Born on 5^th November 1837 in Goch, Lower Rhineland, Arnold Janssen was the second of ten children. His parents were deeply religious and hard workers. Arnold developed the same traits. The family prayed the rosary daily. His father had the habit of reading aloud regularly the Prologue of John’s Gospel (Jn 1,1-18). All his life Arnold kept alive his devotion to the rosary and he had a special love of the Divine Master, present in Sacred Scripture and the Holy Eucharist. From his father he learned also to cultivate his devotion to the Holy Spirit.

 He was ordained a priest in the diocese of Münster on 15^th August 1861, and was appointed to teach in a secondary school in the town of Bocholt. He was respected as a strict but just teacher. During this period his faith and prayer-life matured. His priestly zeal impelled him to help people even outside of the school environment to deepen their faith.

 Thanks to his devotion to the Sacred Heart and to his intensive prayer-life, he became diocesan director of the Apostleship of Prayer. He spent much of his free time and his school vacations promoting prayer in the diocese and in all German-speaking regions. His enthusiasm for encouraging people to pray according to the intentions of the Sacred Heart made him ever-more conscious of the spiritual needs of the faithful – well beyond the confines of his diocese. This led him, for example, to pray and work for the reunification of the Christian Churches in Germany. He widened his horizons even more and became increasingly aware that the mission of the Church extends to all of humanity.

 He decided to dedicate his life to reawaking the German Church to its missionary duties and to encourage enthusiasm among Catholics for the missionary work of the Church outside of Germany – the “missions among ‘pagans’”. For this purpose he decided to publish a magazine with popular appeal. In 1873 he gave up his teaching post in order to dedicate more time to this new activity. The first issue of the Little Messenger of the Sacred Heart appeared in January 1874. In this review he presented information on the foreign missions and urged his Catholic readers to do more to support them.

 In the ‘70s, the Church in Germany lived through a painful experience of persecution: the Kulturkampf – the “battle for culture”. Anti-Catholic laws led to the expulsion of priests and religious and even to the imprisonment of some bishops. He was shrewd enough to use this opportunity to recruit some of those expelled priests to work in the foreign missions or, at least, to teach in a missionary institute. But Germany did not have even one such institute. He was hoping that some priest, interested in the missions, might start a mission institute. He saw his role only as promoting such a project – through his magazine and by collecting funds for it.    

Founder of the Society of the Divine Word

Slowly it became clear to a reluctant Arnold Janssen that the Lord was calling him to take this difficult undertaking into his own hands. Once he recognized that this was God’s will, he dedicated himself totally to this project. Most of his contemporaries thought that the time was not ripe for such an undertaking. Many also thought that he was not the right person for it. However, his trust in God helped him to overcome the discouraging remarks and negative comments of his critics.

 Many bishops supported him in spite of the unfavorable conditions in Germany. He began collecting funds and looking for a suitable place for his mission institute. Because of the political situation in Germany, he bought a house in Steyl, inside the Dutch border. He opened it officially on 8^th September 1875.

 Living conditions were poor, but at least the preparation of priests for work in the missions could start. By 2^nd March 1879, the first two missionaries were sent to China. One of them was Joseph Freinademetz who was beatified in 1875 together with Arnold Janssen.

 The number of students increased yearly and new buildings had to be built. The publications from Steyl helped greatly to attract vocations and to find much needed funds. In January 1876 Arnold Janssen opened his own printing press. Like his other initiatives, this one developed rapidly and, thanks to the skills of well-trained Brothers, soon became known for the quality of its work. On the celebration of its 25^th anniversary, the monthly review for families, Stadt Gottes (City of God) had a circulation of 200,000 copies and the St. Michael’s Calendar had more than 700,000. These publications were very influential in promoting interest in the foreign missions within the German Church. Rightly, Arnold Janssen has been called “the mission animator” of the Church in German-speaking countries at the end of the 19^th century. The dissemination of these publications depended a lot on the generous dedication and support of thousands of lay people – true missionaries in their own country.

 As the years passed, the printing press made Steyl known as a centre for missionary animation. Also, retreats given in Steyl had a strong impact. Fr. Janssen was a pioneer in introducing the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises to German-speaking countries. Every year, thousands of priests and lay people, men and women, took part in these retreats and brought home some of the spirit of prayer and the enthusiasm they had encountered in Steyl. Care was taken also that each retreatant took home a good number of rosaries. Perhaps few people have given away gratis as many rosaries as Arnold Janssen!

 Not all of those who knocked on the doors at Steyl with the desire to dedicate their life to the missions asked to become priests. Some wanted to help the missions by their work. Arnold Janssen accepted them gladly, even if this was not part of his original plan. Thus the branch of lay brothers developed. Providing them with a technical and professional preparation, and then putting them in important positions, he contributed to creating a new type of lay brother. Their high-quality work and spirit of prayer made a considerable contribution to the growth of the missionary institute and to the material and spiritual work in the missions. Here, as in other fields, Arnold Janssen was a pioneer when it was clear to him that the Lord was pushing him in a particular direction.

 At the first General Chapter in 1885, the community constituted itself as a religious Congregation, composed of priests and Brothers, with the name of “Society of the Divine Word” (SVD) whose purpose was to spread the Gospel among non-Christian peoples. Fr. Janssen was elected the first superior general.

 

Founder of two Congregations of Women

 Also several women asked to take part in this work, hoping they could serve the missions as missionary Sisters. The first of them was Blessed Maria Helena Stollenwerk (beatified in May 1995). Seeing the pastoral importance of women working in the missions side by side with male missionaries, Arnold Janssen founded a missionary congregation on 8^th December 1889, with the name “Servants of the Holy Spirit”.  In 1895, the first Sisters sent abroad left for Argentina. Very soon they proved themselves invaluable in all missions where the priests and brothers were already active.   

In 1896, Fr. Janssen chose a group of Sisters for the cloister and called them “Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration”. In adoration before the Blessed Sacrament they were to pray literally day and night for the Church and especially for Steyl’s two missionary congregations.

 

Evangelization unto the ends of the earth

 The Congregations grew rapidly. In May 1900 there were already 208 priests, 549 Brothers, 190 Sisters, 99 theology students and 731 aspirants.  

Seeing this growing number of missionaries, the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith encouraged Arnold Janssen to open houses and missions in many countries. At the time of his death in 1909, his missionaries were active on all five continents: China, Rome, Argentina, Austria, Togo, Germany, Ecuador, Brazil, the United States of America, New Guinea, Australia, Chile, Japan, Paraguay and the Philippines. One of his last decisions was to give permission to open a mission seminary at Techny, near Chicago, the first one in the United States.