Abbreviation | SSpS |
---|---|
Established | 1889 |
Founder | Saint Arnold Janssen |
Founded at | Steyl, Netherlands |
Type | Centralized Religious Institute of Consecrated Life of Pontifical Right (for Women) |
Motto | Latin: ' English: ' |
Generalate | Casa Generalizia, Serve dello Spirito Santo, Via Cassia 645, 00189 Rome, Italy |
Superior General | Sr. Maria Theresia Hornemann, SSpS |
Countries served | |
Affiliations | Roman Catholic |
Website | https://www.worldssps.org/ |
Remarks | Ministries include education, health, pastoral care, spiritual guidance, adult education, communication, catechetics, chaplaincy work, social work, administration and interfaith dialogue |
Formerly called | Mission Congregation of the Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit |
The Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit, also known as Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters, or simply Holy Spirit Sisters (Latin: Congregatio Missionalis Servarum Spiritus Sancti, SSpS) 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. [1] 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.
This community of religious women is rooted in the Trinitarian spirituality. [2]
Arnold Janssen (November 5, 1837 – January 15, 1909) was born in Goch, Germany, near the Dutch border and ordained a priest in 1861. In 1875 he founded in Steyl, the Netherlands "St. Michael the Archangel Mission House" to train priests for the missions. From this developed the Society of the Divine Word.
Helena Stollenwerk was born on 28 November 1852. [3] At a very young age she developed an interest in joining the missions and going to China, but was unable to find a convent that sent missionaries abroad. In 1882 she met Arnold Janssen and worked as a kitchen maid at St. Michael Mission House in Steyl. In 1884, she was joined by Hendrina Stenmanns. [4]
Janssen perceived a need for female missionaries to complement the work of the male missionaries. [5] On 8 December 1889 Stollenwerk became a postulant of a women's congregation established by Janssen, the Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit, [6] and on 17 January 1892 assumed the religious name "Maria Virgo". She made her vows on 12 March 1894 and later became abbess on 12 August 1898.
The first missionary sisters set out in 1895 for Argentina. Others were sent to Togo in 1897. [4] [3]
Ministries include education, health, pastoral care, spiritual guidance, adult education, communication, catechetics, chaplaincy work, social work, administration and interfaith dialogue. [1]
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.
Arnold Janssen, S.V.D., was a German-Dutch Catholic priest and missionary who is venerated as a saint. He founded the Society of the Divine Word, a Catholic missionary religious congregation, also known as the Divine Word Missionaries, as well as two congregations for women. In 1889 he founded in Steyl, Netherlands, the Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit and in 1896 at the same place the Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters. He was canonized on 5 October 2003, by Pope John Paul II.
Religion in Papua New Guinea is dominated by various branches of Christianity, with traditional animism and ancestor worship often occurring less openly as another layer underneath or more openly side by side with Christianity. The Catholic Church has a plurality of the population. The courts, government, and general society uphold a constitutional right to freedom of speech, thought, and beliefs. A secular state, there is no state religion in the country, although the government openly partners with several Christian groups to provide services, and churches participate in local government bodies.
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.
The College of the Holy Spirit of Tarlac is a private, Catholic basic and higher education institution run by the Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit in Tarlac, Philippines. It was established in 1939 as the Catholic Academy of Tarlac.
The Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters are a Roman Catholic religious institute. The nuns live a contemplative life, focused on perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, offering intercessory prayers for the world 24 hours a day. Inside the enclosure the nuns wear rose-colored tunics with their habits symbolizing their joy for the Holy Spirit. As a consequence of these habits, the nuns are known colloquially as the "pink sisters".
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.
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.
This is a list of selected references for Christianity in China.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Rourkela is a diocese located in the city of Rourkela in the ecclesiastical province of Cuttack-Bhubaneswar in India.
Johann Baptist Anzer, S.V.D., was a member of the Society of the Divine Word, popularly known as the Divine Word Missionaries, and Catholic bishop of the German Mission to China in Shandong Province.
Andreas Amrhein was a Swiss Benedictine monk who founded the Benedictine Congregation of Saint Ottilien and the Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing to combine the Benedictine way of life with activity in the mission field.
Steyl is a village in the Tegelen district of the municipality of Venlo, the Netherlands. The village on the river Meuse is mainly known for its monasteries. In 2004, a section of the village including four monasteries was made a conservation area under protection of the Dutch heritage agency Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed.
Georg Maria Stenz was a Catholic missionary of the Society of the Divine Word in Shandong during the period from 1893 to 1927. He was involved in two major incidents where force was used against Catholic missionaries in Shandong, the Juye incident and the Jietou incident. The Juye incident (1897) was an attack on Stenz's mission station in Zhang Jia Village in which two German missionaries were killed. Stenz, the target of the attack, managed to hide and escaped unharmed. The incident was used by the German Empire to justify the occupation of Qingdao. In the Jietou incident, Stenz and a group of Chinese Christians were mistreated and held prisoner in the village of Jietou for three days resulting in German military intervention and compensation claims.
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.
Helena Stollenwerk was a German Roman Catholic and a professed member of the Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration. Stollenwerk collaborated with Arnold Janssen and Hendrina Stenmanns and co-founded the Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit.
The Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus, also known as the Comboni Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, or the Verona Fathers, and originally called the Sons of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, is a Catholic clerical male religious congregation of pontifical right.
The Missionary Clarisses of the Most Holy Sacrament is a female religious institute of pontifical right. The sisters of this congregation use the initials M.C.