The first Lutheran deaconesses were brought to North America in 1849 by the Rev. William A. Passavant, specifically to staff what later became Passavant Hospital in Pittsburgh. The deaconess institutions of Germany, at Kaiserworth, by the Rev. Theodore Fliedner and at Neuendettelsau by the Rev. Wilhelm Loehe became the model for diaconal life, community and training for American Lutheran deaconesses.   View Slideshow