Why did foot washing become a common practice in Christianity? I am aware that some, but certainly not all, Protestant denominations employ the practice of foot washing in their services.  I understand that this is based on John 13, where Jesus washes the feet of His disciples.  However, how and why did this practice become adopted as a literal practice rather than a general principle?

What is the origin of this practice in churches?  Does it predate the Reformation or was it practiced before that in either the Orthodox and/or Catholic church?  What denominations employ this practice today?
The act of washing feet predates the Reformation. It was encouraged of the abbot of a Benedictine Monastery to wash the feet of guests by the Order of St. Benedict(c. 530). The washing of the feet is done yearly in the Roman Catholic Church.

I do not know what all denominations practice the washing of feet.

For more information, you can read about it in the Catholic Encyclopedia:


  The liturgical washing of feet (if we can trust the negative evidence of our early records) seems only to have established itself in East and West at a comparatively late date. In 694 the Seventeenth Synod of Toledo commanded all bishops and priests in a position of superiority under pain of excommunication to wash the feet of those subject to them. The matter is also discussed by Amalarius and other liturgists of the ninth century. Whether the custom of holding this "maundy" (from "Mandatum novum do vobis", the first words of the initial Antiphon) on Maundy Thursday, developed out of the baptismal practice originally attached to that day does not seem quite clear, but it soon became an universal custom in cathedral and collegiate churches. In the latter half of the twelfth century the pope washed the feet of twelve sub-deacons after his Mass and of thirteen poor men after his dinner.