Steyl

History

In the late Middle Ages and modern times, Steyl was a port on the Meuse for unloading marl, wine, coal and other items for the Duchy of Julich. This brought wealth to local merchants, especially in the 18th century. Some merchants, such as the Moubis family, built mansions from the revenues earned by their trade (the Moubis estate). The port activities on the Meuse are now gone. All that remains is a small ferry service and the old ferry house, which is now a pub and restaurant. The Moubis mansion was sold in 1876 to a monastic community of German nuns from Münster, who then significantly expanded it (St. Joseph's Monastery). The Moubis wine warehouse was sold around the same time to another religious order of nuns from Essen (St. Gregory's Monastery). Thus, the merchant village of Steyl gave way to a village of monasteries. From the late 19th century, the village attracted religious institutions from five Roman Catholic congregations – each of which built their own monastery. Three of them were founded by the German priest Father Arnold Janssen. He emigrated to the Netherlands in the 1870s because the Catholic Church was put under great pressure in the newly founded German Empire of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck (see: Kulturkampf). Janssen founded in Steyl the Society of the Divine Word (Latin: Societas Verbi Divini, SVD), a worldwide catholic missionary congregation. Today the congregation is active in more than 70 countries. The monastic family founded by Janssen in Steyl includes two congregations for women, one for missionary sisters (Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit, SSpS, or "Blue Sisters") and one contemplative order (Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters, SSpSAP, or "Pink Sisters"). Two other congregations of sisters have left Steyl, one in the late…