third was Teresa who joined the Discalced Carmelite nuns and the last was Sr Andrzei.
Her birth mother wrote about her as she entered the Visitation Monastery to her two older
daughters who had already served God in two different cloisters for nearly twelve years .
Dear children, it was not given to you to watch with the spiritual flourishing of our beloved
Nuna (her nickname) That’s why I want to recreate here in a few features her spiritual
photography, her rapid progress on the way of virtue. Striving with all her might for the best and
progressing “from light to light”, she could not help but achieve higher and higher levels of
excellence. The truth was the basis of this profound humility that struck everyone who knew her.
She held on to this principle, so as not to talk badly or well about yourself, but not at all … I
believe that in her spiritual life she did the same just saying that which concerned the good of
her soul. Hiding the fullness of her pulsating spiritual life, she had practiced in the world a kind
of postulate, exercising diligently a monastic type of life, especially poverty. It would be
difficult for me to list these various ways that she put this into practice: if she had some money
she gave it away for Holy Masses and alms. So the spirit of the victim grew in her heart with a
frenetic drive. During the last weeks of her stay at home she was ready to sacrifice everything
that had filled her life so far.
St Andrzei’s holiness is evident, her suffering in 1934, her final days, was acute and the timing
and location of this Sister’s last months with the painting of the Divine Mercy image was
proximate.
We suggest that knowingly or unknowingly Visitation Sister Andrzei might have been a victim
soul suffering for the spiritual success of the Original Divine Mercy Image.
Source: Kartki z Zycia, Heleny Korytkowny Siostry Marii Andrzei Wizytki
By Ks. Jan Rostworowski TJ. 1970, Veritas
Translation and paraphrases by this website
Special thanks to M. Quinn, C.V. for providing this book to Visitation Sisters Brooklyn