ZelieBassePassavantDettmarBasse William Alfred Passavant

William Alfred Passavant(October 9, 1821 - June 3, 1894) was aLutheranminister noted for bringing the LutheranDeaconessmovement to the United States. He is commemorated in theCalendar of Saintsof theLutheran Churchon November 24 withJustus FalcknerandJehu Jones. He is also honored with afeast dayon theliturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church in the United States of Americaon January 3.

William Alfred Passavant was born in 1821 inZelienople, Pennsylvania, the third and youngest son of Phillipe Louis Passavant and Fredericka Wilhelmina Basse (nicknamed "Zelie," hence the town's name). His grandfather, BaronDettmarBasse, born inIserlohnin theRuhr Valleyin what was then theGrand Duchy of Hesseand later became Germany, spent a decade in Paris as a diplomat and merchant before fleeing theNapoleonic Warsand emigrating toPhiladelphiaand thenPittsburghin 1801. Drawn by the prospect of religious freedom and economic opportunity, the widower Baron bought 10,000 acres alongConnoquenessing CreekinButler County, Pennsylvania, began building a wood framed castle, and founded (with Christian Buhl) a new town complete with sawmill, brickyard, and an iron furnace.[1][2]He also traveled and sent glowing letters back to Germany, persuading his daughter and her new husband (a FrenchHuguenotwho fled after repeal of theEdict of Nantes) to emigrate in 1807 fromFrankfurt.

PhillipePassavant built a store and became the new town's first merchant.[3]The Baron experienced financial reverses at the war's end, and eventually sold Bassenheim to Michael Beltzhoover and headed back to Germany in 1818, dying inMannheimin 1836.[4]It was resold to Mr. Saunders, who ran a Presbyterian school on the site (attended by young William Passavant as well as his lifelong friend the future Rev. George Wenzel) until it was hit by lightning and burned down in 1842. Meanwhile, the Baron had also sold half his land to theHarmonites, apietistsect led byJohann Georg Rappand his brother Frederick, who then foundedHarmony, Pennsylvania, but eventually sold their colony to Abraham Zeigler who moved it further west, toNew Harmony, Indiana.[5][6]

Pastor Passavant married Eliza Walter on May 1, 1845, shortly after his friend Krauth married, despite a fire in Pittsburgh's business district three weeks earlier which also devastated many parishioners. The newlyweds spent their honeymoon with theGeneral Synodof theEvangelical Lutheran Church in Americain Philadelphia, as well as visited friends and relatives in Baltimore.[15]

After his father's death in 1858, Passavant accepted a position as pastor of Christ Lutheran Church inBadenalong theOhio River, where he served for 21 years (until 1879), while also traveling, publishing and corresponding both within the United States and abroad. In 1863, he established an orphanage for girls inRochester, Pennsylvania,[23]in addition to the one inZelienople, which he had established in 1854 both with a small inheritance after his sister Victoria's death and to honor their still-living mother (with whom Passavant remained close until she died in 1870). The deaconesses also taught, and worked with female prisoners inAllegheny County.

Passavant founded many missions, as well as hospitals in Pittsburgh, Milwaukee and Chicago, homes forepilepticsatJacksonville, IllinoisandRochester, Pennsylvania, and an orphanage as well as an old peoples' home inMt. Vernon, New York. Beginning in 1866, Rev. Passavant and A. Louis Thiel worked to establishThiel College, which the Pittsburgh Synod convention inGreensburg, Pennsylvaniain 1869 approved to serve western Pennsylvania, and which formally incorporated on September 1, 1870.[24]One of the last institutions Passavant founded was theChicago Lutheran Theological Seminary.[25]Many of the social welfare institutions Passavant founded would later join together as theLutheran Services in America, the largest church social program in the United States.[26]

The house in which Passavant was born,Passavant House, is now Zelienople's local history museum and listed on theNational Register of Historical Places.[30]

Selected List of Institutions Organized

  • The Orphans' Home and Farm School in Zelienople, Pennsylvania (now Glade Run Lutheran Services)
  • The Passavant Epileptic Home in Rochester, Pennsylvania (now Passavant Memorial Homes)
  • Passavant Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (nowUPMC Passavant Hospital)
  • Passavant Hospital in Chicago, Illinois (now Passavant Memorial Hospital)
  • Passavant Hospital in Jacksonville, Illinois (now Passavant Area Hospital)
  • Passavant Hospital in Milwaukee, Wisconsin (now Aurora Sinai Medical Center)*
  • The Wartburg Orphans’ Farm School inMount Vernon, New York(nowThe Wartburg Adult Care Community)
  • Asterisk: Thebuildingthat once housed the hospital is also listed on theNational Register of Historic Places.