St. Faustina (Aug. 25, 1905 to Oct. 5, 1938)

   Now that it's December, I am so ready for Christmas. That's why I couldn't miss the Annual Holiday Stroll & Luminaria in Westerly tonight. Well, with the heavy rain, it was less of a stroll and more of a run from building to building.
  Highlights included a stop at Zoe & Company, a lingerie superstore, where even the mannequins have implants and a tarot reading at an indoor flea market by a woman named Stephany. I like that she didn't approach me as so many psychics do when they see a prospective customer. Instead, I saw a small poster than said readings were available.
  "You will write a series of successful books. There is passion in your writing," she said in a knowing voice. "In the first book, you tell anecdotal stories. Some so heart-wrenching."
  By the time my fifteen minutes were up, I left content and with the promise to recognize the real reason for Christmas.
  Stephany is the equivalent of what some call mystics. Numerous Roman Catholic saints had that gift and one was canonized in 2000.
  St. Faustina was born Helena Kowalska on Aug. 25, 1905 in Glogowiec, Russia. She joined the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy and became a nun at age 20. As an offering to God, she asked to experience the sufferings of huge sinners and the dying.
  St. Faustina wrote about seeing Jesus in Purgatory and later speaking with Jesus and Mary. She wanted to establish a religious order, but her superiors wouldn't give her time off. They thought she suffered from mental illness. However they were wrong. One of the visions St. Faustina had in 1935 is now called of Chaplet of Divine Mercy.
  She died from tuberculosis on Oct. 5, 1938 in Krakow, Poland and her feast day is Oct. 5.