JANSSEN, Arnold. – Founder of the Society of the Divine Word, b. at Goch (Rhineland) on 5 Nov. 1837; d. at Steyl (Holland) on 15 Jan. 1909. Ordained priest in 1861 and professor at the gymnasium in Bocholt, he resigned in 1873 to devote himself more directly to souls. As diocesan director of the Apostleship of Prayer from 1866, he not only propagated its centres and supplied members with the *Kleiner Herz-Jesu-Bote*, but also felt impelled to found for Germany an Apostolic School, on the model of those in France and Belgium, for the training of future missionaries.
The school was opened in 1875 at Steyl, which within ten years became a true international institute. There arose the Society of the Divine Word, which received apostolic approval in 1901. Houses multiplied rapidly, and the founder accepted for his sons several missions: southern Shantung (1882), Togo (1892), New Guinea (1896), Niigata (1907), Abra (1908); and he also sent a good number of priests and lay brothers to the United States, Brazil, Argentina, and Chile. He likewise founded two congregations of women: one of active life, the “Servants of the Holy Spirit” (1889), to assist his missionaries in the mission territories; the other of strict enclosure, the “Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration” (1896), to aid them by prayer and adoration of the Most Holy Sacrament. For the propagation of missionary printing he established at Steyl a large printing house; and he wished his men to concern themselves not only with edifying missionary literature, but also with that of a cultural nature, conducted by strictly scientific methods, which later yielded the valuable works of the Anthropos Institute. The cause for J.’s beatification was introduced on 10 July 1942.