The Order of Deaconesses in the Early church

by Sr Vincent Emmanuel Hannon

from The Question of Women and the Priesthood, Sr Vincent Emmanuel Hannon S.U.S.C., Geoffrey Chapman 1967, pp.71-96. Republished on our website with the necessary permissions

1. In the apostolic Church

It is a present day tendency to return to ancient sources for inspiration and indeed for a standard. This is a perfectly legitimate process. Simplicitly and integrity are hall-marks of institutions in their early stages. With the passage of time, because of the ever present human element of imperfection, a renewal becomes a necessity and at least a glance backwards is advantageous. This might seem to postulate regression. On the contrary, the metaphysical principle that the only force capable of preserving a thing is the force which created it is a timely reminder here. Preservation includes, indeed necessitates renewal. This in turn calls for a pruning of the old trunk, a cutting away of the unwieldy overgrowth occasioned by the passing of the centuries. It is true too that many elements which are not necessary to the essential constitution of a thing come to be shed in adverse circumstances, yet at another time may have a real value; if so, there is no reason why they should not be readopted. So it is with the order of deaconesses, which was once an integral part of Christianity. Today, at least, the need for their service forces us to cast a glance backwards at this institution as it existed in the early Church. Perhaps the principle of necessity is too often decried as an illegitimate and hazardous guide, especially in ecclesiastical, not to mention theological, matters. But then the apostles themselves were forced by the necessity of circumstances to ordain seven deacons for ‘the daily administration’ to the Christian community, whose number had greatly increased owing to the many new converts.

In the Catholic Church, both in the east and in the west, the order of deaconesses was dropped, indeed forbidden, many centuries ago. In the west it never received much recommendation but in the east, especially among those Christians not in communion with Rome, it continued under different forms until more recent centuries. The study of this subject has a vital interest therefore, if for no other reason than that deaconesses formed a part of the early Church structure. It will be necessary to show that this order did exist and to investigate its rite of initiation as well as its purpose and activities in the early Church. It is well to point out at this stage that the institutions of widows and virgins will not be treated here except where this is unavoidable: these could well be the subject of a specialized study in themselves.

The epistles of St Paul are the first to mention the office of deaconess. In Romans 16: 1 he commends Phoebe ‘a deaconess of the church at Cenchreae’.(1) This is the only place in the New Testament where it is explicitly said that a woman exercised the office of deaconess. However, in 1Timothy 3 : 11, though the word ‘deaconess’ does not occur, it seems very probable that it is referred to. In this chapter St Paul outlines the behaviour of bishops, deacons and ‘the women in like manner chaste, not slanderers, but sober, faithful in all things’. Here the Authorized Version misleads by making it appear that deacons’ wives are referred to. ‘Women in general could not be meant, as that would be out of harmony with the context ’(2) Some authors deny a technical usage of diakonos in Romans 16: 1, the predominant reason apparently being that it refers to a woman. Other reasons given for this opinion are that there is no indication of any definite ecclesiastical organization at Corinth; that, since this word does not appear in the earlier group of epistles, any usage of it as a special office in the Church in Romans (which appears in the second group of epistles) would be solitary and puzzling. Lastly, it is maintained that the various usages of the word found in the epistles show that as yet it had no official meaning(3) The conclusion of those holding this opinion is that ‘maybe Phoebe was another woman of influence . . . perhaps a patroness (prastatis) of many and Paul himself’.(4) It is held by these that the diaconate, even for men, did not have its origin in Acts 6, but was a later development which included the services of men and women alike. Some non-Catholic commentators, especially Lightfoot, have no doubt about the authentic diaconal status of Phoebe:

As I read the New Testament, the female diaconate is as definite an institution in the Apostolic Church as the male diaconate. Phoebe is as much a deacon as Stephen or Philip is a deacon.(5)

Godet also declared that she was ‘invested with an ecclesiastical office’.(6) It is strange, however, that deaconesses, if they did exist then, are not alluded to in the Didache, where we might expect them to be at least mentioned.

2. In post-apostolic times

It is of slight importance for our purposes here whether the diaconate is of apostolic origin or of later institution. Whichever of these origins is accepted, there is evidence both in scripture and in early Church documents for the existence of a female diaconate, and we are bound to admit its existence. If, however, the institution of the diaconate itself is pushed forward to post-apostolic times, then a problem parallel to that of the institution of the substance of the sacraments arises. Did the apostles, presumably under Christ’s express command, institute the diaconate or is it merely of later ecclesiastical origin? In other words, is it of divine or ecclesiastical law? In view of the common opinion of the Church that the diaconate is a participation in the sacrament of holy orders yet another problem seems to arise. Basically it comes to the still unsolved question as to what exactly in each sacrament Christ instituted and how much he left for his apostles to establish. However profitable the pursuit of this issue, it cannot detain us here. It is sufficient to note that the male and female diaconate stand or fall together: there is as much evidence for one as for the other in the New Testament and in the extant literature of the primitive Church.

The earliest extra-biblical evidence for the existence of deaconesses is given us by Pliny the Younger in a letter to the Emperor Trajan concerning the Christians of Pontus at the beginning of the second century. This is what he writes:

I have found it necessary to extort information from two serving women (ex duabus ancillis) who are said to be deaconesses (ministrae).(7)

The word ministra seems to be a translation of diakonos since it is the word which the Vulgate uses to translate diakonos in Romans 16. Here it appears to have a technical sense. In apposition to this we have the qualification ‘serving women’. It is an office of service obviously, but of what nature Pliny does not state. From subsequent Christian literature we have explicit evidence that the female diaconate consisted in assisting the bishop in offices related to baptism, community worship and the sick. We are dependent on later evidence also for information regarding the appointment of deaconesses.

The institution’s highest point was reached in the middle of the third century. Prior to this there existed an order of widows which on occasion is ranked even among the clergy. St Clement of Alexandria places widows after the bishops, priests and deacons among the ‘persons of distinction’ (eklekta prosopa) So also Origen, who states that if the office of widows consisted solely of feet-washing, which any servant could do, there would be no reason for ranking (katatetachthai) them among those having an ecclesiastical status .(9) Tertullian tells of a virgin in Africa who for twenty years shared in the duties of widowhood.(10) These are some of the numerous texts regarding the institution of widows and its incorporation into the contemporary Church order. Though it is enumerated with the clergy properly speaking, we never find, as we do later with the deaconesses, that appointment to it consists in the laying on of hands. In fact this is explicitly forbidden by the so-called Egyptian Church Order:(11) and admission is by word alone. Conditions of entry to the institution of widows and its duties are also enumerated in this document. The Apostolic Canons(12) mention them after readers and before exorcists. They lay down that a woman must have lived for some time without reproach after her husband’s decease before being admitted to the order of widows. The Canons of Hippolytus, (13) while including widows among the clergy, states that they are not to be ordained, and gives as their special duties prayer, fasting and care of the sick. The Apostolic Church Order(14) speaks of the appointment of three widows, two to be appointed for ‘prayer for everyone who is in temptation’ and one for visiting the sick women. The Syriac version reads: ‘for revelations (apokalypseis) and instructions concerning what is required’. From this we see that widows are not ordained; their chief function is one of prayer and this, it seems, in public worship, thus continuing the function of the Pauline prophetesses.

Finally the mid-third century work called Didascalia Apostolorum (15) shows a notable development in the order of widows. According to its prescriptions their mission is to pray (proseuchesthai) for benefactors and for the whole Church. Their missionary activity is restricted because they are counselled to refer those who ask them questions concerning the faith to those in charge (hégoumenoi) lest scandal should be taken when the Word of God is not adequately expressed and pagans should jest and mock instead of praising God.(16) It continues by imposing a general restriction on teaching by women, ‘for they were not appointed to teach but, and this applies especially to widows, to pray. A woman should know that she is the altar of God.’(17) She may not, however, lay hands on or pray over the sick except by the direction of the bishop and the deacon." Furthermore, it forbids her to baptize, the reason given being that Christ would have been baptized by Mary were it lawful for a woman to baptize.(19) So it appears that the two main characteristics of the widows were their enrolment in the church register and their office to pray for the Church. They may in general, especially in the later stage of their development, be called dedicated persons.

The existence of the order of widows at Antioch is attested up to the end of the fourth century by St John Chrysostom.(20) By the second half of the third century, however, decline had set in, and by the end of the fourth century the institution had disappeared. It was replaced by the already existing institution of deaconesses which experienced a sudden expansion in the mid-third century. We see the actual overlapping of these two orders in a document called The Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ.(21) Here the evolution comes about by the transformation of the institution of widows, who retain the name but are in fact deaconesses. They are appointed without the imposition of hands.(22) During the celebration of the liturgy they sit to the left of the bishop parallel with the deacons on his right.(23) They receive communion immediately after the deacons;(24) their assistance is given the bishop at the baptism of women;(25) under them they have other women who keep order in the church; they take their place near the door(26) and perform the less important duties, even taking the eucharist to sick women at paschal time.(27)

The Didascalia Apostolorum has many references to the order of deaconesses. They are placed parallel to the deacons ‘The deacon stands in the place of Christ and do you love him. And the deaconesses shall be honoured by you in the place of the Holy Spirit.’(2) It goes on to counsel the bishop to ‘choose and establish as deacons from all the people such as thou wilt please, a man to do the numerous things that are required, and a woman for the ministry of women’.(29) The reason for this ministry of deaconesses is given: ‘For there are houses where thou canst not send the deacon to the women’s quarter, because of the heathen: thou shalt send there the deaconesses.(30) In addition it tells us that at the baptism of women their assistance was required (in this period, baptism was by immersion): ‘When women go down into the water . . . they ought to be anointed by a deaconess’, but ‘let a man pronounce over them the invocation of the divine names in the water’.(31) It expressly states ‘that a woman should baptize, or that one should be baptized by a woman, we do not counsel, for it is a transgression of the commandment, and a great peril to her that baptizes and to him who is baptized’.(32)

Though forbidding ‘that women should be teachers’,(33) and this especially applies to widows, it commands that ‘when she who is being baptized has come up from the water, let the deaconess receive her and teach and instruct her how the seal of baptism ought to be kept unbroken in purity and holiness’.(34) To teach them is part of her ministry. A further pastoral duty is given her by the Didascalia:

For a deaconess is required to go into the houses of the heathen where there are believing women and to visit those who are sick and to minister to them in that of which they have need.(35)

The role of deaconesses as presented in the Apostolic Canons is similar to that in the Didascalia. Here they are mentioned after the deacons, and an ordination formula, is given:

Thou shalt lay thy hands upon her in the presence of the presbyters, the deacons and the deaconesses saying: Thou who didst fill Deborah, Hannah and Hulda with the Holy Spirit, thou who in the Temple didst appoint women to keep the holy doors, look upon thy servant chosen for the ministry (diakonia), and give to her the Holy Spirit that she may worthily perform the office committed unto her.(36)

A similar prayer for the ordination (cheirotonia) of deaconesses is found in the Apostolic Constitutions.(37)

Concerning a deaconess, I Bartholomew, make this constitution: O bishop, thou shalt lay thy hands upon her in the presence of the presbyter, and of the deacons and the deaconesses, and shalt say: O Eternal God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator of man and of woman, who didst replenish with the Spirit Miriam and Deborah, and Anna, and Hulda; who didst not disdain that thy only begotten Son should be born of a woman; who also in the tabernacle of the testimony, and in the temple, didst ordain women to be keepers of thy Holy Gates, do thou now also look down upon this thy servant, who is to be ordained to the office of a deaconess, and grant her thy Holy Spirit, and cleanse her from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, that she may worthily discharge the work which is committed to her to thy glory, and the praise of thy Christ, with whom glory and adoration be to thee and the Holy Spirit for ever. Amen.(38)

To sum up: the duty of deaconesses as explicitly portrayed in these Church Orders is twofold. First there is the giving of religious instruction, which includes bringing the Gospel to heathen women, preparing for baptism and giving some spiritual direction afterwards. Next there is the group of functions connected with worship. This consisted in pre-baptismal anointing of the bodies of female catechumens and other rites such as putting on of the white robe after baptism. In the assembly, in the absence of the priest and deacon, the deaconess may ascend the ambo to incense the book and the sisters and then read the Gospel. In the absence of the priest she may distribute the eucharist.(39) Moreover, she is responsible for everything regarding the care of sick women: this involved material assistance, naturally, but also spiritual ministration. It is obvious that the priest or deacon would not administer the sacrament of the sick to women and this is borne out by the testimony of Epiphanius:

On account of feminine modesty, whether at baptism or in connection with the care of the sick or at any time necessitating the uncovering of a woman, the deaconess is delegated to perform his ministry for the sake of decorum and discretion, which are so in accord with the discipline of the Church ...(40).

It seems clear that the deaconess participated equally in the priestly (‘his’) ministry of anointing the sick as she did in the baptismal rite and therefore, it would appear, was the minister of the last anointing:

Ought not we then to think that in fact it was administered by the deaconesses and that it is this which is meant when we have allusions to the laying-on-of-hands by them?(41)

It is sometimes difficult in the texts of this period to distinguish widows from deaconesses and to disentangle the duties of the one from the other. However, it can be seen that the offices of women in the early Church embraced a broader compass than that which the Church Orders, as outlined above, describe for deaconesses The specific role of widows was, as has been noted, one of prayer, and this has a strict foundation in scripture. St Paul writes to Timothy : ‘She who is a real widow and is left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in supplication and prayers night and day’ (1Timothy 5:5). St Polycarp is the first of many to refer to widows as ‘the altar (thusiastérion) of God’.(42) This phrase is an extension of St Paul’s words regarding their spiritual intercession. This office of prayer is clearly part of public worship, for St Paul himself gives instruction as to how women should conduct themselves in the assembly

I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarrelling; also that women should adorn themselves modestly and sensibly in seemly apparel, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly attire but by good deeds, as befits women who profess religion (1Timothy 2 : 8-9).

Whether this reference is to prophetesses or widows is of no concern here; for women, whatever their rank, are permitted in this text to take part in the prayers of the Christian assembly, which is obviously the context Paul is speaking of.

The existence of deaconesses in the east in the fourth century is further substantiated by extant literature and by inscriptions. St John Chrysostom addresses some of his letters to deaconesses and tells us that in his day forty of that order were attached to the church of Constantinople. In Epistle ciii he congratulates the deaconess, Amprucla, and her companions on their ‘courage, patience, unchangeable resolve, firm and adamant mind, bold speech and brave utterance’.(43) He addressed another epistle to Pentadia who, on the death of her husband, became a deaconess and who wished to go with Chrysostom when he was banished. In Epistle civ he urges her to remain in Constantinople, ‘first because you are the support of the city there, a wide haven, a staff, and a refuge for those who are in distress ...’. (44) To Olympias, the head of the deaconesses in his episcopal see, he wrote at least seventeen letters, all of which are still extant.(45)

Antioch was equally well acquainted with the order of deaconesses. Theodoret speaks of one who presided over ‘the choir of virgins’(46) and of another who was remarkable for her devotion and counted worthy of the spiritual gift of the diaconate. Two letters of the same metropolitan are addressed to deaconesses, though we are not told where they lived. The first is to the deaconess Celeria, telling her of his anxieties and imploring her to show all possible zeal on behalf of the doctrines of the Gospel and the peace of the churches."(47) The other is a letter of condolence to Casiana on the death of her son.(48)

Constantinople and Antioch provide the most abundant evidence of the existence of deaconesses in the east, but we know that they were not confined to these two cities. For example, Sozomen relates how a certain bishop, Elpidius of Satalia, was deposed by a synod at Rimini because, among other things, he ‘counted worthy of the diaconate, one Nectaria . . .’. (49) Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis (d.403), narrates how deaconess’s were appointed for ministration to women only and especially at baptism and for the visitation of the sick.(50) He also gives us indirect evidence of the existence of deaconesses in the fourth century. He writes to John, bishop of Jerusalem, excusing himself for having ordained one Paulinianus who belonged to John’s diocese, and adds: ‘I never ordained deaconesses and sent them into the provinces of others.’(51) St Basil’s sister, Macrina, founded a community at Annesi in Pontus, and his friend St Gregory of Nyssa in his Life of Macrina(52) tells how a certain Lampadion was put over the choir of these virgins, in the standing of the diaconate. St Basil addresses Epistle cv to the deaconess-daughters of a certain Count Terentius (c.372 A.D.) in which he praises them for continuing in the faith and not following new novelties, by which he meant Arianism. St Jerome also testifies to the existence of the order of deaconesses in the east .(53)

It can be concluded that this order was widespread throughout the Eastern Churches, and indeed this is so obvious from early Christian literature that to assert it is superfluous. Heretics, especially the Montanists, Paulianists, Macedonians and Nestorians also counted deaconesses amongst their number. To these astonishing powers were given: they were allowed to ascend the ambo (béma) and read the Gospel; to incense but not to bless the Gospel book; to administer the eucharist to women in the absence of the priest, and to communicate themselves in the sanctuary but not at the altar.’(54) Perhaps such practices among heretics are already a reason why the order was to lose esteem in the Catholic Church.

In the Western Church, on the other hand, the female diaconate was never really popular. In fact it is not mentioned in the Roman Church until the eighth century, and when it does appear it is more of an honorary title than an order equivalent to its counterpart in the east. The activity of women in the Western Church is more adequately represented in devotional practices such as those of Marcella and her community on the Aventine or in Blaesilla, Paula and Eustochium, the learned friends of Jerome. The deaconess in the west, while bearing the title and seemingly being ordained like her sister in the East, held an office to which ministerial duties were not attached. This is true specifically for deaconesses in Gaul. The Council of Orange, 441, A.D., in fact forbade their ordination; ‘Deaconesses (diaconae) are on no account to be ordained.(55) This in itself shows that it must have been the practice to ordain such women and that the custom was tending to spread. Further, a century later this prohibiting canon seems to be ignored, for St Remigius, 530 A.D., of Rheims wrote in his will: ‘I bequeath to my blessed daughter, Hilaria, the deaconess, a maid named Nova.(56)

The renewal of this prohibition at the local Burgundian Council of Epâone in 517 proves the existence of deaconesses still in the sixth century: ‘The dedication of deaconesses shall be given up throughout the whole kingdom ....’(57) And a short time later another Council in Gaul, that of Orléans (533 A.D.) legislates: ‘To no woman must henceforth the benedictio diaeonalis be given because of the weakness of the sex.(58)

Venantius Fortunatus in his biography of Queen Radegund tells how, in the year 544, Bishop Medard consecrated this Thuringian princess, wife of Clothaire I, a deaconess: ‘He laid his hand on her and consecrated her a deaconess.’(59) Her biography does not say that she fulfilled any diaconal functions and it appears that by this time the true deaconess and her duties had disappeared from the structure of the Church in the west. In fact this can be borne out by the Council of Tours, 567 A.D., which gives the title of ‘diaconissa’ to the wives of deacons.

Widows, virgins and deaconesses existed simultaneously and side by side in the west. In the east, as we have seen, the widow was not ordained; nor was she in the west, but she was ‘appointed’: the Council of Tours (567 A.D.) says that ‘all know that never in the canonical books is a benediction of a widow read of, because her appointment alone ought to suffice’.(60) Virginity was beginning to flourish in the fifth century, especially at Rome, where Marcella and Ascalla, her sister, lived among a community of virgins. For the first four centuries of our era there is no evidence for deaconesses at Rome, and some would argue from this silence of history that the order did not exist in that city. In the eighth century, however, explicit mention is made, in the life of Leo III, of deaconesses at Rome. On this pope’s return to the city he was met by the populace which included ‘nuns and deaconesses and noble matrons’.(61) The following century at Rome is documented by a description of a procession after an ordination:

Ipse (Pontifex) sedet super equum album: praecedens et subsequens populus canit ei laudem. Similiter etiam feminae diaconissae et presbyterissae, quae eodem die benedicuntur.(62)

Again this reference throws very little light on the office of deaconesses in the west. The fact that they are listed here after the nuns may perhaps indicate a position of relative unimportance. Perhaps, indeed, they are nothing more than the wives of deacons.

Yet there is epigraphic testimony to the existence of deaconesses in Italy, if not in Rome, before the eighth, century, though it adds very little to our knowledge of deaconesses and their function in the Church. The most interesting western inscription is that found at Pavia, dating from the sixth century. It has special value because it proves the existence of deaconesses in Italy at that period, and allows us to conjecture as to their presence in Rome as well. The inscription, a free translation of an epitaph to the otherwise unknown deaconess Theodora, as found in Muratori, reads as follows:

Here rests in peace
Theodora the Deaconess
of happy memory
She lived for
Forty-eight years or so
and was laid to rest
On the twenty-second of July
in the year
Five hundred and thirty-nine. (63)

A richer yield of inscriptions is available in the east. From these, and other evidence, Ramsay argues that:

We must generalize the principle that in Lycaonia diakonissa (or diakonos in feminine) always denoted an official in the Church; and from the number of cases that occur we must conclude that there were deaconesses as a rule in every congregation. (64)

It was the following inscription which caused him to make this generalization for the Church in the East:

Quintus, son of Heraklios, headman of the village with his wife Matrona and his children Anicetus and Cotillus, all four lie here in the tomb; and the wife of Anicetus, Basilissa, a diakonos, constructed the pleasing tomb along with her only son Nemetorius, still an infant.

The same author also states: ‘We must assume that she [Basilissa] was deaconess during the life of her husband, who held no official rank.’ As late as the eleventh century there is an engraving which seemingly bears witness to an order of deaconesses in the Eastern Church. It is dedicated to one Aeria:

Here rests
The ever to be remembered
Handmaid of Christ Aeria
Who was deaconess of the Saints
The friend of all
She passed to rest
the third January 1086. (65)

Aeria seems to have been a deaconess in the strict sense and not just a nun, for the inscription seems to indicate that she ministered to the community in general, as did the earliest deaconesses belonging to that order.

When exactly the order of deaconesses was laid aside is not certain, but apparently it lingered on longer in some places, e.g. Constantinople, than in others. Balsamon, Patriarch of Antioch, speaks of them ministering in the Church of Constantinople in the latter half of the eleventh century, while noting that the order had ceased to exist in his Church.(66) At the close of the twelfth century Michael, Patriarch of the Jacobites, states that deaconesses no longer existed in the Church, yet he empowers bishops to ordain them in case of urgent necessity.(67) The order seems to have been maintained until the ninth or tenth century at Rome(68) while to this day there are ordained deaconesses in the Maronite Church.(69)

3. Evidence from the Councils

We have deliberately left it until last to treat of deaconesses from the point of view of the Councils and local Synods of the Church, the reason being that here we come across an ordination rite comprising the laying-on-of-hands which requires special consideration. Already we have seen this prescribed by two Church Orders: the Apostolic Canons and the Apostolic Constitutions. The evidence these contain in this matter might possibly be discredited as not authoritative, and as being the work of individuals. On the other hand the Councils and their canons inevitably express collective evidence; hence their importance. Six Councils of the early Church refer explicitly to deaconesses, and four directly mention their ordination, even if with disapproval.

The first ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325 A.D.), while expressly treating of the return to the Church of the Paulianists, followers of the heretic Paul of Samosata, states in canon xix:

With respect to the Paulianists, who wish to return to the Catholic Church; the rule which orders them to be rebaptized must be observed .(70) If some among them were formerly [as Paulianists] members of the clergy, they must be re-ordained by the bishop of the Catholic Church after they have been rebaptized; if they have been blameless and not condemned. If on enquiry, they are found to be unworthy, they must be deposed. The same must be done with respect to the deaconesses; and in general the present rule will be observed for all those who are in the list of the Church. We remind those deaconesses who are in this position that as they have not been ordained, they must be classed among the laity.(71)

The difficulty posed by this canon centres on the words: ‘the same must be done with respect to the deaconesses’. The first question is: does the Council assume that these heretical deaconesses received the imposition of hands and are considered as members of the clergy? This question depends on whether the deaconesses here referred to were Paulianists who had never been Catholics or apostate Catholics, seeking admission or readmission to the Church. In regard to those ‘who wish to return to the Church’ the reference seems to be to apostates, but the following legislation regarding rebaptism and re-ordination point to those Paulianists who were ‘baptized’ and ‘ordained’ amongst the heretics and consequently invalidly. Therefore on their reception into the Church, baptism is to be conferred on them and, provided that their conduct is blameless and that they are worthy, they may be ordained to the rank which they enjoyed in the Paulianist sect. The Council says that ‘the same must be done with respect to the deaconesses’, that is that those women who held that office while heretics might be ordained to that order if they are found blameless and worthy. The Council, it seems, is taking the fact of an ordained order of deaconesses for granted. The final injunction of the canon refers to the Paulianist deaconesses who, because initially their baptism was invalid, had a position of no official standing in the Catholic Church. ‘The same must be done with respect to the deaconesses’ means that, if they are found worthy, ordination is likewise to be conferred on them.

Any other interpretation seems to do the text violence. Through the centuries authors have been at great pains to deny this interpretation, despite the fact that evidence for the laying-on-of-hands on deaconesses is well substantiated by the Council of Chalcedon and the Apostolic Constitutions. It is worth investigating some readings and interpretations of this text. Hefele summarizes these and he himself, finding support in Baronius, holds the facile position that, even if deaconesses did receive the imposition of hands, it meant nothing more than ‘a mere benediction, not an ordination’.(72) He supports this conclusion by maintaining that the word cheirothesia is used in a sense synonymous with ‘benediction’ in canon viii of the same Council. This canon is directed against the Novatians. But the comparison does not seem to be a valid one, since the Novatians were schismatics, not heretics like the Paulianists, and thus did not require re-baptism or re-ordination on their return to the Church. However, the exact meaning of canon viii has itself been the subject of much dispute. Others, such as Valesius and Van Espen, hold that at the time of the Council of Nicaea the custom of laying-on-of-hands on deaconesses had not been introduced.(73) But the Apostolic Constitutions testify to the contrary. The year 375 A.D. has been proposed as the approximate date for the compilation of this work. This date, however, fifty years after Nicaea, allows time for the practice of ordination of deaconesses by the imposition of hands to develop if it did not already exist at the time of that Council. Others, unable to avoid the obvious and technical usage of cheirothesia here in regard to deaconesses, dispute the word diakonisson, which they maintain should be read diakonon instead. Pope Gelasius was the first to render the text thus.(74) He was followed in this by Theilo and Thearistus, who translated the canons in the fifth century for the bishops of Africa, and by Pseudo-Isidore and Gratian.(75) The difficulty for those who fail to admit the ordination of deaconesses would disappear in this rendering but would crop up elsewhere, since all the Greek manuscripts read diakonisson. All this exemplifies the price that some are prepared to pay to obtain support for their preconceived opinions.

The third general Council of the Church held at Chalcedon in 451 also deals, in canon xv, with the ordination of deaconesses, but this time especially in respect to their age.

No woman shall be ordained (cheirotoneistai) a deaconess before she is forty years old and then after careful trial. If however, after she has received ordination and has been for some time in the service, she marries, disparaging the grace of God, then she shall be anathematized, together with him who has united himself with her.(76)

Here again the word cheirotonia is the technical one for ordination.(77) That ‘it is not just a question of any sort of laying-on-of-hands, or of a blessing’(78) is the opinion of one modern scholar. Judging from the weight of such clear evidence an earlier author was convinced that all points to the conclusion ‘that it was the constant practice of the Church to ordain deaconesses by the imposition of hands’.(79)

Local Councils, some of which have already been noted, also refer to deaconesses. The Council of Laodicea(80) at some time in the second half of the fourth century decreed in canon xi:

The appointment of the so-called female elders (presbytides) or presidents (prokathemenai) shall not take place in the church.(81)

Some authors would like to interpret this canon as condemning the appointment of deaconesses; but it seems strange that the term ‘deaconesses’ was not expressly used. Yet it is possible that this obscure text does contain a reference to deaconesses, who at about this period had supplanted the widows. One author is of the opinion that the reference here is to the ‘superior deaconess’, the overseer of others, of whom no more were to be appointed, probably because they had overstepped their authority.(82) This is an acceptable interpretation because of the growing predominance of deaconesses over widows at this time and the use of prokathemenai in the Testament of our Lord Jesus Christ for ‘widows who sit in front’,(83) where the reference is clearly to widows who are so in name, but in reality are deaconesses. Zonaras and Balsamon hold that they were not chief deaconesses but aged women in general (ex papulo) to whom was given the supervision of women in church. Nenander, Fuchs and others say the reference is simply to deaconesses.(84)

The prohibition of this canon does not necessarily point to the decline of the order of deaconesses at this time for it is superfluous to legislate demise for a dying thing. Rather, it may imply the vitality of the order in Phrygia, while perhaps suggesting that it was exceeding its function or had outlived its purpose there. To take this canon as forbidding the further appointment of deaconesses, would be to make the existence of this order for so long afterwards in the Greek Church inexplicable. Still another Council, held in the domed hall of the Palace at Constantinople (692) and consequently known as the Trullan Council, decreed: ‘No one under forty years of age should be ordained deaconess.(85) So in the Greek Church at least, the ordination of deaconesses took place as late as the seventh century, and again the order seems to be in a flourishing condition. Canon xlviii of the same Council declares that: ‘The wife of one who becomes a bishop may, if worthy, be advanced to the standing of the diaconate.’

The existence of a female diaconate in both the eastern and the western Church is an indisputable fact of history. More short-lived in the west, where perhaps it was never a native development but an oriental influence, it still has documentary support for its rite of initiation by the laying-on-of-hands though very little regarding its duties. In the west as late as the eleventh century, the Anglo-Saxon Leofric Missal still retained the prayer: Ad diaconissam faciendam which appears in the form Exaudi Domine, common to both deacons and deaconesses (86) The Church in the east also provides authentic evidence for this order, the ordination by imposition of hands and its function of service within the Church. The Byzantine Church in its ordination of deaconesses witnesses not only to an ordination properly so called but also to the placing of the diaconal stole around the neck of the deaconess and the delivery of the chalice.(87) The accompanying prayer refers to the Virgin birth and to Phoebe. Everything points to the importance of deaconesses in the Church in the east and to the esteem with which they were held. Religious orders in the Latin Church inherited the title ‘deaconess’ and, it seems, some aspects of the diaconal inauguration rites for example the Carthusian nuns who are vested in stole and maniple on the day of their consecration, and sing the epistle at the conventual Mass.

4. Heretical sects

To conclude this section on the ministry of women in the early Church with special reference to the existence and duties of deaconesses, we may note that nowhere amongst orthodox Christians is there a pretence on the part of women to the sacerdotal power. Among heretics, on the contrary, there were extravagances that provoked Tertullian to declare that women are forbidden ‘. . . to lay claim to any office of men or to any priestly ministry...’.(88) It is a phenomenon of nearly all heretics in the early Church that women became their eager companions and followers. Some, such as Marcion and Montanus, definitely exploited women for their own purposes. Thus we see Marcion making use of the female visionary Philumena. Maximilla and Priscilla were two ecstatic women-followers of Montanus who went so far as to claim that he was the Holy Spirit and that they were his mouthpiece. Ecstasy among the Montanists appears as the proper form of revelation and, although women had a prominent role in this new heresy at least in its inception, a rigid element discouraged second marriages, extended periods of fasting and encouraged the seeking after martyrdom. The Collyridian sect in Arabia which practised superstitious excesses in honour of the Virgin Mary by offering her ‘a little loaf’ (collyridion) aroused the anger of Epiphanius against all women, whom he called ‘a feeble race, unreliable and of mediocre intelligence’.(89) But as every heresy contains some truth, so there is a kind of precedent for the practices of these heretics in the fact that the apostles took with them on their missionary travels female companions to share in their ministry.(90) This is the testimony of St Clement of Alexandria in the early third century:

The Apostles who gave themselves untiringly to evangelization as befitted their ministry (diakonia) took with them women, not as wives but as sisters, to share in the ministry (syndiakonai) to women in their homes: by their activity the teaching (didaskalia) of the Lord reached the quarters of the women without causing suspicion.(91)

Apocryphal literature also associates many women with the apostles or other evangelists in their missionary activities;

Thus we have Thecla with Paul, Grapte with Hermas; Helen is the companion of Simon Marcellina of Mark Magus and Philomena of Apelles. In the Gnostic work, Pistis Sophia, there is Mary Magdalen; in the Egyptian Gospel, Salome, and in the Gospel of Mary, there is Mary, all of whom are said to have received secret revelations. The Acts of Philip presents Marianne as his missionary companion, while a tradition makes Martha and Mary fellow missionaries of Lazarus to Provence.

The very extremes to which the activities of heretics were carried and the extravagances of apocryphal writings tended ultimately to cast suspicion on any female ministry. This was obviously the cause of the condemnations of Tertullian and Epiphanius. The prohibitions regarding widows and deaconesses issued by the Councils of the Church were evoked by like abuses. These factors, together with the decline in the number of adults requiring baptism, the introduction of baptism by aspersion, the numerical increase of clergy and the spread of monasticism were responsible for the gradual disappearance of the order of deaconesses.

Notes

1. ‘This is the translation both of Revised Standard Version and of the Jerusalem Bible.

2. C. Callan, O.P., The Epistles of St Paul, New York, 1953, vol. II, p. 280. This was also the opinion of St John Chrysostom, cf. PG 62:553. Estius thinks the text refers to wives of bishops and priests, cf. Guiliemi Estii, In Ommes Pauli Epistolas, Paris, 1858, Tom. I, Commentaria super Timotheum.

3. ‘J. A. Robinson, ‘Deaconess’, Encyclopaedia Biblica, New York, 1899.

4. Ibid.

5. J. B. Lightfoot, Primary Charge, London, n.d., p. 33

6. F. Godet, Commentary on St Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, Edinburgh, 1881, II, p. 386.

7. Epis. 96:8: ‘Quo magis necessarium credidi ex duabus ancillis, quae ministrae dicebantur, quid esset veri, et per tormenta, quaerere.’

8. Paed. 3 :12.

9. PG 13:242.

10. PL 2:951.

11. Held to be a third century work derived from the Apostolic Tradition of Hippolytus.

12. Presumed by many to have originated at Antioch c. 400 A.D.

13. A work of the early third century.

14. This document supposedly of Asia Minor exists in several languages. Approximate date of origin is the early fourth century.

15. Place of origin generally held to be Syria.

16. Didascalia Apostolorum (ed. R. H. Connolly, Oxford, 1929), XV. 133.

17. Ibid., XV. 124.

18. Ibid XV. 127.

19. Ibid., XV. 129.

20. Homily on Matthew, LXVl, A Library of the Fathers (Oxford, 1851), vol. 34, p. 896.

21. Called Testament from its pretence of being the revelation of Christ after the resurrection. Dated by many authors around 475 A.D. Its place of composition is uncertain.

22. J. Cooper and A. J. MacLean, The Testament of Our Lord, Edinburgh, 1902,I,41.

23. Ibid., I, 23.

24. Ibid., 1, 23.

25. Ibid., II, 8.

26. Ibid., I, 19.

27. Ibid., II, 20.

28. Didascalia Apostolorum, op. cit., chap. IX.

29.Chap. XVI.

30. Ibid

31. Chap. XVI.

32. Chap. XV.

33. Ibid.

34. Chap.XVI.

35. Ibid

36. Epitome 10, Quoted in J. Daniélou, S.J., The Ministry of Women in the Early Church, Eng. traps. Dr Glyn Simon, London, 1961, p. 22.

37. A collection of ecclesiastical discipline, law and liturgy. The first six books are a revision of The Didascalia, the seventh is from The Didache, the eighth is based on Hippolytus’ Apostolic Tradition and Egyptian Church Order. It purports to be the work of Clement of Rome, but it is of later origin.

38. Ante-Nicene Fathers, 10 vols. (ed. A. Roberts and J. Donaldson), New York, 1886, IV, 492.

39. J. S. Assemani, Bibliotheca Orientalis, 4 vols., Rome, 1728, IV, 2, p. 849.

40. PG 42:745. Emphasis mine.

41. J. Daniélou, S.J., The Ministry of Women in the Early Church, op. cit., p. 29.

42. Epist. ad Phil. 4:3.

43. PG 52:659. Epistles xcvi and cxci are also addressed to Amprucla.

44. PG 52:657, 716.

45. PG 52:549-623.

46. PG 82:1118

47. PG 83:1294.

48. PG 83:1195.

49. PG 67:1194.

50. PG 42:745, 772.

51. PL 22:519.

52. PG 46:988.

53. PL 30:922.

54. Hefele-Leclercq, Conciles (Paris, 19o7), II, 448.

55. J. Hefele, A History of the Christian Councils, 5 vols. trans. and edit. W. R. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871-96, vol. III, can. 27.

56. PL 65:973

57. Hefele, op. cit., vol. IV, canon 21.

58. Ibid., canon 18.

59. PL 88:502, ‘Manu superposita consecravit diaconats.

61. PL 128:372.

62. PL 78:1005.

63. Antiquitates Italicae, Milan, 1741, vol. V. p. 572.

64. W. Ramsay, Luke the Physician and Other Studies in the History of Religion, London, 1908, p. 395

65. Mélanges d’Archéologie, 1895, p. 409 Cited by C. Robinson, The Ministry of Deaconesses, London, 1898, p. 92.

66. Juris orientalis, Bk. III.

67. Assemani, Bibliotheca Orientalis, vol. III, pt.ii, p. 849.

68. F.Claeys-Bounaert, ‘Diaconesse’, Dictionnaire de Droit Canonique, Paris, 1949.

69. J. Forget, ‘Diaconesse’, Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique, Paris, 1911.

70. The Paulianists, being anti-Trinitarian, did not use the baptismal formula mentioning the Son and Holy Spirit in the usual sense and so their baptisms and consequently their ordinations were considered invalid.

71. Hefele, A History of the Christian Councils, op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 430-431. Emphasis mine.

72. Ibid

73. Ibid, p, 433.

74. Mansi, 2:906.

75. Hefele, A History of the Christian Councils, op. cit., vol. I, p. 432.

76. Hefele, op. cit., vol. III, p. 401

77. Cheirotonein, which means electing by show of hands, had acquired the technical meaning of ordination by imposition of hands before the middle of the third century. Cf. ‘Orders’, Catholic Encyclopaedia, 15 vols., New York, 1912.

78. Jean Daniélou, The Ministry of Women in the Early Church, op. cit., p. 22.

79. J. Bingham, Antiquities of the Christian Church, London, 1708, vol. II, p. 308.

80. I.e. Laodicea in Phrygia, not Syria.

81. Hefele, A History of the Christian Councils, op. cit., vol II, p. 305.

82. Ibid. Cf. C. Robinson, The Ministry of Deaconesses, op. cit., who asserts that this canon refers to widows proper and that the female diaconate was never forbidden in the Church in the East.

83. Op cit. I, 19. J. Cooper and A. J. MacLean, The Testament of Our Lord, op. cit., see in this canon an indication that the order was then dying out in Phrygia and probably all over the East.

84. Hefele, A History of the Christian Councils, op. cit., vol. II, 306-307.

85. Op. cit., vol. V, p. 226.

86. F. E. Warren, The Leofric Missal, Oxford, 1883, P. 216.

87. J. Goar, Euchologion, sive Rituale Graecorum, Venice, 1730, p. 262.

88. PL 2:902. ‘Non permittitur mulieri in ecclesia loqui sed nec docere, nec tinguere, nec offerre, nec ullius virilis muneris, nedum sacerdotalis officii sortem vindicate. . . ’

89. PG 79:1.

90. 1Corinthians 9:5. ‘Have we not power to carry about a woman, a sister, as well as the rest of the apostles and the brethren of the Lord and Cephas?’ (Douai Version). The RSV has ‘wife’ while a footnote states that the Greek has ‘a sister as wife’.

91. Stromata, III, 6, 53.

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