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. A priest in 1861 and a teacher at the gymnasium of Bocholt, he gave this up in 1873 in order to devote himself more directly to souls. As diocesan director of the Apostleship of Prayer, from 1866, he not only spread its centers and provided those enrolled with the Kleiner Herz-Jesu-Bote, but also felt impelled to found for Germany an Apostolic School, on the model of those of France and Belgium, for the formation of future missionaries.
The school was opened in 1875 at Steyl, which within ten years became a truly international institute. There arose the Society of the Divine Word, which received apostolic approval in 1901. The houses multiplied rapidly and the founder accepted several missions for his sons: Southern Shantung (1882), Togo (1892), New Guinea (1896), Niigata (1907), Abra (1908); and he also sent a good number of fathers and lay brothers to the United States, Brazil, Argentina and Chile. He likewise founded two women's Congregations; one of active life: the "Servants of the Holy Spirit" (1889) so that they might assist his missionaries in the mission territories; the other of enclosure: the "Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration" (1896), so that they might assist them with prayer and adoration of the Most Blessed Sacrament. For the propagation of the missionary press he created a large printing house at Steyl; and he willed that his members should occupy themselves not only with missionary literature of edification, but also with that of culture, conducted with rigorously scientific methods: which later yielded the precious works of the Anthropos-Institut. The cause of J.'s beatification was introduced on 10 July 1942.