Bl. Maria Stollenwerk
SR MARION CHEMMANOOR, SSPS
Offer yourselves as a living sacrifice to God, dedicated to His service and pleasing to Him.” (Rom 12:1)
Blessed Maria Helena lived out these words of St Paul. Maria Helena Stollenwerk was born in Rollesbroich in the German Eifel, near Aachen on November 28, 1852. She was baptised the following day. As a young child, she felt called to the Missions, inspired by the ‘Annals of the Holy Childhood Association’ (now ‘Papal Work for Children’). She also had an inclination towards adoration and contemplation. The sense of this two-fold vocation was a source of joy and spirit of self-giving. At the age of ten, she became a promoter of the Holy Childhood Association. She maintained the task for 20 years, until she entered Steyl. The ‘Annals’ were her “window on the world”, through which the plight of children, especially in China, filled her with concern and missionary longing. A source of nourishment for Helena’s vocation was the Holy Eucharist.
Helena searched for a religious Order with foundations in China, but found none. In addition, the Kulturkampf forced many congregations to close their houses in Germany and seek possibilities for apostolic activity in other countries. She continued her search for an Order where she could fulfil her missionary vocation. In 1882, she came to know about St Arnold Janssen SVD, who had founded his mission institute in Steyl. By the end of December that year, she went to Steyl, although there was no women’s congregation as yet.
Arnold Janssen was still struggling with the difficulties of the mission house for men, founded in September 1875. Although he was thinking of founding a women’s institute, he could not make any promises. Trusting in God, however, and filled with the longing to be sent to China as a missionary, Helena left her home and her inheritance, to take a place on the lowest rung of the social ladder.
