About Ardens

Ardens exists to help university students come to know Jesus Christ and go on his mission.

Our Mission

With the Holy Spirit, to know Jesus Christ and to help fulfill his great commission.

Our Vision

Hearts burning on every campus

To help our future leaders to know Christ Jesus and support them as they continually build their foundation on Him, the firm foundation. Through the Holy Spirit and like the Virgin Mary, their hearts might burn and be compelled to love their neighbor by helping them to do the same.

Core Charisms

What we hold to

Primacy of Divine Intimacy through Sacred Scriptures

We stay rooted in scripture, prayer, and sacraments to love God above all things.

Docility to the Holy Spirit like Mary

We surrender our plans to the Holy Spirit with deep reflection and bold zeal.

Little Way of Missionary Discipleship

We love neighbors through ordinary relationships, forming missionary disciples who will pass on the faith.

Ecclesial Fidelity & Formation

We commit to intellectual and spiritual formation, confidently proposing Catholic truths to modern Europe.

Our Patron Saints

Our patron for the active life

St Pier Giorgio Frassati

A young man with a heart on fire for his faith in God who loved the mountains, his friends and serving the poor and needy.

Our patron for the contemplative life

St Catherine of Siena

Her heart was on fire for her love for God which strengthened her to serve and help so many souls.

How do we serve the Catholic Church?

Lay men and women, sent in communion with the Church

Ardens is a lay apostolate, faithful to the teaching of the Catholic Church and serving only at the invitation of the local bishop.

Our missionaries are lay men and women — not clergy, not religious. We are sent out by the diocese and serve alongside the parish and the chaplaincy, never in place of them. Everything we do is ordered to the sacramental life of the Church and accountable to the bishops who welcome us.

Our work belongs to the Church. We share its teaching, walk with students towards the sacraments, and seek to leave each campus more, not less, connected to its parish, chaplaincy, and diocese.

Leadership