Saint faustina kowalska biography of michael

20th-century Catholic priest

Michael Sopoćko (Polish: Michał Sopoćko[ˈmixawsɔˈpɔt͡ɕkɔ]; 1 November 1888 – 15 February 1975) was a Polish Catholic priest and professor at Vilnius University. He is best known as the spiritual director of Faustina Kowalska. He was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2008.

Life

Sopoćko was born to Polish parents in 1888 in Juszewszczyzna (also known as Nowosady) near Valozhyn within the Russian Empire, now Belarus.^[3][4] He entered Vilnius Priest Seminary in 1910 and was ordained in 1914. He was a priest in Vilnius (1914–1918) and then a chaplain in the army in Warsaw and Vilnius during World War I. After obtaining his doctorate in theology in 1926, he became the spiritual director at the seminary in Vilnius and, in 1928, professor of pastoral theology at Stefan Batory University, in Vilnius.

Divine Mercy

Sopoćko was very supportive of the Divine Mercy devotion of Faustina Kowalska