JANSSEN, ARNOLD, BL.

Religious founder; b. Goch, in the Rhineland, Germany, November 5, 1837; d. Steyl, Netherlands, January 15, 1909. After passing a state examination to teach natural sciences in the secondary schools in Bonn (1859), he studied for the priesthood in Münster and was ordained (1861). For the next 12 years he taught science in a secondary school in Bocholt. From 1867 he was also diocesan director of the Apostleship of Prayer, which he promoted throughout Germany by publishing a periodical and distributing free leaflets. After relinquishing his teaching duties (1873), he devoted himself to propagating devotion to the Sacred Heart and interest in the missions. With four companions he opened a house to train German priests for foreign mission work. Because of the Kulturkampf the site selected for this house was in the Netherlands at Steyl, near the German border. Janssen's original plan of a missionary society of priests whose members would not take religious vows crystallized into the Society of the Divine Word, a congregation of priests and lay brothers with simple vows. The brothers operated the presses in his large printing establishment at Steyl. During Janssen's term as the first superior general, the institute grew rapidly and spread to the U.S. and to several other countries. In 1889 Janssen founded the Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters to educate girls in mission territories. He founded the cloistered Sisters Servants of the Holy Ghost of Perpetual Adoration, dedicated to perpetual adoration in order to aid by their prayers his missions and missionaries. The Roman decree introducing Janssen's cause for beatification was issued in 1942. He was beatified on Oct. 19, 1975 by Paul VI.

Feast: Jan. 15.

Bibliography: Briefe in die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika (Nettetal 1994); Briefe nach Neuguinea und Australien (Nettetal 1996); Briefe nach Südamerika (Nettetal 1989–1993); Mit dem Segen der Kirche: Briefe an Arnold Janssen (St. Augustin, Steyler Mission, 1975); P. Arnold Janssen und P. Josef Freinademetz: Briefwechsel 1904–1907: Korresponde[n]z zwischen zwei Seligen, ed. r. hartwich (St. Augustin 1978). j. alt, Arnold Janssen: Lebensweg und Lebenswerk des Steyler Ordensgründers (Nettetal 1999). j. a. bauer, Das Presseapostolat Arnold Janssens (Nettetal 1989). h. drenkelfort, Pater Arnold Janssen SVD (Sankt Augustin 1975). h. fischer, Arnold Janssen: Gründer des Steyler Missionswerkes (Steyl 1919), Eng. Life of Arnold Janssen, tr. f. m. lynk (Techny, Ill. 1925); Vater Arnolds Getreuen (Steyl 1925), Eng. Father Arnold Janssen, a Modern Pioneer in Mission Work, tr. and abr. s. kasbauer, Ein Mensch unter Gottes Meissel (2d ed. Steyl 1959). f. m. lynk (London 1934); Tempel Gottes seid ihr! (Steyl 1932).

[v. j. fecher]