dy for the plan, and tried
to induce the pastors of the larger and wealthier communities in the
neighborhood to locate the Protestant asylum in some one of these
cities. No one responded to his appeal. His wife, whose courage was
often greater than his own, urged him to make a beginning in the little
village where he lived, unpromising as the conditions seemed, and after
a little hesitation, seeing no one was ready to assume any
responsibility in a matter that he took so deeply to heart, the good
pastor decided to follow her advice. The old parsonage was for rent, and
he secured it on low terms.

Frau Fliedner had a friend of her school-days and early youth, now a
woman of experience and ability. She sent for her to come and visit them
to see if she would become the superintendent of the refuge, but shortly
after her arrival she was taken sick, and her friends sent letters of
expostulation urging her to return. Just now, when affairs were in
rather an untoward state, appeared the first inmate. Let Fliedner tell
the story:

"We at first gave her lodging in my summer-house, and the necessity of
attending to her did more good to the poor, distressed superintendent
than all her quinine and mixtures. Countess Spee, the wife of our
president, had prophesied that our inmates would never remain with us a
month, they would certainly run away. So when the first month was over I
marched over to Heltorf and triumphantly announced, 'Minna is yet
there.' Minna was followed by another, and the garden-house became too
small."

Finally Fliedner obtained possession of the house he had hired, after
some delay on the part of the former tenants, and the asylum was opened.
The number of inmates increased, and Fraeulein Goebel soon had more than
she could manage. She must have an assistant. The need of trained
Christian workers, who could care for these poor women, grew daily more
apparent.

Fliedner's thoughts constantly dwelt on the subject; they gave him no
rest. He had discovered with joyful surprise in 1827 the traces of the
apostolic deaconesses among the Mennonites, and two years later he
wrote:

"Does not the experience of this our sister Church, do not the women
societies in our last war, does not the holy activity of an Elizabeth
Fry and her helpers in England, and the women's associations of Russia
and Prussia formed after their model to care for the bodies and souls of
women prisoners--do all these not show what great power