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.
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.
Peter Friedhofen was a German Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Brothers of Mercy of Mary Help of Christians. Friedhofen worked as a chimney sweep with his older brother until the latter died. This prompted Friedhofen to take care of his brother's widow and children until he founded his own religious order in mid-1850.
Eugénie Joubert was a French Roman Catholic professed religious from the Sisters of the Holy Family of the Sacred Heart. Joubert lived a short life - she died due to tuberculosis but her life was noted for her staunch devotion to the Mother of God and her commitment to her spiritual cultivation was well known and admired.
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 Palomino worked as a domestic in her adolescence having withdrawn from her education in order to support her parents though she later worked with the Salesian Sisters before she began the process of becoming a religious of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.
María Pilar Izquierdo Albero was a Spanish Roman Catholic professed religious 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.
Gaetana Sterni was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Sisters of Divine Will. Sterni's life became marred due to the deaths of close relations including her husband and sole child which prompted her to look towards an apostolate to aid others and to ease others' sufferings. The order she founded was dedicated to total consecration to Jesus Christ and to an active apostolate of evangelic zeal.
Rita Lopes de Almeida - in religion Rita Amada de Jesus - was a Portuguese professed religious and the founder of the "Sisters of Jesus, Mary and Joseph" religious congregation. She spread the faith in the spirit of evangelization across Portugal despite a period of anti-religious sentiment and even received some intimidating threats during the course of her apostolate due to this; her order was dedicated to tending to girls and it ferried them off to their parents when anti-religious sentiment intensified.
Blessed María Pilar López de Maturana Ortiz de Zárate - in religious 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 Maria Pia Mastena - born Teresa Maria - was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Religious Sisters of the Holy Face. Mastena fostered a deep devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus and tried to promote that devotion to others in her religious career as a nun. Mastena first desired the contemplative life but was denied this after she entered the convent since it was not a cloister. Instead she dedicated herself to teaching in several Italian cities after having left another convent and another religious order when she deemed contemplative life was not the life she felt God wanted for her. Her labors were dedicated instead to consolidating her new religious order which began to grow after World War II until her sudden death in 1951.
Blessed Maria Scrilli was an Italian Roman Catholic who was a professed religious who established the Sisters of Our Lady of Mount Carmel - a branch of the Carmelite order. She later assumed the religious name of "Maria Teresa of Jesus" upon making her profession and in dedication to Saint Teresa of Ávila.
Savina Petrilli was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious who founded the Sisters of the Poor of Saint Catherine of Siena upon receiving the encouragement of Pope Pius IX.
Elisabetta Vendramini was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious who established the Franciscan Elizabethan Sisters in 1830 in Padua. She relocated there after she broke off her engagement to a man from Ferrara.
Tomasa Ortiz Real was a Spanish Roman Catholic professed religious who founded the Salesian Sisters of the Sacred Heart and assumed the religious name of "Piedad of the Cross" upon becoming a nun.
Maria Troncatti was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious from the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco. Troncatti was from a farming family and entered her congregation in 1907; she worked as a nurse during World War I and became part of the missions in Ecuador from 1922 until her death in a plane crash in 1969.
Maria Giovanna Fasce was an Italian Roman Catholic professed religious of the Augustinian nuns in the religious name of "Maria Teresa". Fasce served in various leadership positions in her convent in Genoa and was noted for the establishment of an orphanage and spreading the charism of Saint Augustine and Saint Rita of Cascia.
Helena Stollenwerk was a German Roman Catholic and a professed member of the Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration in the religious name of "Maria Virgo". Stollenwerk collaborated with Saint Arnold Janssen and Blessed Hendrina Stenmanns and co-founded the Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit.
María Antonia Bandrés Elósegui was a Spanish Roman Catholic professed religious from the Daughters of Jesus. She lived a brief life but was noted for her ardent faith and her Marian devotion while also being known for the effect she had on the faithful as well as agnostics whom she came into contact with.
María del Carmen González-Ramos García-Prieto de Muñoz – in religion María del Carmen of the Child Jesus – was a Spanish Roman Catholic professed religious and the founder of the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Hearts. She married in mjd-1857 – against her parents' advice – to a brash and dissolute husband and secured his repentance not too long before his death.
Ángela Ginard Martí – in religious Maria de los Ángeles – was a Spanish Roman Catholic professed religious from the Zelatrices of the Eucharistic Devotion. Ginard took care of her siblings growing up and did embroidering to support them alongside two older sisters. But the experience at her First Communion and the example of her two nun aunts caused her to think about entering the religious life as a nun. Ginard entered a religious order in 1921 having her parents give their assent and she set about tasks such as embroidering cloth for the altar and preparing bread for hosts.
