Elizabeth Fedde
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Elisabeth Fedde (December 25, 1850 – February 25, 1921) was a Norwegian Lutheran
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 ...
who established the Norwegian Relief Society to better serve the
Norwegian-American Norwegian Americans () are Americans with ancestral roots in Norway. Norwegian immigrants went to the United States primarily in the latter half of the 19th century and the first few decades of the 20th century. There are more than 4.5 milli ...
immigrant community.


Biography

Elisabeth Fedde was born in
Feda Feda or FEDA may also refer to: *Feda (municipality), a former municipality in Vest-Agder county, Norway *Feda, Norway, a village in Kvinesdal, Vest-Agder * Feđa, Bosnian given name ''includes list of people named Feđa'' * Further Education Develo ...
in Vest-Agder, Norway on
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, December 25, 1850, to Captain Andreas Willumsen Fedde (1814-1873) and Anne Marie Olsdatter (1818-1864). Her father was a
sea captain A sea captain, ship's captain, captain, master, or shipmaster, is a high-grade licensed mariner who holds ultimate command and responsibility of a merchant vessel. The captain is responsible for the safe and efficient operation of the ship, inc ...
who retired when his wife became ill, and he became a farmer. She had six siblings. After her father died in 1873, Elisabeth trained as a
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 ...
at the Lovisenberg Deaconess House (''Diakonissehuset Christiania'') in Christiania under the supervision of
Cathinka Guldberg Cathinka Augusta Guldberg (3 January 1840 – 22 October 1919) was a Norwegian nurse, educator and deaconess. She was associated with the development of nursing education in Norway. Biography Guldberg was born in the city of Christiania (now Os ...
, who had herself been trained at the Kaiserswerther Diakonie school and hospital founded by Theodore Fliedner in Kaiserswerth, Germany. Fedde spent much of her early ministerial career Norway's newest and northernmost
diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...
. She and another young deaconess established a medical house in
Tromsø Tromsø is a List of towns and cities in Norway, city in Tromsø Municipality in Troms county, Norway. The city is the administrative centre of the municipality as well as the administrative centre of Troms county. The city is located on the is ...
, the largest city in
Troms Troms (; ; ; ) is a Counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. It borders Finnmark county to the northeast and Nordland county in the southwest. Norrbotten Län in Sweden is located to the south and further southeast is a shorter border with ...
county, in 1878, where they lived and worked under harsh and primitive conditions. On Christmas Day, 1882 (also her thirty-second birthday), Sister Elisabeth received a letter from her brother-in-law Gabriel Fedde, challenging her to set up a ministry in
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for Norwegian seamen there. She sailed for the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
three months later and arrived on April 9, 1883. Nine days later, Sister Elisabeth helped found the Norwegian Relief Society, thus establishing her American ministry. Pastor Andreas Mortensen, whom Gabriel Fedde had served as secretary (after marrying the sister of the Swedish/Norwegian consul in New York), presided over the service establishing the society. Sister Elizabeth established a boarding house at 109 Williams Street, near the Seaman's Church (where Rev. Mortensen served), and rented out three small rooms at $9 per month. Sister Elisabeth also often visited the sick and distressed poor; her diary about those experiences was later published. In 1885, Fedde opened a deaconess house to train other women, as well as a nine-bed hospital that expanded to 30 beds and ultimately became Lutheran Medical Center of
Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...
. After several years in New York (during which she corresponded with
William Passavant William Alfred Passavant (October 9, 1821 – June 3, 1894) was a Lutheran minister who brought the Lutheran Deaconess movement to the United States. He is commemorated in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church on November 24 with Justus F ...
who urged her to take charge of his new hospital in
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...
), Fedde accepted the invitation of midwestern Lutherans and moved to
Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...
. Shortly after she arrived in
Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...
in 1888, Fedde established the Lutheran Deaconess Home. The next year she helped found the Hospital of the
Lutheran Free Church The Lutheran Free Church (LFC) was a Lutheran denomination that existed in the United States, mainly in Minnesota and North Dakota, from 1897 until its merger into the American Lutheran Church (ALC) in 1963. The history of the church body predate ...
. Fedde also helped Mortensen plan for a third hospital in
Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
(which opened in 1897), and another in
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. Eventually, exhausted by her thirteen years working in America, Sister Elisabeth returned to Norway in November 1895. Shortly after her return, she married the patient Ole Slettebo, a suitor whom she had left to conduct her missionary work. After nearly a decade on his farm near the southern port city of
Egersund Egersund is a List of towns and cities in Norway, town in Eigersund municipality in Rogaland county, Norway. The town is located along the southwestern coast of Norway, about south of the city of Stavanger (city), Stavanger. The town is situat ...
,
Rogaland Rogaland () is a Counties of Norway, county in Western Norway, bordering the North Sea to the west and the counties of Vestland to the north, Telemark to the east and Agder to the east and southeast. As of 1 January 2024, it had a population of 49 ...
, Fedde sailed back to Brooklyn in 1904 to celebrate an anniversary. Sister Elisabeth Fedde died on February 25, 1921, in Egersund, Rogaland, Norway. Her husband Ole died three years later.


Legacy

The
Calendar of Saints The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context does n ...
of both the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is a mainline Protestant church headquartered in Chicago, Illinois. The ELCA was officially formed on January 1, 1988, by the merging of three Lutheran church bodies. As of December 31, 2023, it ...
and the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada Evangelicalism (), also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide, interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that emphasizes evangelism, or the preaching and spreading of the Christian g ...
remembers Elizabeth Fedde on the anniversary of her death.


References


Further reading

*Rolfsrud, E. N. 91953) ''The Borrowed Sister. The Story of Elisabeth Fedde'' (Minneapolis, MN) {{DEFAULTSORT:Fedde, Elizabeth Lutheran deaconesses 1850 births 1921 deaths People from Vest-Agder People from Egersund Norwegian Lutherans 20th-century Christian saints People celebrated in the Lutheran liturgical calendar Christian female saints of the Late Modern era Norwegian nurses Lutheran saints