Elizabeth Ferard, first Deaconess of the Church of England
18 July -- Commemoration
If celebrated as a Lesser Festival,
Common of Religious, page 494
Elizabeth Catherine Ferard was encouraged by Bishop Tait of
London to visit deaconess institutions in Germany and, in
November 1861, she and a group of women dedicated themselves
'to minister to the necessities of the Church' as servants
in the Church. On this day in 1862, Elizabeth Ferard
received the first deaconess licence from Bishop Tait. She
went on to found a community of deaconesses within a
religious sisterhood, working first in a poor parish in the
King's Cross area of London and then moving to Notting Hill
in 1873. When her health failed, she passed on the
leadership to others and died on Easter Day 1883.