A brief biography of Blessed Arnold Janssen

Religious Priest & Founder of Three Missionary Congregations

Arnold Janssen was born on the 5th of November 1837 in Goch, a small city in lower Rhineland (Germany). The second of ten children, his parent’s instilled in him a dedication to work and a deep devotion to religion.

He was ordained a priest on the 15th of August 1861 for the diocese of Muenster and was assigned to a secondary school in Bocholt, where he worked as a strict but just teacher. Due to his profound devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, he was named Diocesan Director for the Apostleship of Prayer. This apostolate encouraged Arnold to open himself to Christians of other denominations.

He also became more aware of the spiritual needs of people beyond the limits of his own diocese, developing a deep concern for the mission of the Universal Church. He decided to dedicate his life to awaking in the German Church its missionary responsibility. With this in mind, in 1873 he resigned from his teaching post and soon after founded “The Sacred Heart Messenger.” This popular monthly magazine presented news of missionary activities and it encouraged German speaking Catholics to do more to help the missions.

These were difficult times for the Catholic Church in Germany. The ruling political party looked with suspicion on Catholics, seeing them as labourers for a centralizing Roman Curia that advocated exaggerated papal authority in matters of faith and discipline. They worked to eliminate Church influence in civil matters while striving to put all aspects of Church life under the authority of the civil power. Bismark unleashed the “Kulturkampf” with a series of anti-catholic laws, the expulsion of priests and religious, and the imprisonment of many bishops.

In this chaotic situation, Arnold Janssen proposed that some of the expelled priests could go to the foreign missions, or at least help in the preparation of missionaries. Other European countries had special centres for the preparation of missionaries, but not Germany! Arnold’s hope was that some priest with a missionary conscience would accept the challenge to establish a house for the preparation of overseas missionaries. He saw himself as a promoter of the project, by using his magazine as a means for raising funds and increasing mission awareness. But as time passed no one took up the challenge to establish a German Mission Seminary. Slowly but surely, and with a little prodding from the Apostolic Vicar of Hong Kong, Arnold discovered that God was calling him to undertake this difficult task. Many people said that he was not the right man for the job, or that the times were not right for such a project. Arnold’s answer was, “The Lord challenges our faith to do something new, precisely when so many things are collapsing in the Church.”

With the support of some Bishops, Arnold started to gather funds and to look for an appropriate place. The political situation in Germany forced him to buy a house in Steyl, Holland, just across the border from Germany. On the 8th of September 1875 the house was inaugurated, a date that is considered as the foundation date for the Divine Word Missionaries. The original building was an old tavern and it was in rather poor condition. Still, the formation of missionaries got underway and on the 2nd of March 1879 the first two missionaries set out for China. One of these was Joseph Freinademetz, from a place near Bolzano in North Italy, who is also to be canonized with Arnold Janssen. So, from its very beginning, the “German” Mission Seminary was in fact an international community. This openness to peoples of different cultures and nationalities would become a fundamental characteristic of the Congregations founded by Arnold Janssen.

Aware of the importance of publications for attracting vocations and funding, Arnold started a printing press just four months after the inauguration of the house. Thousands of generous lay persons contributed their time and effort to mission animation in German speaking countries by helping to distribute the magazines from Steyl.

The constant increase in the number of students required almost continuous construction work. Many men worked as volunteers for weeks, months and even years. A good number of them wanted to dedicate their lives to missionary outreach, not as priests, but through their own professions. Thus, the new congregation quickly developed into a community of Priests and Brothers, though this was not the original plan. By giving the Brothers a good professional formation and entrusting them with important jobs, Arnold helped to conceive a new type of religious missionary Brother.

In 1885, at the first General Chapter, the community was established as a religious congregation. Taking the name Societatis Verbi Divini (SVD), Society of the Divine Word, it was dedicated to the proclamation of the Gospel, especially among non-Christians. Arnold Janssen was elected the first Superior General.

The volunteers at the mission house included women as well as men. From practically the very beginning, a group of women, including Blessed Maria Helena Stollenwerk, helped in the kitchen, the laundry and with housekeeping chores. But their wish was to serve the mission as Religious Sisters. The faithful, selfless service they freely offered, and a recognition of the important role women could play in missionary outreach, urged Arnold to found the mission congregation of the “Servants of the Holy Spirit,” SSpS, on the 8th of December 1889. The first Sisters left for Argentina in 1895.

In 1896, Fr. Arnold decided to select some of the Sisters to form a cloistered branch, to be known as “Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration”, SSpSAP. Their service to the mission would be to maintain an uninterrupted adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, praying day and night for the church and especially for the other two active missionary congregations.

The three congregations grew quickly. When they celebrated the silver jubilee of the foundation of the Steyl Mission House, there were 208 priests, 549 Brothers, 190 Sisters, 99 students of theology and another 731 students at different levels of formation.

Arnold died on the 15th of January 1909. His life was a continual quest to do the will of God, trusting in Divine Providence and hard work. That his work has been blessed seems evident in the subsequent growth of the communities he founded. At present there are more than 6,000 Divine Word Missionaries in 65 countries. The Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters number more than 3800 serving in 35 countries, and the Holy Spirit Sisters of Perpetual Adoration count more than 400 members in 10 countries.