Our history
The mission congregation, the Society of the Divine Word (otherwise known as Missionaries of Steyl or Fathers SVD), buys the plot of Buitenplaats Hoog en Wel, with villa Eikenhorst on it, the current Cenakel.
Start of secondary school and minor seminary. Start of the construction of Mission House Sint Jan, which will be taken into use in 1926.
The congregation sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration, also known as the Pink Sisters, use the newly built Cenakel as a monastery.
The minor seminary shrinks as graduating students go to Deurne to complete their education.
The minor seminary of the SVD Fathers is closed. The Fathers found the training and meeting centre Kontakt der Kontinenten (KdK). They bravuraly call it 'an anniversary gift to the Dutch people'....
The management decides to rent out rooms and slowly the religious disappear in all kinds of positions and paid 'lay people' are hired. On 19 May, the top floor of Mission House Sint Jan burns down, after which the floor is completely renovated.
Mission House Sint Jan
- 1924: purchase of land for the construction of Mission House Sint Jan by the Fathers SVD, Societas Verbi Divini, the Society of the Divine Word.
- 1926: construction is completed and the building is put into use as a gymnasium and minor seminary. Until then, the students lived in villa Eikenhorst, where the Monastery Cenakel now stands.
- 1935: extension of the building with the chapel, designed by architect A.J. Kropholler (1881-1973). The round stained glass window is by Dom van der Mey (order of Saint Benedict), all other windows were later designed and made by Wim van Woerkom.
- In the stairwell to the former chapel, the stained glass depicts Arnold Jansen (1837-1909). He was the founder of three congregations: Missionary Fathers SVD, the Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit and the Congregation Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration.
Monastery Cenakel
- In the 1930s, the fathers designated the plot of land with villa Eikenhorst for the Congregation Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit of Perpetual Adoration
- In 1939, the sisters moved into the monastery designed by architect J. Franssen.
- In 1956, a side wing was added in the same architectural style.
- In the chapel, murals by Joan Collette can be seen: on the walls, saints, and in the semicircular choir apse, the dove of the Holy Spirit with the seven winged virtues; Religio religion, Fortitudo strength, Intellectus sense, Sapientia wisdom, Consilium good counsel, Scientia science and Timor Dei fear of God.
- At the entrance, you can see a painting with the ‘outpouring’ of the Holy Spirit; a clear reference to the name Cenakel: the room where it is said that Christ and his disciples had the last supper and the room where the descent of the Holy Spirit took place.