Melonie Mulkey, MFA: Divine Mercy (photography

Divine Mercy Melonie Mulkey, MFA

Digital photograph.

This photograph is inspired by the revelations and experiences recorded in a diary by Saint Faustina, a young polish nun from the Congregation of The Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy. In 1931, Jesus appeared to Saint Faustina in a vision wearing a white garment with his right hand raised in blessing and his left hand touching his heart where a red and pale ray of light shine forth—which Jesus said are “to signify water and blood.” In 1934 the painter Eugene Kazimierowski created the original Divine Mercy painting under St. Faustina’s direction. Thanks to Father Sopocko, her spiritual director, who instructed her to keep a diary and believe her visions to be real, the image has become an icon in spreading Divine Mercy throughout the world.

In the center of this photograph, Sister Faustina is represented as a bouquet of roses. Roses have been connected to symbolism throughout the history of Christian art; however I was most drawn to the symbol of the roses to represent Sr Faustina from another one of her revelations written in her diary. One day after her work in the convent kitchen draining the potatoes for the sisters’ dinner, she expressed her frustration to God.

“Then,” she writes, “I heard the following words in my soul, From today on you will do this easily; I shallstrengthen you” (Diary, 65). That evening, St. Faustina “hurried to be the first to [drain the potatoes], trusting in the Lord’s words” (Diary, 65). She did the job perfectly, and when she looked in the pot, she saw that the potatoes had been transformed into “whole bunches of red roses, beautiful beyond description” (Diary, 65). Then she heard the words, “I change such hard work of yours into bouquets of beautiful flowers, and their perfume rises up to my throne” (Diary, 65).1

In the image, the bouquet of roses sits in Holy Dirt from El Santuario de Chimayo, located in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in northern New Mexico. Like the trust Sr. Faustina had, thousands of people make a pilgrimage to Chimayo, trusting that God will grant them the miracles of the dirt’s healing abilities. Both flowers and holy dirt sit on a mirror receiving and reflecting the trinity of light from above. 2021

1 Marian Tascio, “Roses from Potatoes: A Recipe for Redemption,” The Divine Mercy (Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception of the B.V.M., September 5, 2019), https://www.thedivinemercy.org/articles/roses-potatoes-recipe-redemption.