A diaconia was originally an establishment built near a church building, for the care of the poor and distribution of the church's charity in medieval Rome or Naples (the successor to the Roman grain supply system, often standing on the very sites of its

stationes annonae An ancient Roman ''statio'' (Latin for "position" or "location", pl. ''stationes'') was a stopping place on a Roman road for travellers looking for shelter for the night and a change of horses. The name of the statio was sometimes a town or city w ...

). Examples included the sites of

San Vito San Vito may refer to: Persons *Saint Vitus, saint, origin of all San Vito names Places Settlements in Italy * Bagnolo San Vito, province of Mantua * Celle di San Vito, province of Foggia *Monte San Vito, province of Ancona * San Vito, Sardinia ...

, Santi Alessio e Bonifacio, and Sant'Agatha in Rome,

San Gennaro Januarius ( ; ; Neapolitan and ), also known as , was Bishop of Benevento and is a martyr and saint of the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, and Armenian Apostolic Church. While no contemporary sources on his life are preserved, later ...

in Naples (headed by a deacon named John in the end of the ninth and the beginning of the tenth century. The

popes The pope is the bishop of Rome and the visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. He is also known as the supreme pontiff, Roman pontiff, or sovereign pontiff. From the 8th century until 1870, the pope was the sovereign or head of sta ...

allocated to the Romans bathing through ''diaconia'', or private

Lateran 250px, Basilica and Palace - side view Lateran and Laterano are names for an area of Rome, and the shared names of several buildings in Rome. The properties were once owned by the Lateranus family of the Roman Empire. The Laterani lost their p ...

baths, or even a myriad of monastic bath houses functioning in eighth and ninth centuries.

Meaning and spelling of the term

An alternative spelling, ''diakonia'', is a Christian theological term from Greek (διακονία) that encompasses the call to serve the poor and oppressed. The terms

deaconess The ministry of a deaconess is a ministry for women in some Protestant, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Orthodox churches to provide pastoral care, especially for other women, and which may carry a liturgical role. The word comes from the Greek ...

and

diaconate A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Catholi ...

also come from the same root, which refers to the emphasis on service within those vocations. In scripture ''deacons'' were those whom the Church appointed to dispense alms, and take care of the poor. Diakonia is a term derived from Greek, used in the New Testament of the Bible, with several meanings. Sometimes, it refers to a specific kind of help to people in need. At other times, it means to serve the tables, while another use refers to the distribution of financial resources. Diaconia contained

public bathing Public baths originated when most people in population centers did not have access to private bathing facilities. Though termed "public", they have often been restricted according to gender, religious affiliation, personal membership, and other cr ...

facilities to serve both the clerics and needy poor people. Also in contemporary theology, the word diakonia presents a variety of connotations and representations. For FLD (Diakonal Lutherans Foundation in Brazi

diakonia means serve to change people's lives, to contribute to the construction of citizenship of the less fortunate. Diakonal activities include but are not limited to the provision of medical care, long-term care for the Elderly care, elderly and the socially underprivileged, support for

migrants Migrant is a term that may refer to: Human migration *Human migration, including: **Emigration, leaving one's resident country with the intent to settle elsewhere. 1988 Webster's Definition. One who migrates, esp. from 1 region to another in sear ...

and their

integration Integration may refer to: Biology *Multisensory integration *Path integration * Pre-integration complex, viral genetic material used to insert a viral genome into a host genome *DNA integration, by means of site-specific recombinase technology, ...

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: People, characters, figures, names * Roma or Romani people, an ethnic group living mostly in Europe and the Americas. * Roma called Roy, ancient Egyptian High Priest of Amun * Roma (footballer, born 1979), born ''Paul ...

inclusion, job coaching, etc. The term Diakonie is a constant reminder of the selfless love taught by Jesus in such gospel passages as Luke 10:25–37, the story of the Good Samaritan. Early disciples were particularly responsive to the fact that the

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

had lived, taught, and died in lowly circumstances. They thought that if the master had chosen to be seen as a servant, the leaders of congregations had to follow. The word has now come to mean the

titular church In the Catholic Church, a titular church () is a Churches in Rome, church in Rome that is assigned to a member of the Holy orders in the Catholic Church, clergy who is created a Cardinal (Catholic Church), cardinal. These are Catholic churches in ...

of a

Cardinal Deacon A cardinal is a senior member of the clergy of the Catholic Church. As titular members of the clergy of the Diocese of Rome, they serve as advisors to the pope, who is the bishop of Rome and the visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. C ...

. Also in some South American countries, it is a native meal.

Diaconal education

The second volume of

Gerhard Kittel Gerhard Kittel (23 September 1888 – 11 July 1948) was a German Lutheran theologian and lexicographer of biblical languages. He was an enthusiastic supporter of the Nazis and an open antisemite. He is known in the field of biblical studies for hi ...

's ''Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament'' (''Theological Dictionary of the New Testament'') can be considered as the scholarly prop on which the contemporary view of ministry/diakonia leans..

History of diaconal institutions in the 19th century

In the 1830s initiatives within German

Lutheranism Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

started the creation of communities of men and especially of women who were dedicated exclusively to the works of charity so desperately needed in the wake of social dislocations created by industrialization and the

Napoleonic wars {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Napoleonic Wars , partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars , image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg , caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...

. By the 1930s such institutions had opened in many cities in central and northern Europe. The geographical spread was accompanied by the growth of a distinctively modern diaconal spirituality centered on the servant roles of the deacon and deaconess in their meeting the needs of the poor and the destitute.

Current usage in German-speaking countries

Germany

Diakonie Deutschland The Diakonie Deutschland is a charitable organization of Protestant churches in Germany (Protestant Church in Germany), Austria as well as numerous free churches. Its Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholi ...

is one of the largest social welfare organizations in Germany. It is one of six members of , the ''federal association of free social welfare organizations''. The parent organization and its members employed 599,282 people in 2018 and were supported by about 700,000 volunteers. At the start of 2018 Diakonie Deutschland had 31,594 institutions and services offering a total of 1,174,765 places/beds.

Austria

in Austria had circa 9,000 employees and was supported by 1,500 volunteers in 2017.

References

{{Authority control Catholic Church organisation Catholicism in the Middle Ages Medieval Rome Catholic charities