Deaconess

DEACONESS: A woman officially charged with certain functions in the Church. The practice of a woman fulfilling the office of deacon goes back to the Apostolic age. St Paul’s mention of Phoebe ‘deaconess (οὖσαν διάκονον) of the Church that is at Cenchreae’ (Rom. 16:1), as well as 1 Tim. 3:11 are usually held to refer to a special office; and Pliny, in his letter to Trajan, speaks of two ‘ancillae quare ministrae dicebantur’. However, the term διακόνισσα (Lat. diaconissa) did not come into use until the 4th cent. Earlier documents use ‘diacona’, ‘vidua’, or ‘virgo canonica’, and the distinction between widows and deaconesses is rather obscure.

The office, which developed greatly in the 3rd and 4th cents., is described in the ‘Didascalia’ and the ‘Apostolic Constitutions’. The age of entry, fixed at 50 by the ‘Didascalia’, was reduced to 40 by the Council of Chalcedon. The deaconess

devoted herself to the care of the sick and the poor of her sex;

she was present at interviews of women with bishops, priests, or deacons;

instructed women catechumens,

and kept order in the women’s part of the church.

Her most important function was the assistance at the baptism of women, at which, for reasons of propriety, many of the ceremonies could not be performed by the deacons.

When, therefore, adult baptism became rare, the office of deaconess declined in importance. This process was helped by abuses which had crept in, when deaconesses undertook ministerial functions, e.g. in the Oriental Orthodox Churches and the Church of the East, where they administered Holy Communion to women. The Councils of Epaon (517) and of Orléans (533) abrogated the office, but it is found in other places till the 11th cent. In the East, where the prerogatives of deaconesses were more marked, including the investiture with the stole and the distribution of the chalice, the process was somewhat slower. The reception of stole and maniple by the Carthusian nuns at their profession would seem to be a survival of the ancient office.

In the 19th cent. the office was revived in a modified form. The first Protestant community of deaconesses was that established by the German pastor, T. Fliedner, at Kaiserswerth (q.v.) in 1836. From there it spread to other countries, notably England and the USA. In the C of E, the Deaconess Community of St Andrew was founded in 1861 and the first deaconess (Miss Elizabeth Ferard) was set apart for her work the following year by A. C. Tait, Bp. of London. Diocesan institutes on the model of Kaiserswerth were founded in many parts of the country, and rules drawn up for them in 1871. The example was followed by the Methodists in America in 1888, and in the same year deaconesses were established in the Church of Scotland.

In the Church of England the order of deaconess was described in the 1969 Canons (can. D. 1) as ‘the one order of ministry … to which women are admitted by prayer and the laying on of hands by the bishop’; at the same time it was stated that it was ‘not one of the holy orders of the Church of England’. Acc. to the revised Canons, the main duties of the deaconess are ‘to lead the people in public worship, to exercise pastoral care, to instruct the people in the Christian faith, and to prepare them for the reception of the sacraments’. She may be authorized to say Morning and Evening Prayer (except the Absolution), to read the Epistle and Gospel at the Holy Communion, and to distribute the Sacrament. At the invitation of the minister, she may also preach, in the absence of the minister baptize, and, with the goodwill of the persons concerned, conduct funerals.

Under the Deacons (Ordination of Women) Measure 1986, women were admitted to the diaconate. Existing deaconesses could be ordained deacons. There were to be no further admissions to the order of deaconesses, but those already admitted who did not wish to become deacons remained deaconesses.

J. Mayer (ed.), Monumenta de Viduis, Diaconissis, Virginibusque Tractantia (Florilegium Patristicum, 42; Bonn, 1938), with refs. C. H. Turner, ‘Ministries of Women in the Primitive Church: Widow, Deaconess and Virgin in the First Four Christian Centuries’, The Constructive Quarterly, 7 (1919), repr. in Catholic and Apostolic, ed. H. N. Bate (1931), no. 11, pp. 316–51, esp. pp. 328–43; A. Kalsbach, Die altkirchliche Einrichtung der Diakonissen bis zu ihrem Erlöschen (Römische Quartalschrift, Supplementheft 22; 1926); J. G. Davies, ‘Deacons, Deaconesses and the Minor Orders in the Patristic Period’, JEH 14 (1963), pp. 1–15, esp. pp. 1–6; R. Gryson, Le Ministère des femmes dans l’Église ancienne (Recherches et Synthèses, Section d’Histoire, 4; Gembloux [1972]); A. G. Martimort, Les Diaconesses: Essai historique (Bibliotheca Ephemerides Liturgicae, Subsidia, 24; Rome, 1982; Eng. tr., San Francisco, 1986); M.-J. Aubert, Les Femmes diacres: Un nouveau chemin pour l’Église (Le Point théologique, 47 [1987]). C. Robinson, The Ministry of Deaconesses (1898); The Ministry of Women: A Report by a Committee Appointed by the Abp. of Canterbury (1919); J. Grierson, The Deaconess (1981) [on deaconesses in the C of E]. A. Kalsbach in RAC 3 (1957), cols. 917–28, s.v. ‘Diakonisse’.

[iii. 12] Wherefore, O bishop, appoint thee workers of righteousness as helpers who may co-operate with thee unto salvation. Those that please thee out of all the people thou shalt choose and appoint as deacons:? a man for the performance of the most things that are required, but a woman for the ministry of women. For there are houses whither thou canst not send a deacon to the women, on account of the heathen, but mayest send a deaconess. Also, because in many other matters the office of a woman deacon is required. In the first place, when women go down into the water, those who go down into the water ought (p. 71) to be anointed by a deaconess with the oil of anointing; and where there is no woman at hand, and especially no deaconess, he who baptizes must of necessity anoint her who is being baptized. But where there is a woman, and especially a deaconess, it is not fitting that women should be seen by men:? but with the imposition of hand do thou anoint the head only. As of old the priests and kings were anointed in Israel, do thou in like manner, with the imposition of hand, anoint the head of those who receive baptism, whether of men or of women; and afterwards -- whether thou thyself baptize, or thou command the [[147]] deacons or presbyters to baptize -- let a woman deacon, as we have already said, anoint the women. But let a man pronounce over them the invocation of the divine Names in the water.? And 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. For this cause we say that the ministry of a woman deacon is especially needful and important. For our Lord and Saviour also was ministered unto by women [[148]] ministers, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the daughter of James and mother of Jose, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee [Mt 27.56], with other women beside. And thou also hast need of the ministry of a deaconess for many things; 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, and to bathe those who have begun to recover from sickness.

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