DIACONO and DIACONESSA (PROTESTANTI). – The nineteenth century, which among Protestants marked a fervent revival of their internal missionary work, also saw the establishment of deacons and deaconesses.
The deacons had as their founder the pastor Giovanni Enrico Wickern, who in 1833 gathered many abandoned children at Horn, near Hamburg, and built for them a house in the form of a colony, with separate buildings for prayer, school, work, and ordinary residence. The co-workers, assistants, and educators, who devoted themselves to the children and acted as fathers to them, were called “deacons,” intentionally harking back to the ancient deacons of the primitive Church. The work prospered, and the institutions multiplied, extending their assistance to schools, hospitals, homes for the blind, the deaf-mute, the elderly, and those unable to work.
At almost the same time, deaconesses arose at Kaiserwerth, near Düsseldorf, in 1836, through the work of the pastor Teodoro Fiedner. They care for the sick and the poor and visit the various districts, but are more subordinate than the deacons to the needs of the parishes in which their house is located.
The deaconesses are very numerous, and their institutions are many, especially in Germany, England, and America; they are supported by the diaconate and, while retaining administration of their private property, receive a small daily allowance. They must remain celibate; in the Anglican Church and in the Episcopal and Methodist churches of America, they are solemnly admitted to their rank through the bishop’s blessing and laying on of hands. Their training, in view of the mission they must carry out, is thorough.