THE RECIPIENT OF THE LETTERS

Fr. Jordan

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John Jordan was born on June 16, 1848, in Gurtweil, Germany. His parents were Lorenz and
Notburga Peter. His father died at the age of forty-four when John was only fifteen years old. Despite his giftedness, he did not show much interest in studies. He liked drawing and worked for a few years as a painter-decorator. At the age of twenty, he decided to become a priest and took private lessons from a chaplain.
After attending secondary school in Constance, he studied at the University of Freiburg and was ordained a priest on July 21, 1878. The "Kulturkampf" prevented him from devoting himself to ministry and, therefore, he decided to continue his studies abroad. He arrived in Rome in October 1878, and lived at the Campo Santo Teutonico. He successfully studied oriental languages at the Sant'Apollinare Athenaeum. In 1880, he undertook a journey to the Middle East and spent six months in Jerusalem.
On his return to Rome, he was granted a private audience with Pope Leo XIII, to whom he explained his intention of founding a work for the spread of Christian doctrine, an idea he had already nurtured before becoming a priest. And so, it happened. On December 8, 1881, the foundation called the "Instructional Catholic Society" was born, and many priests with private vows obliged themselves to observe the Statutes written by Father Jordan. The projects of the Institute were published in the magazine "Il Missionario”.

 

One year later, by decree of the Holy See, the foundation was named "Instructional Catholic Society" and on March 1, 1883, it became an Institute of Religious Life. Fr. Jordan pronounced his vows in the hands of his confessor, Fr. Ludwig Steiner, OFM, Conv. and received the name Francis Mary of the Cross. 
 

From the onset, Fr. Jordan also intended to establish a women's institute and after several attempts he instructed his collaborator, Fr. Bernhard Lüthen, to meet in Munich with Miss Thecla Bayer and Amalia Streitel; the latter was recommended by Fr. Cyprian Reichenlechner, OCD. Due to Ms. Bayer's illness, only Ms. Streitel left for Rome where she met with Fr. Jordan on the 16th of February, 1883. After a brief acquaintance and collaboration, Fr. Jordan realized that Streitel was not the right person to carry out his plans and thought of replacing her with Baroness von Wüllenweber, who then became the foundress of the women's branch of the "Catholic Teaching Society". The difficulties between him and Streitel had increased due to their different goals and manners of achieving them, so that on September 17, 1885, Cardinal Vicar Lucido Maria Parocchi invited Fr.  Jordan to no longer attend to the sisters led by Streitel. Seven years later, Fr. Jordan founded the Congregation of the Sisters of the Divine Savior in Tivoli, near Rome, and entrusted its direction to von Wüllenweber, named Mother Mary of the Apostles. The two branches founded by Fr. Jordan established themselves rapidly and in 1893 they took the name "Society of the Divine Savior" and "Congregation of the Sisters of the Divine Savior" respectively, commonly called Salvatorians and Salvatorian Sisters. The First World War forced Fr.  Jordan into exile and he died in the Tafers hospice for the poor in Freiburg, Switzerland, on September 8, 1918. At the time of his death, the foundation was present in thirteen countries in Europe, Asia, North and Latin America.