Early history

The Divine Mercy devotion was brought to Australia by refugees from Poland after the Second World War. From 1950 the devotion was actively promoted in Melbourne by Father Stanislaw Skudrzyk SJ, a Jesuit chaplain to the Polish community who was stationed at St. Ignatius Church, Richmond. He founded and directed the Society of Divine Mercy and distributed booklets and leaflets containing the Merciful Heart message as revealed to Sister Faustina.

Father Skudrzyk

In 1952 Father Skudrzyk took delivery of a beautiful hand-painted picture of the Merciful Jesus that had been sent to him from his native Poland. It was a gift from the well-known Polish artist, Professor A. Hyla of Cracow famous for the painting of the picture presently enshrined at the Chapel of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy in Cracow where innumerable graces have been received. Because of his limited English, Father Skudrzyk anticipated difficulty in getting the picture through Customs and so he asked a fellow Jesuit who happened to be staying briefly at St. Ignatius to accompany him. This other priest could not speak Polish, but with the aid of Latin, the universal language of the Church, the picture was allowed through. This priest, Father Noel Ryan SJ, has been closely involved with the devotion since the mid-1980’s and it was only in recent years that he remembered that he had been instrumental in bringing the picture into the country more than 30 years ago.

Solemnly Blessed

The picture was solemnly blessed by His Grace, Dr. Mannix, Archbishop of Melbourne on the occasion of the Sunday of Divine Mercy on 20^th April 1952 and given a place of honour in St. Ignatius Church, Richmond. It remained there as a source of grace for all until 1959, when the Supreme Congregation of the Holy Office issued the following notification:

“The Supreme Congregation of the Holy Office, having examined the alleged visions and revelations of Sister Faustina Kowalska, of the Institute of Our Lady of Mercy, has decreed as follows:

1. The dissemination of pictures and writings, which present the devotion to the Divine Mercy in the forms proposed by the said Sister Faustina, should be forbidden.
2. It is left to the prudent discretion of the Bishops to remove such pictures, which may have been already exposed for worship.

From the Holy Office, 6 March 1959 “

Picture removed

In consequence of this notification, the picture of Divine Mercy was removed from St. Ignatius where it had hung on a wall in the left transept of the Church and put in storage. However, through the intervention of a devout Italian woman Mrs. Lina Santospirito, who bought the picture from Father Skudrzyk, it was to find a new home at the Sacred Heart Church in Rathdowne Street, Carlton where the picture was enshrined on a side altar of her parish church.

Lifting of prohibition and spreading of devotion

On the 15^th of April 1978, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith officially lifted the prohibition against the Mercy of God devotion. This heralded a new era in the spread of the devotion with much of the impetus coming from the Marian Fathers in the United States. Here in Melbourne, Mrs Gertrude Plant and also Mrs Therese Flood maintained a special interest in the devotion having sent out thousands of leaflets prior to the ban in 1959.

Once the ban was lifted Mrs Plant once again undertook to spread the devotion and in 1980 she celebrated the Feast of Mercy with two friends before the picture at the Sacred Heart Church Carlton. Since then the celebration of the Feast on the Sunday after Easter has gradually gained momentum with Father Gerard Dowling being the celebrant at the first advertised Mass for the Feast on the 6^th April I986.

Monthly Devotions

On Saturday, 2^nd August 1986 at 3 o’ clock commenced, with the blessing of Fr. L. Tomlinson, parish priest of the Sacred Heart Church, the first monthly devotions in honour of the Divine Mercy with Exposition, the Chaplet, various prayers and hymns, concluding with Benediction. There were only a handful present for the first meeting most notable among them were Mrs Gertrude Plant, Clare Dunn, Therese Flood, Maria Garbowski and Sue Griffin.

Later on as news spread numbers gradually increased and early in 1987 after the Feast of Mercy it was decided to elect a formal committee and the group decided to call itself Divine Mercy Apostolate having at the time two chaplains Father Noel Ryan SJ, from the Jesuit College in Parkville and Father Leopold Uminski who was compelled to leave Poland because of persecution and joined the group as a second chaplain after the Feast of Mercy. Thus things were looking good the devotion was spreading and the Apostolate had two chaplains.

With falling Mass attendances the Cathedral decided to lease the Sacred Heart Church to the Lebanese Catholics which meant the end of the monthly devotions in Carlton and so the last Holy Hour was held there in January 1988. From there with much sorrow, the committee moved the monthly devotions to St. Augustine’s which in reality was a blessing because it was centrally located being in the City and more accessible to everyone with trams and trains on its doorstep, overall providing better facilities.

The move to St. Mary’s

When the Maronites took possession of the Sacred Heart Church in January 1988 it became difficult for devotees to pray, before the picture because the Church was generally locked. The Divine Mercy Apostolate, therefore, in March 1991 initiated moves to have the ‘image’ moved from Carlton to the much larger Church of St. Mary’s, a mile down the road in West Melbourne. With the assistance of Father Noel Ryan SJ and in particular Sue Griffin the transfer of the “Image” was successfully accomplished and the picture was enshrined in the Sacred Heart Chapel on a movable stand, which was hinged to the wall allowing the picture to be swung outwards facing the people on important days.

After the unavoidable delays, the picture was finally installed at St. Mary’s just in time for the annual celebration of the Feast of Mercy which in 1992 fell on Sunday, 26^th April.   A crowd in excess of 1,000 pilgrims of various nationalities turned up for this historic occasion making it a truly memorable one.

18^th April 1993