Birthday of Fr.Mathias Wolff SJ, Founder of the Congregation of Jesus Mary Joseph

Mathias was born to Mathias Wolff and Anna Maria Zenner on 9th March 1779 in Diekirk, a village in a very small country Luxemburg in Europe. The prevalent French Revolution in 1789-1799 affected his life and that of his country folk; however, it also offered a turning point in his life and it pushed him forward to realize his long cherished childhood dream of becoming a priest, a Jesuit, to be a man for others. Mathias was ordained as a Diocesan Priest in 1802 and later when the Jesuit order was restored, he did a year of Novitiate under the Jesuits in 1815 thus becoming Fr. Mathias Wolff S.J. He knew that he was surrendering himself for ‘Ad Majorem Deum Gloria’ – i.e., – for the greater honor and glory of God - totally dedicating himself to God in the service of others. Fr. Mathias was sent as a missionary to Culemborg, Holland, his first mission as a Jesuit in the year 1816. It was the miserable plight of the girls and women of Culemborg in Holland that moved Fr. Mathias to think of a more relevant, more reaching out and more comforting initiatives. Their oppression, powerlessness, mute endurance of the atrocities and neglect by the society, disturbed him. Education of the girls was not popular; hence, they were in every way, voiceless. Thus, Fr. Mathias Wolff decided to start a woman’s congregation to educate the poor girls and to reach out to those in need. He founded the Congregation on 29th July 1822, in Amersfoort, and named it, the Society of Jesus Mary Joseph.