Arnold Janssen was a German-Dutch priest and missionary who 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. Janssen was born November 5, 1837, in Germany, near the border with Holland. He had ten brothers and sisters. When he was a college student he entered a math contest and won. He used the prize money from the contest to treat his father to a small vacation.
He developed a deep, simple faith. Janssen was ordained a priest on August 15, 1861. He worked teaching high school physics and religion. He went on to spend some time as a pastor, until 1873 when he For a while he worked as a high school teacher teaching physics and catechism. He devoted some years to pastoral work. In 1873, he became the chaplain and director at an Ursuline convent In 1867 he became the diocesan director of the Apostleship of Prayer.
During the Kulturkampf, Janssen bout land in the Netherlands to begin a seminary. In 1875, the St. Michael the Archangel Mission was dedicated. In just a few years, seminarians, priests, and brothers were preparing for missionary service From the beginning, a group of women, including Blessed Maria Helena Stollenwerk, served the community. On September 8, 1896, Janssen founded two congregations of religious sisters. The Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters, and the Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters.
Arnold Janssen died in Steyl, Holland, on January 15, 1909 He was canonized on October 5, 2003, by Pope Saint John Paul II.