Blessed Arnold Janssen, SVD

the founder of three missionary congregations

Born in 1837 in Goch, a village on the lower Rhine in Germany Arnold Janssen was ordained a priest in 1861. He had a passionate interest in the missions. Since the "Kulturkampf" was raging in Germany and the government was putting obstacles in the path of the Church, Arnold Janssen crossed the border into the Netherlands and founded his mission congregation in the little village of Steyl.

Fr. Janssen named his congregation the Society of the Divine Word because he pictured the Incarnate Word sowing missionaries around the world. Above all, he thought of Jesus Christ who is referred to in the beginning of John’s Gospel as "the Word":

But Fr. Janssen set to work with incredible trust in Divine Providence. After only four years, in 1879, he was able to send the first two missionaries to China.

After the first mission in China, a mission was accepted in Togo (West Africa), then one among the native tribes of Papua New Guinea. These were followed by missions in Japan, in the Philippines, among Americans of African descent in the Southern USA and then among the "Indios" of Paraguay. Teams of missionaries were also sent out to care for the spiritual needs of poor immigrants in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Ecuador.

The needs seem even greater now. But as we approach the end of the millennium we look to the future with hope. The challenges have been offered, the seeds have been planted, the fruit will begin to mature. With our good will and missionary zeal and with the help of our benefactors we can meet those challenges and answer Christ’s call.

Twenty years after founding the Society, Fr. Janssen dispatched Brother Wendelin Meyer, SVD to the United States. He arrived in Hoboken, NJ in 1895.

Within a year, more Divine Word Missionaries were sent to the United States. They eventually settled about 35 miles north of Chicago, in what is now known as Techny, Illinois.

In 1909, encouraged by successful recruiting efforts, the Society opened St. Mary’s Mission Seminary at Techny, the first seminary established in the US primarily to train men for the foreign missions.

In 1923, the Society opened St. Augustine Seminary in Bay St. Louis, MS to provide African American men with the opportunity to become Priests and Brothers.

The Missionaries of the Society of the Divine Word minister among African Americans in the US and in the Caribbean in 48 parishes. The Society also ministers among Vietnamese who are part of our new immigrant Church and among Hispanics who comprise the most rapidly growing Catholic population in the US. We work in numerous hospitals, prisons, educational institutions, and in communications.