Founder
Saint Arnold Janssen (November 5, 1837 – January 15, 1909) was a Roman Catholic priest born in Goch, Germany, near the Dutch border. The second of ten children, his parents instilled in him a deep devotion to religion. He was ordained a priest in 1861. Janssen purchased land in Steyl, Netherlands to begin his seminary, dedicated in 1875 as "St. Michael the Archangel Mission House". Within a few years, many seminarians, priests and brothers were preparing for missionary service there, and the first two missionaries, Joseph Freinademetz and John Anzer, were sent to China. Together with the cofoundresses, Maria Helena Stollenwerk and Josepha Hendrina Stenmanns, Janssen also founded two congregations of religious Sisters: The Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters (members known as "Sister Servants of the Holy Spirit") on December 8, 1889, and the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration ("Sister Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration") on September 8, 1896.
He and Joseph Freinademetz were canonized on October 5, 2003 by Pope John Paul II, as was Daniele Comboni, an important missionary in Africa. Janssen was canonized after the healing of a Filipino teenager living in Baguio City who fell down on a bike and was not expected to recover from a head wound. According to her relatives and the Church, she was healed miraculously following prayers to Janssen.
Read more about this topic: Missionary Sisters Servants Of The Holy Spirit
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“Women ... are completely alone, though they were born and bred upon this soil, as if they belonged to another class in creation.”
—“Jennie June” Croly 1829–1901, U.S. founder of the woman’s club movement, journalist, author, editor. F, Demorest’s Illustrated Monthly Mirror of Fashions, pp. 363-4 (December 1870)