Deaconesses in Europe and their Lessons for America Part 4

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 G.o.d. Those who desire to become teacher-deaconesses must, in addition, present certain educational certificates, and be able to sing. All must pa.s.s some months at the mother-house, taking care of children and a.s.sisting 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 ap.r.o.ns 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 antic.i.p.ated, 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 inst.i.tution her modest wardrobe, consisting of a Sunday suit, a working-dress of dark blue, blue ap.r.o.n, 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, a.s.suring her chivalrous treatment from all cla.s.ses 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.

The rules for probationers are full of practical suggestions touching the details of daily life. There is not s.p.a.ce to transcribe them here, but those who have charge of training schools will find them valuable reading. Every kind of house and hospital service is clearly defined.

The deaconesses are instructed what duties are theirs in hospitals for women and in hospitals for men. In the latter the sister undertakes only such nursing as is suited to her s.e.x, and for that reason she has a male a.s.sistant. She must follow strictly the doctor's orders in all matters pertaining to diet, medicine, and ventilation, and must inform him daily of the patient's state. She also a.s.sists the clergyman, if desired, in ministering to spiritual needs. But she must not obtrude her religion, when it is distasteful to her patients; rather manifest it in her deeds and manner of life.

Every portion of the day has definite duties a.s.signed to it. On reading them over you say, Can much be accomplished when the hours are subdivided into so many portions, and given over to so many objects? But the unvarying testimony is that no nurses accomplish more than the German deaconesses. No matter how busy they may be, the effort is made for each to have a quiet half hour for meditation and private devotion.

Every afternoon the chapel is opened for this purpose, and all the sisters who can be spared meet here. A hymn is sung, and afterward each spends the time as she will in meditation, reading the Bible or silent prayer, the quietness and stillness being unbroken by words. The "Stille halbe Stunde," as it is called, is greatly prized by the sisters, and is observed by them in all their inst.i.tutions, and in all lands. There are Bible-cla.s.ses and prayer-meetings for the deaconesses during the week, and the first Sunday of every month there is a special service of prayer and thanksgiving for all sisters, all the affiliated houses, and similar homes wherever they exist. Fliedner prepared a book of daily Bible readings for the use of the sisters, and a hymn-book, used in all the Kaiserswerth inst.i.tutions at home and abroad. "We have no vows," he said, "and I will have no vows, but a bond of union we must have, and the best bond is the word of G.o.d, and our second bond is singing."[37]

The sisters of each house meet together to give their votes for the admission of new deaconesses and the election of the superintendents.

Each deaconess is expected to obey those who are placed over her, and to accept the kind of work a.s.signed her, except in the case of contagious diseases, when her permission is asked. What a tribute it is to these women that such a refusal has never yet been known! Every effort is made to harmonize the right of the individual with the needs of the whole body, a marked characteristic of the Protestant sisters of charity.

When a probationer becomes a deaconess she is consecrated to her work by a service the main features of which it may be well to indicate. They are as follows:

Singing. Address commending the deaconesses for acceptance. Address to the deaconesses, recalling the ever-repeated thought, "You are servants in a threefold sense: servants of the Lord Jesus; servants of the needy for Jesus' sake; servants one of another." Then, having answered the question, "Are you determined to fulfill these duties truly in the fear of the Lord, and according to his holy will?" the candidate kneels and receives the benediction: "May the Triune G.o.d, G.o.d the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, bless you; may he give you fidelity unto death, and then the crown of life." After this is repeated the prayer of the _Apostolical Const.i.tutions_, that beautiful prayer which has been said on similar occasions in many lands and in many tongues.[38] The service ends with the communion.

A similar consecration service is used by nearly all the German deaconess houses. The features of those that meet together in the triennial Conferences at Kaiserswerth are strikingly similar; the spirit of the original founder pervades them all.

The first of the Conferences was held in 1861, just twenty-five years after the founding of the first deaconess house at Kaiserswerth. It was celebrated as a Thanksgiving festival for the restoration of the diaconate of women to the Church. The representatives of twenty-seven distinct mother-houses met together to exchange their experiences, and to deliberate on matters touching the further usefulness of the order.

Since then the Conferences have been continued at intervals of three and four years. The last General Conference a.s.sembled at Fliedner's old home in September, 1888.

Just before it convened, as is the custom, statistics were obtained from the different mother-houses represented in the a.s.sociation, and pains were taken to verify their correctness. The results so obtained are given in the following table:[39]

Mother- Fields of Conferences. houses. Sisters. Work.

1861 27 1,197 ?

1864 30 1,592 386 1868 40 2,106 526 1872 48 2,657 648 1875 50 3,239 866 1878 51 3,901 1,093 1881 53 4,748 1,436 1884 54 5,653 1,742 1888 57 7,129 2,263

Five additional houses had made application for entrance at the time the table was made, and were received at the ensuing Conference, among which was the Philadelphia mother-house of deaconesses in connection with the Mary J. Drexel Home.

Over sixty mother-houses now belong to the a.s.sociation, and notwithstanding the necessary loss of deaconesses from death or removal from work since the preceding Conference, there are 1,476 more in number now than then. Surely the deaconess cause is striking deep root in the religious life of Protestant Europe. During Fliedner's life-time occasions arose which called the deaconesses outside their accustomed fields of work, and proved their value in the exceptional emergencies that so often arise. Here is an instance that occurred during the early days of the establishment:[40]

"An epidemic of nervous fever was raging in two communes of the circle of Duisburg, Gartrop, and Gahlen. Its first and most virulent outbreak took place at Gartrop, a small, poor, secluded village of scarcely one hundred and thirty souls, without a doctor, without an apothecary in the neighborhood, while the clergyman was upon the point of leaving for another parish, and his successor had not yet been appointed. Four deaconesses, including the superior, Pastor Fliedner's wife, and a maid, hastened to this scene of wretchedness, and found from twenty to twenty-five fever patients in the most alarming condition, a mother and four children in one hovel, four other patients in another, and so on, all lying on foul straw, or on bed-clothes that had not been washed for weeks, almost without food, utterly without help. Many had died already; the healthy had fled; the parish doctor lived four German leagues off, and could not come every day. The first care of the sisters, who would have found no lodging but for the then vacancy of the parsonage, was to introduce cleanliness and ventilation into the narrow cabins of the peasants; they washed and cooked for the sick, they watched every night by turns at their bed-side, and tended them with such success that only four died after their arrival, and the rest were only convalescent after four weeks' stay. The same epidemic having broken out in the neighboring commune of Gahlen, in two families, of whom eight members lay ill at once, a single deaconess was able, in three weeks, to restore every patient to health, and to prevent the further spread of the disease.

What would not our doctors give for a few dozen of such hard-working, zealous, intelligent ministers in the field of sanitary reform?"

The Schleswig-Holstein war of 1864 was the first in which Protestant deaconesses were active as nurses. Already in the Crimean war the Greek Sisters of Charity among the Russians, the Sisters of Mercy among the French, and Florence Nightingale and Miss Stanley among the English, had wakened the liveliest grat.i.tude on the part of the soldiers, and secured the respect and approbation of the surgeons.

In the Austrian war of 1866 two hundred and eighty-two deaconesses were in the hospitals and on the battle-fields, fifty-eight of whom were from Kaiserswerth. The Franco-Prussian war of 1870 was on a greater scale, and afforded wider opportunities for the unselfish, priceless labors of these Christian nurses. Neatly eight hundred deaconesses, sent from more than thirty mother-houses, cared for the sick and wounded in the camp hospitals or on the field. The willingness of a number of boards of administration to release sisters who were in their service, and the voluntary offers of other women to take their places, enabled Kaiserswerth to send two hundred and twenty of the number. Their experience in improvising hospitals, in aiding the surgeon in his amputations, and in ministering to the wounded and dying, throws a tender glow of compa.s.sionate sympathy over the terrible scenes of war.[41]

The importance of trained deaconesses in times of war is now well understood by the military authorities at Berlin. In the winter of 1887, when war seemed imminent, the directors of the German deaconess houses were summoned by the government to a conference at the German capital to take measures for supplying nurses in case war should be declared.

Deaconesses are now thoroughly incorporated into the religious and social features of the German national life, as must be admitted by any one who has weighed the facts that have been given.

The example of Kaiserswerth has been far-reaching; the mission of Fliedner, that simple-hearted, true-souled, practical, energetic pastor, has been wonderfully successful.

In this rapid sketch I have said but little of the hinderances he met, nothing of the ridicule which at first attacked him unsparingly. He paid no heed to these obstacles, and why should we waste time in detailing them? Steadfastly and undeviatingly he went forward toward the end he had in view; that is, to restore in all its aspects the devoted disciplined services of Christian women to the Church. He pa.s.sed away from life October 5, 1864, leaving the great establishment that he had watched over in the charge of his son-in-law, Pastor Disselhoff, and other members of his family.

The inst.i.tution has become an imposing ma.s.s of building, forming an almost absurd contrast to the little garden house, the cradle of the whole establishment, which is still standing in the parsonage garden.

When the fiftieth anniversary of the rise of the deaconess cause was celebrated in 1886 the Kaiserswerth sisterhood put their mites together and purchased the little house, to hold it in perpetuity as a monument of G.o.d's providence.

The symbol of Kaiserswerth is a white dove, carrying an olive branch, resting against a blue ground. The blue flag floats from the old windmill tower on the river-bank, attracting the attention of the traveler as he floats up the Rhine.

Other flags bear messages of conquest, of victory, of battles fought and won, of storm and stress and endeavor in the conflict of man against his fellow-man. But only peace and good-will, the victory of goodness and of love--these alone are the messages that are waved forth to the wind by the blue flag of Kaiserswerth.

[36] _Haus Ordnung und Dienst-Anweisung fur die Diakonissen und Probeschwestern des Diakonissen Mutterhauses zu Kaiserswerth._ [37] _Deaconesses_, Rev. J. S. Howson, D.D., p. 81.

[38] Refer back to page 23, chapter ii, where it can be found.

[39] _Der Armen und Kranken Freund_, August Heft, 1888.

[40] _Woman's Work in the Church_, p. 273, J. M. Ludlow. A. Strahan, London, 1866.

[41] _Denkschrift zur Jubelfeier_, p. 215.

CHAPTER VII.

OTHER ESTABLISHMENTS ON THE CONTINENT.

In a book of these dimensions no exhaustive historical account can be given of all the developments of the deaconess movement in the various countries on the Continent. Only a few of the leading houses can be spoken of, but through a knowledge of these we can gain an insight into the life and characteristics of the movement as a whole.

The mother-house at Strasburg is one of the oldest ones, dating from 1842. It owes its origin to the holy enthusiasm and life experiences of Pastor Harter, who exercised a deep religious influence in the city where he lived. In 1817, when he was a young man of twenty, the great Strasburg hospital was re-organized. The six to eight hundred patients were divided according to their religious faith. To the Catholics were a.s.signed as nurses Sisters of Charity. For the Protestants there were paid women nurses.

The magistrates appealed to the pastors to find at least two Protestant women of experience and ability to oversee the nurses, but the most persistent search in the various churches of Strasburg failed to procure suitable candidates. Years afterward, when death entered Harter's family circle, and his life became clouded and darkened, he was called as a pastor to the largest church in Strasburg. He entered upon his new pastorate with a heart heavy and sad, and not until after ten months of struggle, in which the depths of his soul were stirred, did he come forth strong, confident, and positive as never before that "Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." Henceforth there was force to his life, conviction in his words, and never-ceasing energy in good works.

When he heard of Fliedner's new undertaking below him on the Rhine he remembered the difficulty in finding Protestant nurses for the hospital, and declared that Strasburg must have a similar inst.i.tution. He won the support of a number of Christian men and women, and the house was opened in October, 1842. From its beginning many branches of charitable and religious work were undertaken. Especial attention was at first given to preparing Christian teachers, and the schools in connection with the deaconess house were filled with pupils. The success in this particular aroused apprehension lest the deaconesses should be diverted from their legitimate duties in caring for outside interests, so for a time the schools were discontinued. They have been resumed, however, and are to-day prosperous as of old.[42] There are also a hospital, a home for aged women, a servants' training-school and a foundling asylum under the charge of the deaconesses. They are, as a cla.s.s, of higher social rank than these of Kaiserswerth, the preponderating number of whom are from the lower grade of social life. They are also better educated. This is partly a necessity, from the fact that the city is on the border-land between two great nations and if the deaconesses are to be effective they must be familiar with the spoken and written speech of both peoples. Strasburg continues to be a great and powerful center of deaconess activities, having a number of branch houses and various fields of work.

The affiliated house at Mulhausen has obtained an especially good report for its successful use of parish deaconesses. No other house has so systematized their labors or developed their possibilities as has the deaconess house at Mulhausen. All the authorities on deaconess work agree that the office of the parish deaconess is the crown and glory of the diaconate, and approaches most nearly the type of the deaconesses of the early Church.

The parish deaconess has occasion to use every gift which she can possibly acquire in the varied training of the deaconess school. She must know how to care for the poor, the weak, the sick, and those needing help for either body or soul, as she finds them in her visits from house to house. She must be able to pray at the bedside of the rich man, and to serve in the kitchen of the poor man; to be motherly to children, sympathetic with the sorrowing, and silent with the complaining. She must be an intelligent nurse, having some knowledge of medicine, able to faithfully carry out the instructions of the physician. She must be keen in detecting imposition, and wise in the administration of charity, knowing that "to deny is often to help, and to give is often to corrupt." Truly, there is no gift of Christian womanhood which has not here its use.

For many reasons Mulhausen was well adapted for a field of labor for parish deaconesses. It is an old city, dating back to mediaeval times, having a population of about sixty thousand inhabitants, half of whom are workmen. It has long been known for its n.o.ble and successful endeavors to promote the well-being of the working cla.s.s. One of the first building and loan a.s.sociations was started here to enable the operatives to earn their homes by gradual payments. Other organizations whose object is the moral elevation of the employees have united the different social circles by strong ties of sympathy. It was an easy matter, therefore, to raise a subscription of two hundred thousand francs to provide a home for the deaconesses who were invited here from Strasburg in 1861. There are now fourteen sisters in the deaconess house. Half of the number remain at the home to nurse the sick, and perform house duties. The remainder are parish deaconesses, who go forth early in the morning, each to her own quarter of the city, where she is busy at her labors during the day. In the evening she returns to the central home. In each of the seven districts into which the city is divided is located a district house; a pleasant, well-kept place. This contains a waiting-room for the deaconess and a consultation-room for the district physician, who comes at stated hours during the week. The poor who are recommended by the sister he treats gratuitously, and, so far as the physician directs, she furnishes food gratuitously. She keeps on hand a good stock of lint, bandages, and instruments. Each house has a kitchen and cellar. Every morning a woman comes in and prepares a large kettle of nourishing soup, and at 11 A. M. this is given out to the sick and poor.

In the store-room are rice, sugar, coffee, meal, and similar articles of food. From here she sends out at noon such portions as are needed for the most dest.i.tute of the district. In winter she also sells from her stores to the poor. Then there is a closet amply provided with sewing materials, and when the deaconess obtains work for seamstresses she furnishes them at a small price the necessary outfit to begin sewing. At two o'clock the deaconess ends her duties at the district house, and spends the remainder of the day in making visits in her quarter. To provide means to support the constant expenditure, there is in each quarter of the city a committee of fifteen ladies and three gentlemen, being in all more than one hundred ladies and twenty gentlemen, who are responsible for the administration of the charity. Each committee has a yearly collection in its district, and in this way about forty thousand francs are gathered annually. In each quarter nine hundred francs (one hundred and eighty dollars) is set apart for the maintenance of the sister and the rent of the district house. The remaining sum is expended by the deaconesses in their several districts in caring for the sick and dest.i.tute. Every month each one receives the sum allotted her from the treasurer, and in return reports her expenditure. The ladies on the committee often give personal a.s.sistance to the deaconess, and sometimes a.s.sume responsibility for individual cases, or for an entire street. The arrangements are constantly being improved upon as knowledge is gained by practice. The experience that has been gathered at Mulhausen is very practical, and therefore very valuable. Similar work could be undertaken in any of our large American cities, with the antic.i.p.ation of like beneficent results. For that reason the above detailed description has been ventured upon, with the hope that the Old World example will find imitators in the New.[43] Similar inst.i.tutions, although not so carefully perfected, are found in Gorlitz and Magdeburg.

In Berlin are a good many deaconess inst.i.tutions. Among them is the Marthashof, a training-school for servants, and a home for those out of employment.

The first impulse to care for the girls who come to large cities to obtain work, and to provide them a home where they can have respectable surroundings, came from Pastor Vermeil, the founder of the deaconess house at Paris. When Fliedner visited the Paris house his heart was touched by what he saw. He thought of the thousands of girls coming annually to Berlin from the provinces, and of the exposures and temptations to which they were subjected. He knew that many of them in their ignorance and inexperience were ruined body and soul in the lodging-houses to which they resorted, and drifted away on the streets of the city, only to find a place eventually in the hopeless wards of the great hospital, La Charite.

He determined to do what he could to provide a remedy, and, as was his wont, "without money and without noise" he set to work. In the north of Berlin, at quite a distance from the railroad stations, he hired a small house on a street then called "The Lost Way"--a street well named, as it was unlighted and unpaved, and so poorly kept that when the queen came to visit the home, shortly after it was opened, her carriage, in spite of the strong horses, got stuck in the mud.

By the aid of some ladies in the city the home was furnished with twelve beds; three deaconesses were put in charge, and after perplexing difficulties the authorization to open a registry for servants was obtained. The idea at first met with derision. It was said that such an inst.i.tution was rightly located on "The Lost Way," for no one would ever come to it. But they came. In two years the number of beds increased to twenty, and the same year Fliedner purchased the entire court in which the house stood, containing five houses and a fine garden. Queen Elizabeth of Prussia became the patroness of the inst.i.tution, and it grew in favor with the people. A training-school was added in which the girls were taught to wash, iron, cook, and sew, and also to work in the garden and to care for cows, the last two branches of domestic service being required of servant-girls in Germany. Later an infant school was added in which nursery girls were practiced in taking charge of children, a pleasant, helpful demeanor being made one of the requisites.

Over two hundred children, mostly coming from the poorest and gloomiest homes, are in daily attendance. About three hundred and fifty more attend the girls' school for children of the working cla.s.ses. In the home and training-school for servants about eight hundred girls are received annually, and sixteen thousand have been sheltered and taught during the years it has been open. They readily secure situations, over two thousand applications being annually received for the servants of the Marthashof. They remain in friendly relation to the home, receive good counsel and advice, and are encouraged to spend their free Sundays there.