Fr. Arnold Janssen was a German diocesan priest, born at Goch, on November 5, 1837, who had made it his one great concern to pray for the world-wide vineyard of the Lord and to train missionaries who would work in it. As a young student at the University of Bonn, he distinguished himself by winning a competition through an essay on a botanical subject. His brilliance qualified him for professorship at the age of 22.

The University of Berlin offered him a teaching position in the natural sciences. He rejected the prestigious offer. The glory and salary of a university position did not succeed in baiting him into the secure and serene existence of European intellectuals. He chose to be a priest, risking the restlessness of a life spent for the redemption of the many. At 24, the scientist became a priest, somehow reconciling the secular and the sacred.

As a priest, he was unassuming, frail and pious. His first assignment was to teach mathematics and the sciences in the high school in Bocholt, Westphalia. While handling these secular tasks, he managed to act as the director of the apostleship of prayer in the diocese of Muenster, finding no problem in reconciling the two tasks.

As he immersed himself deeply in the life of prayer, his missionary zeal grew. The contemplative and the active in him interacted vigorously and shaped him into the dynamo that he was. Two desires grew ardently and urgently in his heart: he wanted to work for the reunification of the divided Christians in Germany and the propagation of the kingdom of Christ in the mission lands. These aspirations finally moved Fr. Janssen to give up his teaching position.
 
At this time, Germany was torn by political strife, a period of dictatorial leadership historians call the Kulturkampf. It was a time of cold rationalization, of autocratic compulsion, of deification of the state. In May 1873, the Prussian state passed laws affecting the whole religious structure. It became a criminal offense for any priest to exercise his priestly functions without authorization from civil power. Seminarians were declared subject to military service. Subsequently, fines and taxes were collected. Prison sentences were meted out. Bishops and priests were thrown into prison.
 
Those were times that tried the church and in many ways cleansed her soul in the fires of struggle. Those times had a strong impact on Fr. Janssen and like many churchmen at that period he came out purified and burning with new fire. The power that he saw rise into the heights of evil led him to seek the good in the depths of total service for God and men. He saw the true empire in the rule of the meek man of Nazareth, who came not to lord over men but to lay down His life so that others may have life abundantly. He did not see the good in the desire of his country for world-wide conquest but in the desire of Christ to build a Kingdom worthy of His Father and men. He saw the vision of the Kingdom of the gospel and made it his mission to help in building it up in the world.
 
He devoted his time to the publication of the magazine, Messenger of the Sacred Heart and called on all the priests exiled by the German regime to work for the missions. In his magazine, he put out the challenge: "Is there no one who feels the call to devote himself to the cause of the missions? Would it not be possible for German priests to band together and form a German Mission Seminary in some safe region outside the homeland? "
 
But how could one entertain the idea of mission during a Kulturkampf? It was all so seemingly ill-timed that a bishop newly released from prison answered: "We live in a time when everything is threatening to collapse and you want to build up something new?" Another bishop exclaimed: "Janssen is either a fool or a saint." And events showed that the humble and modest Arnold Janssen was not a fool.
 
He opened his first mission seminary in 1875 in an old dilapidated inn across the border in Steyl, Holland. This was done under the most modest circumstances. Fr. Arnold made strict demands on those he admitted: first of all a spirit of prayer and humility, then hard work and a simple style of life in evangelical poverty; missionaries would have to be prepared for great sacrifices. Yet numbers steadily increased. In 1889, after a prolonged period of preparation, he founded a congregation of mission sisters in the service of love - the Sister Servants of the Holy Spirits (S.Sp.S.). In 1896 he formed a branch of the cloistered sisters for contemplative work - the Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration - since 1917 an independent congregation.
 
The founder never left Europe, but his priests and brothers soon set out to make the world their parish: in 1879 he sent the first two to China; in 1892 the first were sent to Togo; in 1896 to New Guinea; in 1905 to the colored in North America; in 1906 to Japan; in 1908 to the Indians in Paraguay. From 1889 onwards he sent men to several countries in South America: Argentina, Ecuador, Brazil, Chile. Shortly before his death, he made arrangements to send priests and brothers to the Philippines.
 
When he died on January 15, 1909, his initial community of four had expanded to a big Family of three congregations working all over the world, building God's Kingdom.

Maybe it was while dreamily looking over the magnificent view of the deep valley from the ancient little Holy Cross Chapel perched 2000 meters above sea level on an outcropping above his home in the Dolomite Mountains of South Tyrol or possibly during the daily family rosary…or through the encouragement of family and friends, but somehow, the young man, Joseph Freinademetz, was inspired to become a missionary to proclaim Christ’s word in far-off lands. Joseph was born on April 15, 1852, the fourth child of Giovanmattia and Anna Maria Freinademetz. The family eked out a living on their poor and small farm as did their neighbors.  Years later, the little farm house and quiet hamlet of Oies in the Gader Valley changed when Joseph Freinademetz, SVD, was beatified in 1975 by Pope Paul VI and then canonized a saint in the Roman Catholic Church on October 5, 2003, by Pope John Paul II in Rome.

Joseph’s early years were uneventful. He helped with the farm chores, attended daily Mass at his local parish and, on the advice of the parish priest, attended a school some eleven hours walk from his home. He eventually entered the major seminary and was ordained a priest for the Brixon Diocese in 1875. His initial assignment was to be a teacher. But soon an article in the local diocesan newsletter about the new Mission House at Steyl, Holland, founded by Fr. Arnold Janssen caught his attention. Joseph went to visit the Mission House. The visit was enough to convince Joseph that this was where he could follow his vocation to be a missionary priest. He joined the fledgling group at Steyl in 1878, and barely a year later he received his mission cross along with Fr. John Baptist Anzer, SVD. He had one more brief visit to his family home to say goodbye for the last time, as he would never return to his homeland again. He was to be a missionary in China. In 1881, the Mission House had received its own mission territory, the Province of Shandong. Joseph was so devoted to his mission that, except to recover from an illness, he never left Shandong.

One thing you might notice when looking at a picture of Joseph is that he looks Chinese. He so enculturated himself to China that he took on a form of dress similar to the local Chinese spiritual leaders. His most frequently repeated words were, “I would like to be Chinese in heaven.” He truly loved the Chinese people with whom he lived and worked, and Joseph was especially energized by the local clergy and catechists. He promoted the idea that they should become the leaders in the local Church before Rome was quite ready for this. It was decades later that Rome appointed the first Chinese bishops and also the first non-white Cardinal, Thomas Tien, SVD.

As so many missionaries have discovered the foundation of their mission work is first and foremost a strong personal prayer life. Joseph had promoted this amongst the clergy along with the words, “Do you imagine you can become holy without meditation, something no saint was able to do? Without meditation life is lost.” He said his daily Mass and prayed his Divine Office with the same intense dedication as he did with his missionary work. Joseph had unwavering hope and belief in the power of God and the sacraments. During such difficult times as the Boxer Rebellion in which two young Divine Word Missionaries were martyred, he remained at his mission post. Well before his death, the Chinese people and others with whom he worked recognized him as a saintly man for his humility, for his firm yet gentle approach to his work, and for his total love of his people. Toward the end of his all-too-few years, he was appointed the Provincial for the Society of the Divine Word, a post he held until his death from tuberculosis in 1908 at age 46.

"LUZVIMINDA" is a word that is sometimes used to refer to the Philippines.  While it sounds like a woman's name, it is actually an acronym for the three groups of islands into which the country is often divided - Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao.  The Southern Philippine Province, which came into existence with the re-division of the Philippine SVD in 1982 and is dedicated to St. Joseph Freinademetz, covers the Visayas and Mindanao.

Who are we? We are religious and missionary brothers and priests. The SVD-PHS works in Education, Formation and Pastoral Ministry characterized by four dimensions: communications, mission animation, justice and peace and the bible.

On Education: We communicate the “Word” to more than 30,000 students in our three universities in Cebu (University of San Carlos), Bohol (Holy Name University) and in Tacloban (Divine Word University – now Lecio del Verbo Divino).

On Formation: We form young adults who desire to be religious missionary brothers or priests. The Formation Community for brothers is in Cebu City, while the cleric/priest candidates study philosophy at the Divine Word Formation Center in Davao City and in the Christ the King Mission Seminary in Quezon City. We are also involved in the formation of diocesan seminarians in the Regional Major Seminary in Davao City.

On Pastoral Ministry: We are missionaries of the “Word to the World”. The people whom we work with are our dialogue partners. We chose the word dialogue to underline the importance of communication and the implication of a two-way traffic in communicating the Word. Our Pastoral Ministries cover parish administration in the provinces of Surigao, Agusan del Sur, Zamboanga del Sur, and Cebu.  We also have specialized apostolates in slum areas with sexually abused children, hospital chaplaincy, indigenous people, managing radio stations, enterprises, retreat centers, Justice and Peace and Integrity of Creation and the Bible.