Divine Word Missionaries
About Us
Known as the Verbites or the Divine Word Missionaries, we are a Catholic missionary congregation of priests and brothers, serving in more than seventy countries on six continents.
Who we are
The Society of the Divine Word — Societas Verbi Divini in Latin, SVD for short — is a Catholic congregation of religious priests and brothers devoted to missionary work. Around the world we are also called the Verbites, the Steyler Missionaries, or simply the Divine Word Missionaries.
Our name comes from the Word of God made flesh. Our founder pictured the Incarnate Word sowing missionaries across the world like seed, and that image still shapes the way we pray, work and live.
We live the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience in community, and we are international by design: mission areas are the responsibility of the whole Society, not of one province alone. That is why a missionary from India or Poland can find himself serving a parish in the Highlands of Papua New Guinea.
Our story in brief
1875
Arnold Janssen opens a mission house in a former inn just across the border from Germany. Church–state conflict at home, the Kulturkampf, had closed seminaries and expelled religious orders, and young candidates soon arrived in numbers.
1879 – 1892
The first missionaries go to China in 1879. Argentina follows in 1889 and Togo in 1892, so that within two decades the young Society is at work on three continents.
1895
Divine Word Missionaries arrive in the United States in October 1895. Their seminary at Techny, Illinois, would later send many young missionaries overseas, among them to Papua New Guinea.
1896
At Rome's request the Society takes on a new mission in German New Guinea. On 13 August 1896 the first six missionaries land at Madang — the beginning of a story that continues today.
Read the story in Papua New Guinea →1909
Arnold Janssen dies in Steyl. By then his missionaries are at work in fifteen countries on six continents.
2003
Pope John Paul II canonizes Arnold Janssen and Joseph Freinademetz on 5 October 2003.
2025 – 2026
The Society marks 150 years since its foundation. In Papua New Guinea the jubilee is joined by 130 years of mission.
What shapes our mission
Wherever we serve, our life and ministry are shaped by four characteristic dimensions.
i.
The Word at the centre. We read, pray and share the Scriptures, making the Word of God known and loved in every language and culture.
ii.
We help local churches and communities discover, support and take part in the mission of the Church.
iii.
Print, radio, film and digital tools help us share the Gospel, and people's own stories, with a wider world.
iv.
We stand with the poor and the marginalised, work for reconciliation and care for the earth we share.
One family
Arnold Janssen believed women were as essential to the mission as men. Under his guidance the Society grew into a family of three missionary congregations.
1875
Priests and brothers: the congregation presented on this site.
1889
The Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit work beside us in many countries. They arrived in Papua New Guinea in 1906.
1896
A cloistered congregation whose prayer for the mission sustains the work of the whole family.
The Society today
Within the Church we are known for working with indigenous peoples, migrants and refugees, and people on the margins. What we do changes with local needs: parishes, schools and universities, health and social development, media, retreat centres and chaplaincies.
150
years since the founding in Steyl
70+
countries where Divine Word Missionaries serve
3
missionary congregations founded by Arnold Janssen
6
continents on which the Society works
Sources and further reading
A short summary compiled from public sources.
From Steyl to the Pacific
Since 1896 the Society has walked with the people of PNG, from the coast to the Highlands.