Christianity and Care of the Sick 53 afflicted applicant and, not satisfied only with receiving needy ones, the deacons, men and women alike, went out to search for and bring them in. The private homes of the deacons were turned into hospitals called diakonia, and the name deacon became synonymous with that of a director of hospital relief. As the bishops' dwellings were especially sought by the poor and ill, they soon became too small, and extensions were added to them. In this way clusters of inns, refuges, and hospital wards grew up about the homes of the clergy and the cathedrals, and these in time became imijiense and varied institutions. The Christian home was thus an ampler development of primitive hospitality, and all the speciahzed institutions of a later day had their inception in the Christian family. It is interesting to note that today, having passed through a vast gamut of institutional life. Charity is returning to the ideal of family life for its charges as far as possible. In its full development the xenodochium or home for strangers included inns for well-to-do travellers; hospitals for the sick, the ^j^^ insane, and lepers; asylums for found- xenodo- lings and orphans ; homes for aged men chium and women; almshouses for the destitute; dwell- ings for physicians and nurses, and offices for con-
