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.
María Bernarda Bütler, born Verena Bütler, was a Swiss religious sister. She founded the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Sinners and served in the missions in Ecuador and Colombia. Bütler worked for the care of the poor in these places until her exile from Ecuador and entrance into Colombia where she worked for the remainder of her life. The congregation moved there with her, and continued to expand during her time there until her death.
Giulia Salzano was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Catechetical Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (1905). Salzano served as a teacher prior to becoming a religious and since 1865 worked in Casoria as a teacher for children where she demonstrated herself as an apt catechist and instructor.
Bolesława Maria Lament was a Polish Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Holy Family. Lament worked as a seamstress and soon joined a religious order though left just prior to her profession upon experiencing vocational doubts; she returned to her life as a seamstress and worked with two of her sisters to support their siblings and widowed mother. The death of her seminarian brother prompted her to return to the religious life - Honorat Koźmiński encouraged this return - and she later founded an order that soon spread and took her to Russia though its revolution forced her departure during World War I.
Maria Jabłońska - in religious Bernardyna - was a Polish Roman Catholic professed religious and the co-founder of the Sisters Servants of the Poor (1891) that she founded alongside Albert Chmielowski.
Eusebia Palomino Yenes was a Spanish Roman Catholic professed religious and a professed member from the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco. Palomino worked as a domestic in her adolescence having withdrawn from her education in order to support her parents though she later worked with the Salesian Sisters before she began the process of becoming a religious of that order in the 1920s; she afterwards continued most of the same duties and became known for her devotion to the five wounds of Jesus Christ and to the Via Crucis.
Maria Domenica Mantovani was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious, and the co-founder of the Little Sisters of the Holy Family; she established them alongside Giuseppe Nascimbeni. As a nun she received the religious name of Maria of the Immaculate.
María Pilar Izquierdo Albero was a Spanish religious sister who founded the Missionary Work of Jesus of Mary (1939). Albero founded her order at the end of the Spanish Civil War - when it was safe to do so - after having rallied from a serious form of blindness and paralysis from 1927 to 1939 though her order was later disbanded and restarted again after a series of complications.
Blessed María Pilar López de Maturana Ortiz de Zárate, also known by her religious name Margarita María, was a Spanish Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Mercedarian Missionaries of Bérriz. The religious made several international trips in order to serve in the missions as her order often dabbled in and undertook these trips despite a serious ulcer that transcended into stomach cancer but nevertheless she continued to promote the charism of the missions.
Blessed Bruna Pellesi, known as Maria Rosa of Jesus, was an Italian nun who was a member of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Christ. Pellesi served as an educator in places such as Sassuolo until she contracted tuberculosis and was moved to various sanatoriums for recuperation until the end of her life when she died in her convent.
María del Carmen Sallés y Barangueras, also known by her religious name Carmen of Jesus, was a Spanish Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception. Sallés is best known for being a strong advocate of both genders being equal and a staunch defender of the rights of women, since she made this the focus of her life from the beginning of her entrance into the religious life.
Blessed Maria Teresa of Saint Joseph, DCJ, was a German religious sister and the founder of the Carmelite Daughters of the Divine Heart of Jesus. Tauscher worked in Cologne and was removed from her position after she converted to Roman Catholicism in 1888 so founded a congregation in the Netherlands upon choosing the Carmelite charism for her life.
Assunta Marchetti was an Italian Roman Catholic religious sister and the co-founder of the Missionary Sisters of Saint Charles Borromeo Scalabrinians; she worked in Brazil from 1895 until her death. She has been beatified as a Blessed Mother. Her priest brother Giuseppe is titled as Venerable on the path to sainthood.
Maria Karłowska – in religious Maria of Jesus Crucified – was a Polish Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Sisters of the Divine Shepherd of Divine Providence. Karłowska worked with poor and abandoned people with an emphasis on girls and also tried to aid prostitutes avoid such a life and build another kind of life so used her order to reach out to such people to render assistance.
Elisa Angela Meneguzzi was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious and a member of the Sisters of Saint Francis de Sales. She assumed the religious name of "Liduina" upon making her solemn profession into the order. She also served in the missions in Ethiopia where she became known for her care of the ill and for her efforts at increased ecumenism; this earned her two titles: "Sister Gudda" and the "Ecumenical Flame".
Hendrina Stenmanns was a German Roman Catholic professed religious who assumed the religious name of "Josefa" and was the co-founder of the Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit (1889), which she founded alongside Arnold Janssen and Helena Stollenwerk. She was also a professed member of the Third Order of Saint Francis since 1871.
Maria Clara of the Child Jesus — born Libânia do Carmo Galvão Mexia de Moura Telles de Albuquerque was a Portuguese Roman Catholic professed religious who established the Franciscan Hospitaller Sisters of the Immaculate Conception in Lisbon. She led the congregation as its superior.
Vicenta Chávez Orozco, also known by her religious name María Vicenta de Santa Dorotea, was a Mexican Roman Catholic nun and the founder of the Servants of the Holy Spirit and the Poor. Orozco was admitted into a hospital in Guadalajara with pneumonia and there experienced a radical call to help others in the same hospital who were ill - she recovered and soon returned to fulfil this promise while later becoming a religious and establishing her own order in order to advance this mission.
Maria Josefa Karolina Brader, also known by her religious name Maria Caridad of the Holy Spirit, was a Swiss religious sister who founded the Franciscan Sisters of Mary Immaculate. Brader served as a member of the missions in Ecuador for a brief period of time before being transferred to Colombia where she served as a catechist and evangelizer for the remainder of her life.
Colomba Matylda Gabriel - in religious Janina - was a Ukrainian Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Benedictine Sisters of Charity. Gabriel studied under the Order of Saint Benedict in Lviv and later became a Benedictine herself while dedicating herself to teaching at her old school before she was forced to relocate to Rome in 1900 where she founded her order and joined a Benedictine branch there.
