This system of social welfare and common-ownership of production was a rather messy operation it didn’t exist as a systematic establishment until the end of the third century, when one found Christian lodging-houses and homes for the elderly, sick, and poor. Although those who worked were encouraged to do so in order to contribute to the church, nourishment and provisions were consistently handed to those in need. “In public calamities, like pestilence or the invasion of nomadic brigands,” Walter Rauschenbusch says, “they stood by their members and sent aid to a distance.” This suggests that Christian hospitality was always guaranteed by the churches. The church also performed funeral services, its congregants gathering together in an organized fashion to guarantee the participants in the body of Christ a proper burial. He implied that the Christians during that time would have naturally sought to save those from their common brotherhood. At this time, Ignatius was begging the church in Rome to not deliver him from his martyrdom. Likewise, during intense sessions of persecution under the civil or Jewish magistrates, the churches sent comfort to their brothers and sisters as shown in the letter to the Romans commissioned by Ignatius of Antioch during the first century.
By the middle of the third century A.D., the Roman church supported fifteen hundred of such dependents.
Charity and hearth were often provided for orphans and widows because of poor social conditions prevalent at that time in ancient Rome, during which the divine intrinsic spirit rooted in Judaism making its way into early Hebrew Christianity. The social nature of the Christian church during the apostolic era was seen as a fraternal helpfulness, hence contributing to the wellbeing of the sick and poor.
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