ARNOLDI, GIOVANNI. – Jesuit, born at Warburg (Westphalia) on 24 June 1596, died a martyr at Verden on 4 November 1631. He entered the Society of Jesus in 1617; after being ordained a priest, he worked for several years at Emmerich and Bocholt; from 1627 onward, he was assigned to missions in the regions contested between Catholics and Protestants, at Falkenhagen and Quakenburg, amid no few dangers. When in 1629 the diocese of Verden was recovered by the Catholics, A. was summoned there and given charge of three parishes.
However, the landing in Germany of Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden (1630) rendered this forward position almost untenable. Attacked and slaughtered near Verden by fanatical peasants, A. was regarded as a martyr.
BIBL.: J. Metzler, P. Johannes A., S. J., Blutzeuge der norddeutschen Diaspora, Paderborn 1931. Edmondo Lamalle