DEACON AND DEACONESS (PROTESTANT). - The 19th century, which marked among Protestants a fervor of revival in the work of their home missions, also counts the institution of deacons and deaconesses.
The deacons have as their founder the pastor Johann Heinrich Wichern, who in 1833 gathered at Horn, near Hamburg, many abandoned children and built for them a house in the manner of a colony with separate buildings for prayer, school, work and ordinary dwelling. The co-workers, assistants and educators, who devoted themselves to the children and acted as fathers to them, were called "deacons," intentionally linking themselves to the ancient deacons of the early Church. The work prospered; and the institutes multiplied, extending the work of assistance to schools, hospitals, homes for the blind, for the deaf and mute, for the old and those unable to work.
Almost at the same time, the deaconesses arose at Kaiserswerth, near Düsseldorf, in 1836, through the work of the pastor Theodor Fliedner. They care for the sick and the poor, 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 quite numerous and their institutes are many, especially in Germany, England and America; they are maintained by the diaconate, and, while retaining the administration of their private property, they receive a small daily allowance. They must maintain the state of celibacy; in the Anglican, Episcopal and Methodist Church of America they are admitted to their rank solemnly with the blessing and the imposition of hands of the bishop. Their formation, in view of the mission they must carry out, is thorough.
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Celestino Testore