DEACONESSES

[s. 224] : 1. History: Almost from the day of her birth the Christian Church had a two-fold ministry the Ministry of the Word {diahonia tou logon), instituted by Christ Himself for the preaching of the Gospel and the administration of the sacraments (Matth. xxviii: 19, 20; Mark xvi: 15; John xx: 21), and the Ministry of Mercy (diakonia he kathemerin/) or the Diaconate (Acts 6: 1-6). The latter was the direct outgrowth of the former. At first the apostles, like their Divine Master, combined both ministries in their own activity. But when the number of the disciples was multiplied, and the Grecians in the congregation at Jerusalem began to murmur against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration, the apostles, in order to secure such a systematic administration of the alms as their own growing duties of another kind made impo ible, called the multitude of the disciples unto them and said: “It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve tables. Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this busine . But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” The a embled believers did as they were commanded, chose seven men having the required qualifications, set them before the apostles, and these, “when they had prayed, laid their hands on them,” i. e., ordained them to this newly-created office of the Church. To this ministry was committed the care of the poor and sick, under the supervision of the minisTho Stephen preached (Acts try of the Word. — vi 8-10; vii: 1-53), and Philip both preached and baptized (Acts viii: 5, 38), the deacons were not primarily meant to be evangelists, but dispensers of charity and the more immediate overseers of the Church’s temporal affairs. Thus they became the most direct and efficient “helps” of the ministry of the Word; and how beneficial this arrangement proved is evident from the further statement that the “word of God increased; and the number of disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly.” To this ministry of mercy women were also admitted at a very early date. The nece ity for this evidently made itself felt almost at once, inasmuch as “the strict seclusion of the female sex in Greece and in some Oriental countries nece arilv debarred them from the ministrations of men” (Dean Stanley). That women deacons were already found in the Apostolic Church is manifest from Rom. xvi: 1,2. In this pa age: 209 Paul speaks of one Phebe, “our sister, which is a servant (Gr. diakonos) of the church which is at Cenchrea.” He indicates the character of her office and the nature of her work in the statement that she had been a succorer of many, and of him For this very reason he commends her self also. to the Christians at Rome, to whom she probably transmitted his letter, and admonishes them to “receive her in the Lord, as be cometh saints,” and to a ist her in whatsoever busine she had need of them. If, furthermore, the pa age 1 Tim. iii: 11 refers, not to wives of the deacons, but to women deacons, as many able commentators contend, then the evidence is still more conclusive that the Female Diaconate was an established office in the Christian Church long before the close of the 1st century. The office seems to have spread with the growth of the Church. At the beginning of the 2d century we find an undoubted reference to deacone es in Asia Minor in the well-known letter of Pliny the Younger, Governor of Bithynia, to the Emperor Trajan. He writes: “In order to get at the truth of the matter (i. e. concerning the life and customs of the Christians) I deemed it nece ary to put to the rack two maids, who are called mini strae. But, beyond a most corrupt and boundle superstition, I could extort nothing from them.” The Female Diaconate reached its highest development in the 4th century, and in the Church of the East. At this time the references to it are frequent, and many women of noble birth Very complete in form a are found in its ranks. tion regarding it is contained in that body of ecclesiastical writings known as the “Apostolic Constitutions.” This document enjoins that faithful and holy women be set apart as deacone es, because the Church had need of them for many things; directs that they shall be inducted into their office by the bishop, with prayer and the imposition of hands, in the presence of the presbyters, deacons and deacone es; and even prescribes the prayer to be used at the service of consecration. It also defines the duties of the deacone es. They were to instruct the female catechumens, give the nece ary external a istance at their baptism, visit and relieve the sick, the affiicted and the distre ed of their own sex, minister to the confe ors in prison, prepare the bodies of women for burial, serve as doorkeepers at the women’s entrances to the churches, a ign women their places at worship, facilitate communication between the bishop or presbyter and the female members of his congregation, and in general engage in all those helpful services from which heathen sentiment excluded the deacons. After the 4th century the Female Diaconate began to decline. The causes of this are to be sought partly in changed conditions, but chiefly in the growing belief that God could be better served in a quiet, ascetic life than by a life of activity devoted to the good of others, and the, consequent growth of monastic orders. The convent now became the retreat for pious unmarried women; and, by the 9th century in the Church of the West, and the 13th in the Church of the East, the Female Diaconate had practically disappeared. Only among the Waldenses and the Bohemian Brethren before the Reformation, and in some Men no nite congregations of Germany and Holland after the Reformation were traces of it left until its revival in the 207 first halt of the last century by the Rev. Theodore Fliedner, at Kaiserswerth-on-the-Rhine. Fliedner became pastor of the small Protestant congregation at Kaiserswerth in 1822. On a collecting tour through Holland and England in behalf of his poverty-stricken church he became acquainted with numerous institutions of Chris These awakened in him the desire tian mercy. He began to undertake similar work himself. regular pastoral visits to the prisoners by making penitentiary at Dii eldorf. In 1826 he the in founded the Rhenish- Westphalian Prison Society, In Sep the first of the kind on the Continent. tember, 1833, the little summer house of the parsonage garden temporarily sheltered the first discharged female convict, and became the cradle of the Kaiserswerth institutions. Three years later he inaugurated the work with which his name will always be a ociated. Among the Men no nites of Holland he had found deacon Others before him (Kloenne, von Stein, e es. Amalia Sieve king and von der Recke-VolmarBtein) had advocated the restoration of the ancient office, but had found no practical way of He himself had become persuaded doing so. that no one was by nature and grace so well fitted for the work of ministering love as a devout Christian woman, and to his mind the solution of the problem lay in establishing institutions for the special training of unmarried women in the various branches of charitable work, and in a ociating these in a close community. Accordingly, in the spring of 1836, with no money but with a large measure of faith, he bought the largest and finest house in Kaiserswerth, organized the Rhenish-Westphalian Deacone Society, and on the 13th of October of the same year opened the Eight Kaiserswerth Deacone Motherhouse. days later, Gertrude Reichardt, the daughter of a physician, became the first probationer. Now began a marvelous development. The number of sisters multiplied rapidly; one institution after the other was added at Kaiserswerth; outside “stations” were undertaken; Motherhouses were established at other places, and when Fliedner died in 1864 there were already 31 Motherhouses, with a total of 1,593 sisters engaged in 406 stations, the Kaiserswerth Motherhouse alone having 425 sisters working in four continents, on 111 stations. In 1861 the Motherhouses organized on the Kaiserswerth model formed a Union or General Conference, which meets every three years at Kaiserswerth. In 1901 the number of houses belonging to the Union was 75, with 14,501 sisters in active service, and an annual income and Forty-eight of these outlay of $3,375,000. houses are in Germany, 7 in Holland, 7 in Ru ia, 4 in Switzerland, 2 in France, 2 in Austria-Hun1 each in Denmark, Sweden and Norway, and 2 in the United States. One house in Germany, 2 in Holland and 1 in the United States have been received into the Union since 1901. Fifteen German houses have no connection with the Union. The first effort to transplant the deacone work to the United States was made in 1849, when, at the earnest request of the Rev. Dr. Pa avant of the Luther an Church, Fliedner himself brought over four deacone es to become the For nucleus of a Motherhouse at Pittsburg. various reasons this first venture proved a failure. In 1884 another colony of German sisters was installed in the German Hospital, Phil a del gary, Dayak LansfunKe DeaconesHe» phi a, where the work became firmly established the splendid Mary J. Drexel Home and Philadelphia Motherhouse of Deacone es, built, supm ported and endowed by Mr. John D. Lankenau (died 1901). In its organization, life and work this house of all American Deacone houses most closely resembles the European type. Additional Luther an Motherhouses are now (1903) found in Baltimore, Omaha, Milwaukee, Since 1896 Minneapolis, Chicago and Brooklyn. the American Luther an houses have held four General Conferences of their own. 2. The Motherhouse: In the early Church the deacone office was a congregational office. Those who were set apart to it were chosen from the congregation in which they were to serve, and beyond having the qualifications required by the apostles for the Diaconate in general (Acts vi: 3; 1 Tim. iii: 8-11), they received no special training for their work. This is not the case to-day. The deacone of the present is prepared for her calling in an institution that makes this its special object, and to this institution, known as the Motherhouse, she remains permanently attached. By the Motherhouse she is a igned her field of labor, and from the Motherhouse she gets her support. Tho not an office bearer in the congregation in the sense of the early deacone , she is neverthele , by virtue of her consecration, and viewed from the side of her practical activity, as truly a servant of the Church in her sphere as the minister of the Word is in his. As the whole method of preparing and calling men for the ministry of the Word to-day differs in many particulars from that of the early Church, so, owing to totally changed conditions, the restoration of the Female Diaconate could take place only by adapting the method for doing Hence the present instiso to these conditions. tutional form of the work, which practical experience has so far shown to be not only the best, but the only po ible form for securing abiding results and in this particular only is an e ential difference to be noted between the deacone office of the early Church and the same calling to-day. The internal management of the Motherhouee is committed to a Pastor and a Sister Superior.; Candidates for admi ion must be between 18 and 36 (in some Motherhouses, 40) years of age, unblemished Christian character, intelligent, unmarried and in good health. The impelling motive is beautifully expre ed by Lohe, who puts these words into the mouth of the intending deacone : “What is it my purpose to do? I Whom will I serve? The Lord will serve. Jesus in the persons of His suffering and needy What shall be my reward? I will brethren. serve neither for reward nor thanks, but out of a My reward is that I grateful and loving heart. am permitted to do so. And if I perish? ‘If I of perish, I perish,’ said Esther, who knew not Him will not let I would perish, but for me perish. And if I grow old in the service? fiourish shall still like the palm heart Then tree, and the Lord will satisfy me with grace and mercy. I go forth in peace and fear naught.” The instruction, in which a so-called Training Sister (Probe meister in) takes a prominent part, is of a kind designed to lead to the highest development of Christian character and practical Whom Who my At the consecration which ends the period of probation the candidate makes no vows, but only promises faithfulne in her call ability. I>eaconeB8eR Dervisli She retains her evangelical liberty to relinquish it when once conscientiously convinced that she ought to do so, tho this does not often occur after one has been consecrated. Summarizing the advantages of the modern Motherhouse they may be stated as follows: It gives those who expect to devote their life to the work of Christian mercy in any of its forms a theoretical and practical training for it such as they could get in no other way, and at no other place; it affords the best po ible opportunities for utilizing the special gifts of each one, and the gifts of all in common for the accomplishment of the largest measure of good; by the beauty of its worship, the frequency and variety of its services, the abundant preaching and teaching of the Word, the special pastoral care given each sister, and the healthful influence that comes from being closely a ociated with common aims in a common work, it is a most potent means for developing a strong Christian character and personal holine ; while, finally, it also serves as an outward protection and support by lifting the sister above the cares, frivolities and temptations of the world, providing for all her material nece ities, sheltering her when disabled and offering her a quiet retreat in old age. 3. Fields of Labor: A deacone of the Kaiserswerth type is not a female evangelist. Tho she embraces many an opportunity to speak the Word of instruction and comfort in private, and particularly in her work with the young has extraordinary advantages for religious teaching, she is neverthele not called to the ministry of the Word, but, in accordance with Matth. v: 16, is rather to demonstrate the saving power of the Word by what she is and does. Nor is she only a nurse of the sick, tho you sands are thus engaged Besides the nursing in hundreds of institutions. of the sick, her work embraces the care of the aged and infirm, the insane, the feeble-minded and the epileptic; the care and instruction of children in Day Nurseries, Orphans’ Homes and Little Children’s Schools, and of girls in Industrial Schools, Servants’ Training Schools and Girls’ High Schools; the recovery of the fallen in reformatories, prisons and Magdalen asylums; the protection of the imperiled in working girls’ homes and hospices; and above all, and as the crown of all, work among the poor, the sick, the bereaved, the ignorant and the needy of every kind in parishes, under the direct oversight of the pastor. According to the statistics of the General Conference of 1901, a total of 98 deacone es were then stationed in Asia, Africa and South America. In hospitals there were 14 at Alexandria, 9 at Cairo, 8 at Beirut, 8 at Jerusalem and 2 in the leper colony of Groot Chat ill on, Surinam, South America; in orphans’ homes 17 at Beirut, 11 at Smyrna, 10 at Jerusalem and 2 in the school and sanitarium at Areya on Mt. Lebanon; in parish work at Alexandria and Haifa 2; 15 were also employed in the hospital and 2 in the little children’s school at Constantinople. On mi ion stations among the heathen there were 2 in Madagascar, 3 in Batavia, 2 in South Africa, 4 in West Africa and 4 in India. 4. Other Types: In the United States the deacone cause has also struck roots in other Churches besides the Luther an. In 1887-88 the work was taken up by the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in 1889, after various private efforts, the General Convention of the Protestant Epising. 208 copal Church adopted a canon authorizing the In training and appointment of deacone es. the Methodist Church the work has had a remark in to many ably rapid growth, extending not only parts of the United States, but also into Europe, Asia and Africa, with an enrollment in 1901 of almost 1,100 deacone es; but in both Churches named the work differs materially from the Kaiserswerth type. The Methodist deacone is to a great extent an evangelist, and neither in the Methodist nor in the Episcopal Church are the so-called “training schools” and “deacone homes” real Motherhouses, po e ing those distinctive features which European experience has shown to be e ential for the healthy and permanent development of the Female Diaconate. Various institutions of a similar character, mostly interdenominational, and devoted almost exclusively to hospital work, conclude the list in the United States. Schafer, Die weibliche Diakonie, 3 vols., Stuttgart (2d ed. 1887-1894); Der Dmkoni evberuf, Wacker, Giitersloh, (1890), (Eng. trans. The Deacone Calling, Mary J. Drexel Home, Phila., 1893); Wurster, Die Lehre von der Inneren Mi ion, Berlin, (1895) Uhlhom, Christian Charity in the; Ancient Church, New York, (1893) Jacobs, The Female Diaconate of the New Testament, Luther an Church Review, January, 1892; Spaeth, Phehe, the Deacone , Luther an (Church Review, July and October, 1885.; 226