Arnold Janssen was born on November 5, 1837 in Goch, a small town in Lower Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. As the second of ten brothers, he learned from his father to be a man of deep piety. He was ordained a priest on August 15, 1861 in the Diocese of Münster and received the task of teaching natural sciences and mathematics in the secondary school of Bocholt, where he earned the reputation of a demanding but just teacher.
Due to his deep devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, he was appointed Diocesan Director of the Apostolate of Prayer. Through this Apostolate, Arnold sought to open himself up to Christians of other denominations. Little by little, his concern for the spiritual needs of people beyond the boundaries of his diocese grew to the point of worrying for the universal mission of the Church. So he decided to devote his life to increase the awareness of his missionary responsibility in the German Church. With this project on his heart, he gave up teaching in 1873 and soon founded "The Little Messenger of the Sacred Heart," a monthly magazine that offered mission news and encouraged German-speaking Catholics to make a greater missionary commitment.
They were difficult times for the German Church. Bismarck had declared the "Kulturkampf" (culture struggle) and the approval of a series of anti-Catholic laws led to the expulsion of priests and religious, while many Bishops were imprisoned. Arnold Janssen then suggested sending some of these priests on mission or employing them in the formation of missionaries. With the encouragement of the Apostolic Vicar of Hong Kong, Arnold discovered that he was called by God for this difficult assignment.
Many thought that Arnold was not the best person or that the time was not yet right. "The Lord challenges our faith to accomplish something new, just when many things in the Church are collapsing," Arnold's response was. On September 8, 1875 Arnold inaugurated the missionary home in Steyl, Holland with the support of several bishops and began the Society of the Divine Word.
By March 2, 1879 the first two missionaries left for China. One of them was St. Joseph Freinademetz. Aware of the importance of publications to attract vocations and raise funds, Arnold opened his own printing press four months after inaugurating the house. Thousands of generous lay people devoted time and effort to missionary work in German-speaking countries, distributing Steyl's magazines. In this way, the new congregation developed since the beginning as a community of priests and brothers.
The volunteers who helped in the missionary house were not only men. Since the very beginning, a group of women put themselves at the service of the community, desiring to serve the mission as religious. From this desire and years of faithful service, an awareness of the importance of women in the mission led Arnold to found the congregation of "Servants of the Holy Spirit" on December 8, 1889. The first sisters left for Argentina in 1895, and in 1896, Father Arnoldo chose some sisters to form the cloistered congregation "Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration." Their service for the mission would be to pray day and night for the Church, especially for the other two missionary congregations, by maintaining an uninterrupted service of adoration to the Blessed Sacrament.
Arnold died on January 15, 1909. His life was a permanent search for God's will, trust in divine providence, and hard work. During the canonization of Fr. Arnold Janssen on October 5, 2003, St. John Paul II said: "He zealously carried out his priestly work, spreading the Word of God by means of the new mass media, especially the press. Obstacles did not dismay him. He liked to repeat: "Proclamation of the Good News is the first and most significant expression of love for one's neighbour". He now helps his religious family from Heaven, to continue faithfully along the tracks he marked out that witness to the permanent value of the Church's evangelizing mission."