and care for the needy sick. For this, he needed to create Kaiserswerther Diakonie, an institute where women could learn both theology and nursing skills. He opened the hospital and deaconess training center in Kaiserswerth on 13 October 1836. Deaconesses took vows to care for their poor and sick charges, but they could leave their work and return to outside life if they so chose. Between 1836 and 1847 Fliedner also opened an infants' school and one for their teachers, a girls' orphanage, and a women's asylum. Gertrud Reichardt was the first deaconess commissioned by the new school. Florence Nightingale trained there as a nurse in 1850. One of the associated Kaiserwerth professional schools was later named in her honor. Another noted student was the Swedish Maria Cederschiöld, a pioneer of nursing in her country. After his wife, Friederike, died in 1842, he found a new life companion (and important employee) in Caroline Bertheau. They opened institutes for the diaconate in 1844 in Dortmund and in 1847 in Berlin with the support of King Frederick William IV of Prussia, and his wife Queen Elizabeth. Fliedner's attention became completely focused on this aspect of the ministry and in 1849 he resigned his pastorate and turned completely to working with the diaconate, including increasing activity abroad, founding "mother houses" across central and Eastern Europe, and as far as Jerusalem. Fliedner's movement has been cited as the model for the Inner Mission movement which Johann Hinrich Wichern developed. In 1855 Fliedner received the degree of Doctor of Theology from the University of Bonn, in recognition of his practical activities. Legacy Because of these efforts, deaconess institutes arose in Paris, Oslo, Strasbourg, Utrecht, and elsewhere. By the time of his death in 1864, there were 30 motherhouses and 1,600 deaconesses worldwide. By the middle of the 20th century, there were over 35,000 deaconesses serving in parishes, schools, hospitals, and prisons throughout the world. A sign of the international respect Fliedner garnered is that his most famous pupil came from outside Germany. English nursing reformer Florence Nightingale first visited in 1841. She was impressed by the religious devotion and noted most of the deaconesses were of peasant origin. She graduated from the facility in 1851. Today, one of Düsseldorf's hospitals (Florence-Nightingale-Krankenhaus) bears her name. He is commemorated as a renewer of society in the Calendar of Saints of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America on