SOURCE OF HOPE — The Rev. Drake McCalister Thursday performed a blessing on “The Divine Mercy,” a painting donated for the Trinity Medical Center West chapel by the family of Rose Marie Foytlin, who was represented by Mary Ann Hranek of Steubenville. -- Warren Scott

STEUBENVILLE — After the Rev. Drake McCalister of Holy Family Catholic Church performed a blessing Thursday on a painting in the chapel of Trinity Medical Center West with a unique history, a woman involved with its donation predicted it will offer hope to patients and families who come there for prayer.

Ann Hranek represented members of the Hranek family who donated “The Divine Mercy” to the hospital in memory of her late sister, Rose Marie Foytlin.

The painting was produced in 1935 by Polish artist Eugeniusz Kazimirowski under the direction of St. Faustina Kowalska, a nun who reported seeing visions of Jesus Christ.

According to the Divine Mercy Institute, the painting disappeared only a few years after it was completed. It was believed to have been stolen and likely changed hands multiple times before it was recovered in 1986 and restored.

The organization states during its absence, other versions were created, but Hranek was happy to say the one displayed in the hospital’s chapel is faithful to the original.

She said her sister was inspired to share the Divine Mercy Novena Chaplet, a set of prayers to be said on nine days, with 53 people in her lifetime.

She noted those who recite it are called to share it with at least 10 other people, each of whom are called to do the same.

Hranek said her sister, a housewife and church organist, pursued that special ministry during a 25-year period and up to her death at age 99.

Hranek said she started coming to Trinity Medical Center for treatment 25 years ago and noticed the chapel, part of the hospital’s recently completed addition, lacked the painting.

She believes it will inspire the chapel’s visitors to put their trust in Christ, as she has.

“When you look at that image, it just draws you,” Hranek said of the painting, which depicts Christ dressed in white with a halo above his head, one hand raised upward as delivering a blessing and the other pointed downward, with two rays of light extending from his fingertips.

Of the Divine Mercy Novena, she said, “Sick people need this chaplet to ease their minds, to be able to meet the Lord.”

The blessing occurred following the weekly noon Mass celebrated at the chapel.