Deaconesses in Europe

J >> Jane M. Bancroft >> Deaconesses in Europe

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14

It is not possible to give here in detail the occurrences by which loans
were made, and the money that was needed obtained at the required time.
God gave friends for the cause, and through them provided the means. The
house was furnished with a little second-hand furniture which had been
given him, and October, 1836, was opened as a hospital and training
school for Christian women. Services of praise and thanksgiving
consecrated this deaconess home yet without deaconesses, this hospital
without patients. Both, however, soon became inmates of the building.
The first deaconess was Gertrude Reichardt, the daughter of a physician.
She had assisted her father in the care of the sick, and had become
experienced in looking after the welfare of the poor and the destitute.
She was an invaluable helper in the new enterprise, and shared with the
doctor the duty of giving instruction in nursing and hospital duties.
Fliedner's wife was the superintendent. She had the oversight of the
house, gave the deaconesses practical direction in housekeeping, and in
their early visits to the sick and poor accompanied them from house to
house. Fliedner was the director, and took upon himself the religious
instruction of the sisters. Every effort was taken to make the house a
home in which a cheerful, loving spirit should prevail. Nearly every
evening Fliedner or his wife would go over to the home, and read to the
sisters, or tell them interesting facts outside their lives. When he
went away on his journeys he would write in full every thing pertaining
to the interests of the common cause, and the letters would be read
aloud. This was to be a home in every sense of the word, in which the
members were to feel themselves belonging to one great family, bound
together by the common tie of unselfish devotion to others "for Christ's
sake." The spirit of the founder has permeated the institution even to
the present time. Those who know any thing of Kaiserswerth testify to
the strong affection for the common home, the "mother-house," as they
beautifully term it, felt by all its children. Every pains is taken to
preserve it. There is correspondence, frequent and regular, from here to
every sister. No matter in what distant land she may be, her birthday is
remembered, and she is taught to look to this as a waiting refuge for
the days of trouble, sickness, and old age.

There was soon arranged a series of house regulations and instructions
for work which became the basis for after regulations in nearly all
existing institutions.

Almost contemporary with the mother-house arose the normal school for
infant-school teachers. It had first started as a child's school, and
afterward young women who had taste for the care of children were
received to be taught their duties. Fliedner took great interest in the
instruction of children. He devised little games for them, and arranged
stories to be told. His simplicity and his child-like nature led him to
disregard formalities, and to think solely of the end he had in view.
On one occasion, when picturing the combat of David and Goliath,
reaching that point in the narrative when the young shepherd lad slings
the stone that brings the giant to the ground, he cast himself headlong,
to the great delight and amazement of his little audience, who enjoyed
to the full this object-lesson that made the story so vivid to them.

Then he took special pains that his teachers should learn to tell the
stories of the Bible so as to make them clear and interesting to the
youngest child. Every day a story was told in school, and each evening
the teacher whose turn it was to relate the story the following day came
to Fliedner and rehearsed it to him as though he were a child, afterward
receiving his suggestions as to how the narrative could be improved. The
work went along quietly, ever growing, ever advancing. "Among all
others, and more than all others, was Fliedner's wife his best help. Her
keen glance, made pure and holy by her Christian faith, preserved him
from mistakes. With the household virtues of cleanliness, order,
simplicity, and economy she united large-hearted compassion toward those
needing help of any kind, yet knowing withal how, with virile sense and
energy, to prevent the misuse of ministering love. She became a model
for the deaconesses, as well as a mother to them, and her name deserves
to be mentioned with honor, as one who had an important part in the
Protestant renewal of the diaconate of women."[30]

In 1842 a new building was erected for the normal school for
infant-school teachers. The publishing house of the institution was also
started, which issues religious books and tracts. The first work sent
forth was a volume of sermons, presented to the new enterprise by the
late Professor Lange, which went through several editions.

The same year the _Kaiserswerth Almanac_ appeared and a large picture
Bible for schools was published. In 1848 the magazine _Der Armen und
Kranken Freund_ was sent forth as an organ for the deaconess cause, not
only for Kaiserswerth, but for all the institutions that are represented
at the triennial Conferences. The publishing house is an important
source of income, as the institution has little in the way of endowment
beside the produce of the garden land attached to it. At present about
three fourths of the expense are met by the sale of publications and the
fees of patients; the remaining sum is given by friends.

The financial story of Fliedner's life could form a tale of thrilling
interest, if it were separated from other facts and told by itself. He
constantly went forward, purchased houses, added lands, and erected new
homes when he had no money in reserve, but unfailingly when the time
came for payments to be made the sum was obtained in some way or other
to meet them. "We have no endowment," he once said, "but the Lord is our
endowment."

The same year, 1842, the orphan asylum was opened. For a very moderate
sum this receives children who are both fatherless and motherless, and
who belong to the educated middle class, having fathers who were pastors
or professors, or the like. Fliedner hoped not only to provide a home
for these girls befitting their station in life, but to develop among
them those who should make a vocation of the care of children and the
sick, and in this hope he was not disappointed.

In the midst of these successes the hand of God often lay heavily on
Fliedner's family. Brethren and children passed away, and, sorest
affliction of all to him, his wife, who had so closely and
sympathetically shared all his labors, died April 22, 1842. "She was the
first of the deaconesses to die," writes Fliedner. "As she, their
mother, had always led the way for her spiritual daughters in life, so
she was their leader into the valley of the shadow of death."[31] Not
long after this a normal school for female teachers in the public
schools was started, for this practical believer in woman's work was one
of the first to advocate the introduction of women teachers in the
public schools of Germany, against which there then existed a strong
prejudice. The Board of Education looked favorably on his project, and
afterward sent a government commissioner to attend the examinations and
award the certificates at Kaiserswerth. At a later period provision was
made for teachers of girls' high schools, as also for those who desired
to become teachers but were too young to enter the normal school. Over
two thousand teachers have gone forth from these schools, carrying with
them a love for the institution which has brought back to it many
returns in money and service. Fliedner well called them his "light
skirmishing troops."

In 1849 he resigned his pastorate, and henceforth, with singleness of
purpose, devoted himself to his one calling. From time to time new
buildings were added to meet new needs. In 1852 an insane asylum for
Protestant women was founded, as sisters were often called upon to nurse
patients of this class. The building set apart for the purpose was
formerly used as military barracks and was given to Fliedner by King
Frederick William IV. In 1881 this, as with so many others of the
original buildings at Kaiserswerth, became too small for the increase in
numbers, and a new building took its place. It stands on an eminence
just outside of the village, and is provided with every modern
appliance. Fliedner's practical good sense and administrative ability
led him to care for all the minor details that were needed for the
success of so great an undertaking. He added a dispensary to the
hospital, where a sister who had passed a regular examination before the
government medical board made up the medicines required for the
hospital. Many deaconesses have been trained to the same knowledge,
which has been an especially valuable acquisition in the hospitals
situated in Eastern countries. Little by little he secured land for
farming operations, until there were one hundred and eighty acres in
garden and meadow land, generally lying close about the various
buildings, and affording means of recreation as well to the inmates.
Nearly all of the vegetable and dairy products that are needed are so
provided. A bakery, bath-houses, homes for laborers and officials, were
added, and bakers, shoemakers, carpenters, and blacksmiths formed part
of the staff of the great establishment.

Gradually every variety of institution that could furnish active
practice to the deaconesses took its place here, and the whole might be
denominated a great normal training-school for Christian women. The
refuge for discharged female convicts, which was the starting-point of
the movement, still continued its good work during all these years. The
last report[32] states that nine hundred and nineteen women of different
ages and different degrees of wrong-doing have been its inmates. Parents
send insubordinate girls; societies forward those who profess penitence;
magistrates sentence degraded creatures often too late for any
reasonable hope to reform them. The old experience of the refuge is
repeated in this last report: one third are saved, one third are
irredeemable, and the judgment as to the remaining third, doubtful.
There were two buildings erected during the later years of Fliedner's
life in which he took great interest. One of these was a cottage among
the neighboring hills, where deaconesses who had become exhausted by
long days in the sick-room, or whose health was suffering from
over-toil, could retire for a few weeks of mountain air and quiet rest
during the summer months. This pleasant retreat was well named Salem.
Soon afterward was laid the corner-stone of the second building,
regarded with peculiar favor not only by the good pastor, but by all
friends of the institution. This was the "Feierabend Haus," the House of
Evening Rest, where, somewhat apart from the busy activity of the great
household, those deaconesses whose best strength had been given to
faithful labor in the service could pass the evening hours of life in
quiet waiting for the last great change, while using the experience they
had gathered and the strength still remaining in behalf of the cause
they had faithfully served.

Such are the main features of the great establishment that year by year
grew up in this village on the Rhine. But from this as a center had
gradually branched off manifold lines of service, and many
daughter-houses both in Germany and foreign lands. It was only a year
and a half after the home was opened that the first appointment of
deaconesses to work outside of Kaiserswerth was made.

This was an important victory for the new institution. It took place
January 21, 1838, on Fliedner's birthday, when he and his wife escorted
two of the sisters to Elberfeld, where they were to act as trained
nurses in the city hospital. From that time to the present the hospital
has continued under the management of the Kaiserswerth deaconesses.

Soon afterward sisters were sent out to nurse in private families, and
in 1839 two more were sent to superintend the workhouse in Frankfort. As
the institution became known there was a constant demand for
superintendents, and matrons for public reformatories, prisons, and
charitable establishments. Between 1846 and 1850 more than sixty
deaconesses were at work at twenty-five different stations outside of
the mother-house. About the same time deaconesses began to work in
connection with special churches which called for their services, having
the duties which in England are assigned to those called "parish
deaconesses."

King Frederick William IV., from the beginning Fliedner's faithful
friend and supporter, had long desired a deaconess home in Berlin. This
was finally obtained, and set apart under the name "Bethanien Haus," or
Bethany House, October 10, 1847, at a special dedicatory service, at
which the king, with his court, was present. It was while seeking a
superintendent for this home in Berlin that Fliedner learned to know
Caroline Bertheau, of Hamburg, a descendant of an old Huguenot family
that was driven from France by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. He
led her home as his wife in May, 1843, and she became to him a true
helpmeet for his children, his home, and his institution. She is still
living, having survived her husband over twenty-five years, and in an
advanced age still retains a place on the Board of Direction at
Kaiserswerth.

In one place after another deaconess homes arose, sometimes simply
through Fliedner's advice, more often by his direct co-operation. From
1849 to 1851 he was chiefly engaged in traveling from one land to
another, occupied in kindling the zeal of Christian women to devotion to
the sick and sorrowing, and finding fields of service for their
priceless ministrations. He visited the United States, England, France,
and Switzerland, as well as various cities of the East, including
Jerusalem and Constantinople.

The work in our own land was begun at Pittsburg, where Fliedner came
with four sisters in the summer of 1849, at the invitation of Pastor
Passavant, of the German Lutheran Church.

The deaconesses at once entered upon hospital work, and their care of
the sick met with warm appreciation, but their numbers did not increase.
An orphanage was afterward started at Rochester, and hospitals under the
same auspices exist at Milwaukee, Jacksonville, Ill., and Chicago. Still
the work has not grown, and it has proved the least successful of any
initiated by Fliedner. Upon his return he aided in opening
mother-houses in Breslau, Koenigsberg, Dantzic, Stettin, and Carlsruhe.

We have now come to the period when Kaiserswerth institutions met with a
notable extension. Fliedner had long been looking toward Jerusalem,
hoping to found a deaconess home there. "Who would not gladly render
service on the spot where the feet of the Saviour once brought help and
healing to the sick?" he had said.

Now, through Dr. Gobat, the Bishop of Jerusalem, the opportunity was
given. The king offered two small houses in Jerusalem that were his
private property, and volunteered to pay the expenses of the journey.
Associations were formed in all parts of Germany to provide an outfit
for the mission. Gifts flowed in rapidly, and March 17, 1851, Fliedner,
accompanied by four deaconesses, two of them being teachers, set out on
this new and peaceful crusade to the holy city. From that beginning has
resulted a net-work of stations throughout the East.

There is at Jerusalem a hospital[33] where, during 1887, four hundred
and ninety-three patients were given medical aid and nursing, and seven
thousand seven hundred and two patients were treated in the dispensary.
No woman in the city is better known or more justly honored than Sister
Charlotte, the head-deaconess.

The Mohammedans at first regarded the work of the sisters with fanatical
distrust, but a glance at the statistics of the last report will show
how completely they have cast aside their prejudices.

Of the 493 patients in 1887, there were 404 Arabians, 43 Armenians, 30
Germans, 5 Abyssinians, 4 Greeks, 3 Roumanians, 2 Russians, 1 Italian,
and 1 Hollander. As to religion, there were 235 Mohammedans, 97
Protestants, 78 Greeks, 23 Roman Catholics, 45 Armenians, 6 Copts, 3
Syrian Christians, 4 Proselytes, 1 Jew, and 1 Maronite; so that in all
nine nations and nine religious faiths were represented in the hospital.

There is also a girls' orphanage, called "Talitha Cumi," just outside
the city walls at Jerusalem, where one hundred and fourteen native girls
were last year taught by the Kaiserswerth deaconesses. Over a hundred
more made application to enter, but there was no room to receive them.
In Constantinople, Alexandria, Cairo, Beirut, and Pesth there are also
well-appointed hospitals, some of them of spacious dimensions, and all
having excellent medical service and nursing that cannot be surpassed.

The orphanage and school at Beirut had a sad foundation. In 1860 came
the terrible news of the massacre of the Maronite Christians by the
Druses in the Lebanon mountains.

Kaiserswerth deaconesses were immediately sent out, and were among the
first to arrive to join the resident Europeans and Americans in caring
for the sufferers. Numbers of children were left fatherless and
motherless, and the sisters started the orphanage at Beirut to shelter
them. When its twenty-fifth anniversary was celebrated in 1885 over
eight hundred girls had received a home and education here, and had gone
forth to eastern homes, carrying with them the light and knowledge of
Christian faith into the dark, degraded social life of the Orient.[34]

From the two orphanages at Beirut and Jerusalem over forty have gone out
as teachers in girls' schools in Palestine and Syria. Twelve others have
become deaconesses, and are ministering in this capacity to their own
countrymen and to foreigners in eastern hospitals.[35]

In Smyrna there is also a girls' school, that was opened at the request
of some wealthy Protestants residing there. The school is not so needed
as formerly, since the government has started girls' high schools, but
it is still maintained, and aids in bringing new life into the hopeless
society of the East. There is also an orphanage at Smyrna, where some
girls of the poorer classes were gathered after the ravages of the
cholera had left them without parents or homes.

The eastern deaconesses have also their Salem. Just above the little
village of Areya, in the Lebanon, on the summit of a hill overlooking
the Mediterranean, stands the house of retreat, where, during the summer
months, the more than forty sisters stationed in Beirut, Alexandria,
Cairo, and Jerusalem can take refuge in seasons of overpowering heat.

The deaconess who superintends the house has a school for the native
children of the village, which is taught by one of the girls educated at
the Beirut orphanage.

Prosperous girls' schools are also in existence at Bucharest, and at
Florence, Italy. The Italian school was started in 1860 with four girls
in the upper floor of a rented house. It now possesses a beautiful house
and grounds of its own, and had one hundred and forty-five girls under
its charge the past year. Most of these were Italians, but different
foreign residents also availed themselves of the opportunity to send
their children to an excellent Protestant school. There is also a
mission at Rome maintained by deaconesses during the winter months.

The large majority of the undertakings outside of Kaiserswerth were
initiated personally by Fliedner. When we recall the complex demands of
the home field in Germany we marvel at the versatile executive ability
of this man, who started life as the humble pastor of an obscure village
church. But he loved work. He possessed "iron industry." He was ever
hopeful, courageous, and indefatigable. Above all, he trusted completely
in the leadings of Divine Providence, and constantly went forward with
sure confidence. Then he was a true leader. He knew men. He put the
right person in the right place, gave him full liberty of action, and
held him to a strict responsibility for results. So, while Fliedner
remained the soul of the great institution, he knew how to make himself
spared, which was not the least of his qualifications for his calling.

[30] _Der Diakonissenberuf_, Emil Wacker, Guetersloh, 1888, p. 116.
[31] _Life of Pastor Fliedner_, translated by C. Winckworth, London,
1867.
[32] _Ein und fuenfzigster Jahres-Bericht_, p. 30.
[33] _Achtzehnter Bericht ueber die Diakonissen Stationen im
Morgenlande_, 1888.
[34] _Vierzehnten Bericht ueber die Diakonissen Stationen am Libanon._
[35] _Der Rheinisch Westfaelische Diakonissen Verein_, p. 64,
J. Disselhoff.

CHAPTER VI.

THE REGULATIONS AT KAISERSWERTH, AND THE
DUTIES AND SERVICES OF THE DEACONESSES.

The regulations in daily use at Kaiserswerth are based on those that
Fliedner drew up in the early days of the institution. They have been
adopted with few alterations by the larger number of deaconess
institutions that have since arisen, so that to understand the spirit
and usages prevailing in them it is well to give these rules some study.
They are contained in a book numbering one hundred and seven pages,[36]
treating with great minuteness every question that affects the daily
lives of the deaconesses. The qualities that the office demands are
first dwelt upon as they are described in Acts vi, 3, and 1 Tim. iii, 8,
9. The sisters are reminded that their life is one of service; that they
serve the Lord Jesus; that they serve the poor and the sick and helpless
"for Jesus' sake;" and that they are servants one of another.

Special stress is given to the importance of cultivating unity, love,
and forbearance in the relations of daily life, and the deaconesses are
enjoined "to protect and further the honor of other sisters," "to form
one family living unitedly as sisters, through the tie of a heartfelt
love for the one great object that brings them to this place."

There are two classes of deaconesses formally recognized, nurses and
teachers; although there is another, deaconess whose work is year by
year becoming more important, and that is the deaconess who is attached
to a church in the capacity of a home missionary. She is designated by
the term "commune-deaconess," or, as the English translate it,
"parish-deaconess."

Those who desire to become nurse-deaconesses must have the elements of a
common school education, must be in good health, and, as a general rule,
be over eighteen and not over forty years of age. Most important of all
is it that she possess personal knowledge of the salvation of Christ,
and a living experience of the grace of God. Those who desire to become
teacher-deaconesses must, in addition, present certain educational
certificates, and be able to sing. All must pass some months at the
mother-house, taking care of children and assisting in housework, so
that their fitness for the office can be proven. A great deal of care
is taken to test the efficiency of the candidates, and only about one
half the probationers finally become deaconesses in full connection. The
teachers have, further, a seminary course of one year for those who are
to teach in infant schools, of two years to prepare for the elementary
schools, and of three years for the girls' high schools.

While probationers, they receive, free of charge, board and instruction,
and the caps, collars, and aprons that are their distinctive badges.
Their remaining expenses they provide for themselves. Those who have
completed the full term of probation, and have proved their fitness for
the office, must pledge themselves to a service of at least five years.
At the end of the time they may renew the engagement or not, as they
wish. Should a deaconess be needed at home by aged parents, or should
she desire to marry, she is free to leave her duties, but is expected to
give three months' notice of her intention to do so.

The deaconess performs her duties gratuitously. This is a main feature
of the system. She is not even free to accept personal presents, for
envy, jealousy, and unworthy motives might then creep into the system.
She is truly "the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ." All of her wants
are supplied, and her future needs anticipated, so that, literally
"taking no thought for the morrow," she can give herself with
single-hearted devotion to the work in hand. The deaconess at
Kaiserswerth receives from the institution her modest wardrobe,
consisting of a Sunday suit, a working-dress of dark blue, blue apron,
white caps and collars. A deaconess attired in her garb, with the
placid, contented countenance that seems distinctively to belong to her,
is a pleasant, wholesome sight that is constantly to be seen on the
streets of German cities. Her deaconess attire is not only a protection,
assuring her chivalrous treatment from all classes of men, but it is a
convenient identification that insures her certain privileges on the
State railroads and steamboats, for the German government recognizes the
sisters as benefactors of society, and treats them accordingly. For her
personal expenses the Kaiserswerth deaconess in Germany receives yearly
twenty-two dollars and fifty cents; sometimes when in foreign lands she
is paid a slightly larger sum. When she becomes unfitted for service by
reason of sickness or old age, and has no means of her own, the Board of
Direction provides for her maintenance.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14