Deaconesses in Europe

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

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In the early part of the present century Southey voiced the complaint,
long reiterated, that Protestantism had no missionaries. We who live in
the closing years of the same century, surrounded by the multiplied
evidences of the extent of missions, when the Protestants of the world
are expending nearly ten millions of dollars annually, and employing
nearly six thousand men and women as missionaries, cannot realize the
change that has taken place. In 1830 Southey again wrote: "Thirty years
hence another reproach may also be effaced, and England may have her
Sisters of Charity." He had learned to know their value when serving as
a volunteer in Wellington's army, and a year after the battle of
Waterloo he had visited the Beguines at Ghent, and what he saw deeply
impressed him. "We should have such women among us," he said. "It is a
great loss to England that we have no Sisters of Charity. There is
nothing Romish, nothing unevangelical in such communities; nothing but
what is right and holy; nothing but what belongs to that religion which
the apostle James has described as 'pure and undefiled before God the
Father.'"[54]

Southey's prophecy has come true. England to-day in her deaconesses
possesses her Sisters of Charity. How has this change been brought
about? The acquaintance of Mrs. Fry with Fliedner, and her visit to
Kaiserswerth, led her to introduce into England the practical training
of nurses for the sick. The Nursing Sisters' Institution in Devonshire
Square, Bishop's Gate, was founded through her efforts in 1840, and
still exists "to train nurses for private families, and to provide
pensions for aged nurses."[55]

In 1842, Fliedner came to London, accompanied by four sisters, at the
invitation of the German Hospital at Dalston. These deaconesses won
golden opinions from the hospital authorities for their quiet, efficient
manner, and their trained skill. The hospital continues to be served by
them, but the Sisters now come from the mother house at Darmstadt.

Kaiserswerth and its deaconesses became more widely known through the
life and inestimable services of Florence Nightingale. When a child,
one of Fliedner's reports fell into her hands. Its perusal marked an
era in her life. It made clear to her what she should do. She would go
to Kaiserswerth, and fit herself for a nurse. Her childish resolve never
wavered. "Happy is the man who holds fast to the ideals of his youth."
Florence Nightingale held fast to hers. She went to Kaiserswerth at two
different times, and through her deeds and her writings the care of the
sick in England has been completely transformed. She has won a nation's
gratitude, and now is living in honored old age in one of the London
institutions founded mainly by the money that she contributed, and which
she obtained by selling some valuable gifts given her by a foreign
government in acknowledgment of her care of its wounded soldiers during
the Crimean war.

Another woman distinguished in England's philanthropies is Agnes Jones,
who left a home of wealth and refinement to receive her training also at
Kaiserswerth. Returning to England she gave her time and talents in
single-hearted devotion to the care of the poor in the Liverpool
work-house, and met death in the midst of her labors. The training which
led two such women to accomplish such noble deeds naturally was
recognized as valuable, and Kaiserswerth soon became an honored name in
England.

In 1851 Miss Nightingale sent out anonymously her little book entitled
_An Account of the Institution of Deaconesses_, which added to the
knowledge already in circulation about the movement in Germany.
Meanwhile articles were appearing in the reviews. In 1848 one was
written in the _Edinburgh Review_ by John Malcolm Ludlow, who later, in
1866, gave the results of the thoughts and studies of a number of years
in _Woman's Work in the Church_, the best historical study of the
subject up to the date at which it was written. Since then the Germans
have pushed their historical investigations further, and the work needs
to be revised and to be brought down to the present time.

In _Good Words_ for 1861 there were two articles by Dr. Stevenson, of
the Irish Presbyterian Church, entitled "The Blue Flag of Kaiserswerth,"
afterward incorporated in his work, _Praying and Working_, a book too
little known among us.

The great upholder of the deaconess cause in the Church of England was
the late Dean of Chester, Rev. J. S. Howson. His essay, first published
in the _Quarterly Review_, was amplified and issued in book form in 1860
under the title _Deaconesses_. It won many friends. The cause remained a
favorite one with him, and he constantly advocated it by speech and by
deed. Since his death his latest thoughts, which remained substantially
the same as those that he first advanced, have been published in a work
entitled _The Diaconate of Women_.

Within the Church of England, however, the deaconess cause has not met
the same prosperous development that it has obtained in connection with
certain independent institutions, notably that of Mildmay.

Among the institutions on the Continent, as well as in the pages of this
work up to the present, the terms "sister" and "deaconess" are used
synonymously, to indicate one and the same person. But when we come to
consider the deaconess institutions within the Church of England we
cannot continue to use these two names in the same way. A deaconess is a
member of a deaconess institution, actively engaged in charitable deeds,
but, like the deaconess on the Continent, she can sever her connection
with it when adequate cause presents itself, and return to her family
and friends. A sister belongs to a sisterhood which closely resembles
the Roman Catholic sisterhoods in many features. These sisterhoods began
in 1847 with a number of ladies brought together through the influence
of Dr. Pusey, who formed themselves into a community to live under its
rule. Their influence and number increased, and twenty-three
sisterhoods are mentioned in the last official report.[56]

Doubtless it was the activity and great usefulness of the continental
deaconess houses that provided the stimulating examples which acted on
the Church of England and led to the rise of sisterhoods and deaconess
institutions. But the two opposing tendencies within the Episcopal
Church--namely, that which desires to approach the Church of Rome, with
which it feels itself in sympathy on many points, and that which views
with disfavor any conformity to it, and strives to keep to the landmarks
set at the great Reformation--these two distinct tendencies are closely
reflected in the woman's work of the Anglican Church.[57] The
sisterhoods are distinctly under the fostering care of the former
element, the deaconesses are manifestly favored by the latter.
Sisterhoods, again, differ among themselves, some being strongly
conventual in their life and practice, adopting the three vows of
poverty, chastity, and obedience, and a few even advocating penance and
confession. The vows are taken for life, and, in connection with the
view of the sacred obligation to life-long service, great stress is laid
upon the position of the sister as the "bride of Christ"--the same
thought of the mysterious union with the heavenly Bridegroom that is so
dwelt upon in the nunneries of the Catholic Church. With such views
Protestants, distinctly such, can have no sympathy. Those who look upon
the deaconess as a valuable member of the Church economy do so because
they regard her as a Christian woman, strengthened and disciplined by
special training to do better service for Christ in the world. This is
the recognized difference: "The sisterhood exists primarily for the sake
of forming a religious community, but deaconesses live together for the
sake of the work itself, attracted to deaconess work by the want which
in most populous towns is calling loudly for assistance; and with a view
of being trained, therefore, for spiritual and temporal usefulness among
the poor."[58]

There are now seven deaconess establishments in the Church of England,
each having a larger or smaller number of branches, with diocesan
sanction and under the supervision of clergymen.[59]

The first of these was founded in 1861, and is now known as the London
Diocesan Deaconess Institution. At that time Kaiserswerth was accepted
as its model; deaconesses were sent there to be trained; Kaiserswerth
rules were adopted as far as possible, and a modification of the
Kaiserswerth dress for the sisters. The house was then represented at
the triennial Conferences in Germany, and in the list of mother houses
published at Kaiserswerth[60] the name still appears. It would seem,
however, that now the Kaiserswerth connection is entirely set aside by
the London house, for in an historical sketch of the revival of
deaconesses in the Church, that is found in the organ of the
institution, called _Ancilla Domini_, for March, 1887, there is no
mention made of any of the continental houses. The Anglican Church
apparently dates the entire work from the setting apart of its first
deaconess, Elizabeth C. Ferard, in 1861, as she was the first to receive
consecration through the touch of a bishop's hand. The former connection
with Kaiserswerth and the great work carried on in Germany from 1836 to
the present time are quite ignored.

Besides the London house already mentioned an East London deaconess home
was opened in 1880, to provide deaconesses and church-workers for East
London. Besides the deaconesses and probationers thirty-two associates
are connected with this home. The associates are ladies who do not
intend to become deaconesses, but give as much time as they can to the
work. They live with the deaconesses, conform to the rules, and wear the
garb, but pay their own expenses. These associates are a highly
important part of the working force. They form a valuable tie connecting
the sisters with sources of influence and aid that would otherwise be
closed to them. Nearly always they are ladies of independent means, and
come for longer or shorter periods to relieve the deaconesses, their
zeal often being as great as that of the sisters whose places they take.

Besides these houses there are homes located at Maidstone, Chester,
Bedford, Salisbury, and Portsmouth, in the respective dioceses of
Canterbury, Chester, Ely, Salisbury, and Winchester.

In the home at Portsmouth sisters not only engage in nursing and parish
work, but are also given special training for penitentiary and
out-of-door rescue work. They also have a home for the rescue of
neglected children.

The Salisbury Home is beautifully situated in the quiet cathedral city
of the same name. The house is a picturesque and venerable mansion,
covered with clinging green vines, opening out into a garden which in
olden times belonged to the convent. There is in connection with the
home an institution for training girls for domestic service, supported
by the funds of a charity given for that purpose. The whole service of
the house is done by the girls. They attend upon the deaconesses and the
ladies who board there to receive training in the hospital. Each
deaconess pays for board and lodging while training, and, if able to do
so, when she returns for rest, or a visit to her old home.

In other houses the deaconess is expected to keep her own room in order,
and may have some duties in the house, but servants do the rough work.
The social status of the English deaconesses is, as a rule, markedly
different from the German deaconesses. Here ladies of rank and inherited
social traditions, of refinement, of accomplishments, and of education,
many of them women of means, defraying their entire expenses and often
those of their poorer sisters, are largely represented among the
deaconesses. On the other hand, the German deaconesses, as we have seen,
are largely of that station in life that furnishes many for domestic
service. Although of course there are among them women of all ranks and
all degrees of education, still such women form the larger number; and
the conditions under which Fliedner began the work, as well as the
difference of custom and habit in the two countries, incline the German
houses to maintain the rules of service by which nearly every detail of
domestic service in their institutions is cared for by the deaconesses.
There is more of ceremony and formality in the English deaconess
institutions which are under the direction of the Church of England. At
Salisbury, for instance, the candidate must reside in the home for three
months, that her ability and efficiency may be tested. If accepted, she
then puts on a gray serge habit, a leathern girdle, white cap, black
bonnet, the veil and cloak of a probationer, and is admitted to the
"degree" of a probationer at a special service. The year of probation
having come to an end, she is again presented to the bishop, and is set
apart as a deaconess by the laying on of hands. This time the habit is
changed from gray to blue, and a black ebony cross, with one of gold
inlaid, is hung upon her neck.[61]

This is very different from the way in which Fliedner regarded the dress
and adornment of the deaconesses for whom he was responsible. The king
of Prussia desired to present them with a small silver cross as their
badge of service, but the simple-hearted German pastor dissuaded him,
saying that the deaconesses needed no ornament save a meek and quiet
spirit, and they must avoid symbols which would suggest Romish
imitations.

The Strasburg deaconesses also at first wore a small cross, but Pastor
Haerter discontinued it when he found that the wearing of it gave
occasion for complaint.

Yet however we may differ in the lesser details, of garb, of rules, and
of ceremonies, from those accepted by some of the Church of England
deaconess institutions, we can give unstinted admiration to the lives of
self-denial, and active, unceasing efforts in behalf of others, that we
see among their numbers. Take, for instance, the little publication _The
Deaconess_, issued by the East London Home, and notice the undertakings
carried on by the members--district-visiting, nursing of the sick,
mothers' meetings, Sunday-school teaching, Bible classes, and all the
multitudinous ways of meeting the squalor, poverty, ignorance, sickness,
and sin of the poor of the east of London. There is no poetic enthusiasm
that strengthens one for such work, the dirt, the degradation, the
forlorn condition are so trying. The little children so precociously
wicked, so preternaturally cunning, that the natural charm and
attraction of childhood have wholly disappeared; the sights and sounds
that assail the senses; the dulled, hopeless faces, the apathy, the
stunted intellectual growth--these are the depressing influences that
continually beset the deaconesses, and nothing short of God-given
strength and Christ-like enthusiasm can enable these women to devote
six, eight, and ten years of service to this worst city district, and to
come forth with sunshiny, peaceful faces, and sympathetic, loving
hearts.

Taking the total number of deaconess institutions under the Church of
England, there are eighty one deaconesses, thirty-four probationers, and
two hundred and twenty-nine associates.[62]

So far, sisterhoods have proved more attractive to the women of the
Church of England than have deaconess establishments. The latter do not
seem to increase largely in numbers. Vexing questions have arisen as to
how the deaconess should be set apart to her work. Should she be
consecrated by the imposition of the bishop's hands? What relation
should she have to the Church? These questions have been partially
settled by the principles and rules that were drawn up in 1871 and were
signed by the two archbishops and eighteen bishops. They define a
deaconess as "a woman set apart by a bishop, under that title, for
service in the Church;"[63] placing her under the authority of the
bishop of the diocese. These recommendations have not been formally
adopted by the Church of England; they hold good only so far as they are
accepted.

But there are other institutions, lying outside of the boundaries of the
State Church, which have developed more fully and prosperously than
those within it. Of these we must speak first of the institution of
Dr. Laseron, which is more closely connected with Kaiserswerth than any
other in England. In 1855 Dr. Laseron and his wife lost their only
child; and as Mrs. Laseron walked through the streets with burdened
heart she looked at the little children with quickened sympathy, and
noticed how many were poor and hungry and scantily clothed. She talked
with her husband, and they opened a "ragged school" for children. This
increased and branched off, until now there is an orphanage, workhouses
for boys, and a servants' training school for girls. Requests were
frequently made for some of the older girls to act as nurses among the
poor; and, finally, Dr. Laseron, who was a German by birth, determined
to found a deaconess house and hospital. A small hospital of twelve beds
was opened, and proved insufficient to meet the demands; and none could
be accepted as deaconesses, as there was no opportunity to train them in
so small a place. While waiting to see how the house could be enlarged,
he mentioned his perplexity to Mr. Samuel Morley. This gentleman heard
him with interest, and said that he was one of the directors of a large
hospital; that at a recent meeting of the directors a Catholic bishop
had offered to send Sisters of Charity who, without compensation, should
nurse the sick, and he had thought what a fine thing it would be if the
Protestant Church had also its women of piety who could devote
themselves to a similar work. The result of the conversation was that
Mr. Morley contributed forty thousand dollars, with which Dr. Laseron
purchased a site in Tottenham, built a hospital with fifty beds, and a
deaconess was called from Kaiserswerth to superintend it. The hospital
has been again enlarged, so that it now accommodates one hundred
patients. Sixty-four deaconesses are connected with it, who are at
service in the hospitals of Cork, Dublin, Scarborough, and Sunderland.
This institution is unsectarian, and has met with special aid from
non-conformists. It still keeps in close relation to Kaiserswerth, and
is represented at the Conferences. It has constantly thriven, and the
mother-house at Tottenham is a center for various benevolent
enterprises.

In connection with Dr. Barnardo's Orphanage there is also a deaconess
house. Harley House, the missionary training-school under the direction
of Dr. and Mrs. Grattan Guinness in East London, has a deaconess home as
one of its branches. The Kilburn (St. Augustine's) Orphanage of Mercy,
and the London Bible-women's Mission are also centers for the training
and organizing of women's work in London.

We must pause more at length over the prison mission under the care of
Mrs. Meredith. American women are beginning to occupy themselves with
questions of philanthropy and religious activity to an extent not before
equaled. The women's prisons in England are especially fruitful of
suggestions to us, as many here are interested in having our women
prisoners separated in prisons by themselves, as has already been
attempted in a few States. Mrs. Meredith's work is in behalf of the
prisoners after they have served their sentence and are discharged. She
is the daughter of General Lloyd, who was formerly governor-general of
prisons in Ireland. As a little child she was accustomed to go about
with her father, and the interior of prisons became familiar to her.
Later in life, when her family ties were broken, and her hands left free
for service, her interest was engaged in behalf of the women convicts
who were discharged from prison. She enlisted the support of other
ladies of like views, able to assist her, and in 1866 the Prison Gate
Mission began, which has continued to the present day. Every morning, as
the gate of Millbank prison swings back to allow those who have been
released from penal bondage to come forth, a sister stands waiting to
invite those who will go with her to a room near by, where breakfast
awaits them; there are ladies to inquire about their plans and to offer
them work. A great laundry was opened in 1867 to provide employment for
these women. Here washing is done for two classes: for the poor and
sick, to whom the service is given as a charity, and to those who pay
for the work and whose money enables the mission to be partly
self-supporting. Then the ladies extended their plans to take in the
children of the prisoners. A law was passed by Parliament which enabled
Mrs. Meredith and her associates to have the care of those children at
the Princess Mary Village Home until they are sixteen years of age. This
home was founded at Addlestone in 1870, and was named after the Princess
Mary, Duchess of Teck, who aided in obtaining funds to build it. The
institution takes not only the female children of criminal mothers, but
also little girls who are likely to drift into a career of crime. It is
conducted on the cottage plan, each little house having ten inmates and
a house mother to superintend it, and being complete in its own
arrangements. There are eighteen cottages, a large, generous
school-room, a small infirmary for the sick, and a little church. About
two hundred children of criminals and the unfortunate class are here
cared for. Instead of allowing them to drift away and to perpetuate
vice, crime, and immorality, they are taken entirely from their old
surroundings, and new influences of knowledge and purity are thrown
about them. There is no part of Mrs. Meredith's mission which has such
hope for the future and is so valuable in results as this preventive
work among the children.

There are also a woman's medical mission (1882), a Christian woman's
union, a girls' school, and a deaconess house in Jerusalem under the
control of the same association. How it arose is well intimated by the
following extract from a letter from Mrs. Meredith to the author, dated
March 9, 1889: "You will know that my course has been progressive with
regard to the mode of congregating the women who joined me in working.
At first we merely came together daily from our own homes, as those who
make a business concern do. Then to spare time and money we began to
live together. The next step was to admit useful and devoted women who
had no property, and to form an association with degrees of membership.
When we found ourselves becoming a corporation of importance, and having
combined to acquire property and to found institutions, we invited the
help and counsel of some men of known eminence. Our institutions are all
branches of a parent stock, and are now placed in the charge of these
good men, and we have taken the name of the Church of England Woman's
Missionary Association. I am daily persuaded of the value of such
organizations."

In connection with the London West Central Mission there is an
association of ladies called the Sisters of the People. "They are
expected to be worthy of the beautiful name they bear. They are true
sisters of the unprivileged and the disheartened; as ready to make a
bed, cook a dinner, or nurse a baby as to minister to the higher need of
the immortal spirit. The sisters live together in the neighborhood of
their work, and wear a distinctive dress as a protection and for other
reasons; but they take no vows, and are at liberty to withdraw from the
mission at any time. Their work is directed by Mrs. Hughes. Katherine
House, the residence of the Sisters of the People, was opened early in
November, 1887, and from that day the work of the sisters dates its
commencement. Their daily labors are very similar to those of the
deaconesses of Mildmay, who work among the London parishes. Each sister
has a district allotted to her, which she visits regularly and
systematically. The first object which she sets before herself is to get
to know the people, and to make them feel that she is their true sister
and friend, irrespective of the fact that they are themselves good or
bad, respectable or degraded. When once true friendliness is
established, the way is opened for direct religious influence; and many,
who in the first instance would never pay any attention to religion,
will listen to an appeal from one whom they love and respect."[64]

Katherine House accommodates twelve sisters. A second house is urgently
needed, and a strong plea is made for it in the Report.

There are besides "out sisters," who work with the sisters but reside at
their own homes. This is a valuable feature of this mission, as it
interests ladies who are living in their own homes, and yet who can be
very useful to those who devote their whole work to the sisters' labor.
In the Report a great many instances are given which show what an
intimate knowledge of the poor people is obtained by these sisters, and
in what practical ways they minister to the bodily and spiritual needs
of those whom they find in their house-to-house visitations. The term
"sister," as it is used in the report of the London West Central
Mission, is in all respects a synonym for "deaconess," as the name is
understood in the large deaconess establishment at Mildmay. To the study
of this we shall devote the following chapter.

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