Saint Arnold Janssen, 1837–1909

January 15

Saint Arnold Janssen was a German priest. He wanted everybody to know about Jesus. He helped priests and sisters, who served as missionaries, to build churches all around the world. They even went to faraway places like China. One of these priests became a Saint, too. His name was Joseph Freinademetz. Saint Arnold prayed to the Holy Spirit to help with his work. He asked some nuns to help him pray. These nuns took turns praying all day and all night for the missionaries. Today this order of nuns, known as the Holy Adoration Sisters, is sometimes called “Pink Sisters” because they wear pink habits.

Saint Arnold started a printing press to get funding for missionaries through his magazine The Little Messenger of the Sacred Heart. He founded a missionary community known as Divine Word Missionaries. The communities he founded are still active in over 60 countries.

Discuss: What do you pray to the Holy Spirit for?

Activity
Building Churches
Visual/Spatial

Explain to the child that Saint Arnold Janssen went far and wide to build churches. He always prayed for the Holy Spirit to help him.

• Give the child drawing paper to draw the kind of church they would build.
• Encourage them to have a symbol of the Holy Spirit somewhere on their church design.
• Encourage the child’s creativity by asking them to show in their drawing the outside and inside design of the building.