Sister-Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration (SSpSAP) |
Third Congregation founded by St. Arnold Janssen with Mother Mary Michael, Adolfine Tönnies, as Co-foundress. A valiant woman formed in the school of St. Arnold, she promoted the interior and exterior growth of her Congregation in his spirit.
Mother Mary Michael (Adolfine Tönnies),
SSpSAP Co-foundress
January 7, 1862 – February 25, 1934
Adolfine Tönnies was born on January 7, 1862 in Horst-Emscher (today Gelsenkirchen-Horst), Westphalia, Germany. Having completed her schooling and subsequent teacher training in Münster, she worked for ten years in the North German town of Rendsburg.
With her desire to become a religious, she applied to the German priest Arnold Janssen, who had founded in 1875 in Steyl, Netherlands, a house for the training of future missionaries. In 1891 he accepted Adolfine Tönnies in the Congregation of Missionary Sisters, Servants of the Holy Spirit, which he had founded two years previously (1989).
When in 1896 he founded a contemplative Congregation, Adolfine Tönnies belonged to the founding Sisters of this community of the “Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration,” whose superior and later Superior General she became.
As a Sister she received the religious name Mary Michael. Although she lived in an enclosed cloister, she was with all her heart a missionary as well. She worked for the inner and outer development of her Congregation and founded new adoration convents in Germany, the Netherlands, the USA, the Philippines and China.
She died on February 25, 1934 in the Motherhouse in Steyl, Netherlands
Like Jesus, who compassionately spoke his gracious word, healed the sick, gave bread to the hungry and offered his own life in sacrifice, so our Founders and Foundresses sought in different ways to be the service of all those to whom the Spirit sent them.
– Pope Francis –