Joseph Freinademetz, S.V.D., was a Ladin Roman Catholic priest and missionary in China. He has been declared a saint by the Catholic Church.
The Society of the Divine Word, abbreviated SVD and popularly called the Verbites or the Divine Word Missionaries, and sometimes the Steyler Missionaries, is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men. As of 2020, it consisted of 5,965 members composed of priests and religious brothers working in more than 70 countries, now part of VIVAT international. It is one of the largest missionary congregations in the Catholic Church. Its members add the nominal letters SVD after their names to indicate membership in the Congregation. The superior general is Paulus Budi Kleden who hails from Indonesia.
The Catholic Church in Papua New Guinea is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome. Papua New Guinea has approximately two million Catholic adherents, approximately 27% of the country's total population.
Dominic Carmon, S.V.D. was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of New Orleans from 1993 to 2006.
James Terry Steib, S.V.D. is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. Steib served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Louis in Missouri from 1983 to 1993. He became the first African-American bishop of the Diocese of Memphis in Tennessee in 1993, serving there until 2016.
Curtis John Guillory, S.V.D. is an American prelate of the Catholic Church and member of the Society of the Divine Word. Guillory served as Bishop of Beaumont from 2000 to 2020. He was the first non-canonist to hold this position.
The Liceo del Verbo Divino, also referred to by its acronym LVD, is a private, Catholic, co-educational basic education institution run by the Philippine Southern Province of the Society of the Divine Word in Tacloban City, Philippines. It was founded by the Divine Word Missionaries in 1929.
The Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit, also known as Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters, or simply Holy Spirit Sisters is a religious congregation within the Catholic Church. The group has 3,000 members in 46 different countries. The congregation was founded by Arnold Janssen in 1889 in Steyl, the Netherlands. Janssen had previously founded in 1875 a male missionary congregation called Divine Word Missionaries. Janssen chose Maria Helena Stollenwerk, called Mother Maria (1852–1900) and Hendrina Stenmanns, called Mother Josepha (1852–1903) as co-foundresses.
William (Wilhelm) Finnemann was a priest of the Society of the Divine Word, auxiliary bishop of Manila and apostolic vicar of Calapan, the Philippines. He was martyred by the Japanese through being thrown into the sea near Verde Island off the coast of Batangas City, Batangas.
John Bukovsky, SVD, named Ján Fukna at birth, was a Slovakia-born American prelate of the Catholic Church who worked in the diplomatic service of the Holy See.
Techny is a neighborhood of Northbrook, Illinois, United States. Once a separate community, it was annexed by Northbrook in 1989. The North American headquarters of the Divine Word Missionaries has been located in Techny since 1896. The area's name derived from St. Joseph's Technical School, which the religious congregation established in 1901 and operated for twelve years. St. Mary's Mission Seminary, the first of its kind which prepared priests and Brothers for foreign missions, was opened by the Divine Word Missionaries in 1909. Techny has its own post office with ZIP code 60082.
Fr. Lawrence Lovasik, SVD was born on June 22, 1913, in Tarentum, Pennsylvania. He attended primary school at Saint Clement School before continuing on to Divine Word minor seminary and college in Girard, Pennsylvania. In 1962 he published his work "The Hidden Power of Kindness". He graduated in 1931.
Aloysius Liguda, was a priest and is venerated as a blessed martyr of the Society Of The Divine Word Missionaries (SVD). Liguda was a chaplain, and teacher. He died at Dachau concentration camp in the course of medical experimentation.
Grzegorz (Gregory) Bolesław Frąckowiak was a Society of the Divine Word (SVD) martyr. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on 13 June 1999 as one of the 108 Polish Martyrs of World War II.
Leopoldo C. Jaucian is a Roman Catholic Bishop of the Philippines and the current Bishop of Bangued in Abra (Philippines).
Franz Xaver Nies was a German Catholic missionary of the Society of the Divine Word in Shandong during the late 19th century. Together with his fellow missionary Richard Henle, he was killed in the Juye Incident that led to the German occupation of the Kiautschou Bay concession and was followed by the acquisition of concessions in China by other foreign powers.
Jerome LeDoux, S.V.D. was a Black Catholic priest best known for his ministry at St. Augustine Church in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was noted for his Afrocentric Masses, his ebullient style and his writing.
St. Augustine Seminary, originally named Sacred Heart College, was a Black Catholic seminary run by the Society of the Divine Word in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. Founded in 1920 in Greenville at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, it relocated in 1923 was the first seminary intended to educate African Americans for the priesthood.
