Recounting our history is essential for preserving our identity, for strengthening our unity as a family and our common sense of belonging. To tell our story is to praise God and to thank him for all his gifts.
– Pope Francis –
Founders:
The Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters were founded in 1889 in Germany by Arnold Janssen, a German Priest, and two women, Helena Stollenwerk and Hendrina Stenmanns. They live the motto SSpS (Serva Spiritus Sancti): Servants of the Holy Spirit. The congregation spread across the world and, in 1944, several sisters were carrying out missionary work in Papua New Guinea when the war came to the region. A group of 26 Sisters arrived in Australia in May 1944 having survived prison camps and the death of sisters on the cargo ship Yorihime Maru. They were sent to a camp in Canungra where they quickly set up a hospital to serve the camp community.
From the Ashes comes new life – the region Spiritus Caritatis is born.
Archbishop James Duhig invited the sisters to serve Brisbane communities and they were granted permission from their Order to make a foundation in Aspley. A farmhouse in Aspley became their first Australian home on 27 March 1945 where they established a vegetable farm providing food for their community. They formed a new community with ministries centred in education, health and aged care. They set-up and ministered at Holy Spirit Hospital at Wickham Terrace in 1946 and later a private hospital in Chermside (now St Vincent's). They started St Flannan's school in 1954 catering to a large migrant population. In 1962, the Holy Spirit Aged Care facility at Carseldine was opened on the site where their first home still stands. Their pastoral ministry extended into many Parishes across Brisbane serving many diverse and multicultural communities. They serve alongside Indigenous communities in Cherbourg (QLD), Daly River and Alice Springs (NT), Toomelah (NSW) and Palm Island (QLD).
At the core of all that they have done and continue to do is their Spirituality.
“The story of God's love must be told ever new, in new languages and new insights. We witness to a simplicity of lifestyle, the inclusiveness of multiculturality and the awareness of our interconnection with all creation. As Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters, we see our role in the Australian Church as being a presence of the life-giving Spirit of God, empowering, enabling, and being in the forefront of the activity of the Spirit in the world." (Commemorating 75 years Serving God's Mission in Australia, Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters of Australia, 2020)