e they were to act as trained
nurses in the city hospital. From that time to the present the hospital
has continued under the management of the Kaiserswerth deaconesses.

Soon afterward sisters were sent out to nurse in private families, and
in 1839 two more were sent to superintend the workhouse in Frankfort. As
the institution became known there was a constant demand for
superintendents, and matrons for public reformatories, prisons, and
charitable establishments. Between 1846 and 1850 more than sixty
deaconesses were at work at twenty-five different stations outside of
the mother-house. About the same time deaconesses began to work in
connection with special churches which called for their services, having
the duties which in England are assigned to those called "parish
deaconesses."

King Frederick William IV., from the beginning Fliedner's faithful
friend and supporter, had long desired a deaconess home in Berlin. This
was finally obtained, and set apart under the name "Bethanien Haus," or
Bethany House, October 10, 1847, at a special dedicatory service, at
which the king, with his court, was present. It was while seeking a
superintendent for this home in Berlin that Fliedner learned to know
Caroline Bertheau, of Hamburg, a descendant of an old Huguenot family
that was driven from France by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. He
led her home as his wife in May, 1843, and she became to him a true
helpmeet for his children, his home, and his institution. She is still
living, having survived her husband over twenty-five years, and in an
advanced age still retains a place on the Board of Direction at
Kaiserswerth.

In one place after another deaconess homes arose, sometimes simply
through Fliedner's advice, more often by his direct co-operation. From
1849 to 1851 he was chiefly engaged in traveling from one land to
another, occupied in kindling the zeal of Christian women to devotion to
the sick and sorrowing, and finding fields of service for their
priceless ministrations. He visited the United States, England, France,
and Switzerland, as well as various cities of the East, including
Jerusalem and Constantinople.

The work in our own land was begun at Pittsburg, where Fliedner came
with four sisters in the summer of 1849, at the invitation of Pastor
Passavant, of the German Lutheran Church.

The deaconesses at once entered upon hospital work, and their care of
the sick met with warm appreciation, but their nu