Congregatio Servarum Spiritus Sancti de Adoratione Perpetua
(SSpSAP)

Blessed Maria Virgo (Maria Helena Stollenwerk)

Blessed Maria Virgo, who was the co-foundress of the Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters with St. Arnold Janssen volunteered to join the new cloistered adoration Sisters at their founding in December, 1896. The Founder did not take her among the pioneer Sisters. However at the wish of St. Arnold in which she recognized God’s will for her, she transferred on Dec. 8, 1898 to the Adoration Sisters and once again became a novice.  The transfer to the cloistered branch was the last step in her life of self-giving for the missions. She understood her life in the cloister as a being-before-the-Lord in adoration, oblation and intercession for the missions. Her life, her longing and her wishes were transformed into adoring, intercessory dedication. She lived her life in the cloister for the missions and for the unity of the two branches of the Congregation. In the course of her life she experienced an ever growing desire for Eucharistic union. As a cloistered Sister her life had become bread that was broken for the life of the Missionary Congregation. Her missionary nature and her contemplation merged in the radical surrender of her life for the mission, in a life that no longer belonged to herself but that had become total gift. The Spirit, for whose greater honor and glory she had sacrificed herself, transformed her into a gift for God and humankind. Is it surprising that her life ended after one year of novitiate? She was not yet fifty, but the sacrifice was complete. Her strength was literally used up, given totally, like a mother who nourishes her child with her own blood. From this surrender, new life streamed forth. Sister Maria Virgo pronounced her vows as an adoration Sister three days before her death on February 3, 1900. On May 7, 1995, Pope John Paul II enrolled her in the ranks of the Blessed, the first from our congregation and the Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters to be thus honored by the Church.

Blessed Maria Virgo once stated that “it is our task to open every heart to love.” When she entered the cloistered branch she realized fully the place of prayer for the missionaries active in the missions and for the people to whom they would minister. She knew that only through grace would the people in mission lands respond to God’s Word. She gave her life in prayer and adoration beseeching God to “open every heart to love” his Love and his Word.