Scriptures:
Romans 16:1-2 – I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a deacon of the church which is at Cenchrea; that you receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and that you help her in whatever matter she may have need of you; for she herself has also been a helper of many, and of myself as well.
1 Timothy 3:8-13 – Deacons likewise must be men of dignity, not double-tongued, or addicted to much wine or fond of sordid gain, but holding to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. These men must also first be tested; then let them serve as deacons if they are beyond reproach. Women must likewise be dignified, not malicious gossips, but temperate, faithful in all things. Deacons must be husbands of only one wife, and good managers of their children and their own households. For those who have served well as deacons obtain for themselves a high standing and great confidence in the faith that is in Christ Jesus.
Church Fathers:
Clement of Alexandria:
Accordingly he says in a letter: “Have we not a right to take about with us a wife that is a sister like the other apostles?” But the latter, in accordance with their particular ministry, devoted themselves to preaching without any distraction, and took their wives with them not as women with whom they had marriage relations, but as sisters, that they might be their fellow-ministers in dealing with housewives. It was through them that the Lord’s teaching penetrated also the women’s quarters without any scandal being aroused. We also know the directions about women deacons which are given by the noble Paul in his second letter to Timothy. – Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 195) Miscellanies, book 3, chapter 6
Tertullian:
How many men, therefore, and how many women, in Ecclesiastical Orders, owe their position to continence, who have preferred to be wedded to God; who have restored the honour of their flesh, and who have already dedicated themselves as sons of that (future) age, by slaying in themselves the concupiscence of lust, and that whole (propensity) which could not be admitted within Paradise! – Tertullian, Exhortation to Chastity, chapter 13
- Let the deaconess be a pure virgin; or, at the least, a widow who has been but once married, faithful, and well esteemed. – Apostolic Constitutions, book 6, chapter 17
Ordinances of the Apostles:
This is your chief and your leader, and he is your mighty king. He rules in the place of the Almighty: but let him be honoured by you as God, for the bishop sits for you in the place of God Almighty. But the deacon stands in the place of Christ; and do you love him. And the deaconess shall be honoured by you in the place of the Holy Spirit; and the presbyters shall be to you in the likeness of the Apostles; and the orphans and widows shall be reckoned by you in the likeness of the altar. – Didascalia Apostolorum, chapter 9
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. – Didascalia Apostolorum, chapter 16
Apostolic Constitutions:
For these are your high priests, as the presbyters are your priests, and your present deacons instead of your Levites; as are also your readers, your singers, your porters, your deaconesses, your widows, your virgins, and your orphans: but He who is above all these is the High Priest. – Apostolic Constitutions, book 2, chapter 15
XXVI. The bishop, he is the minister of the word, the keeper of knowledge, the mediator between God and you in the several parts of your divine worship. He is the teacher of piety; and, next after God, he is your father, who has begotten you again to the adoption of sons by water and the Spirit. He is your ruler and governor; he is your king and potentate; he is, next after God, your earthly god, who has a right to be honoured by you. For concerning him, and such as he, it is that God pronounces, I have said, You are gods; and you are all children of the Most High. And, You shall not speak evil of the gods. Exodus 22:28 For let the bishop preside over you as one honoured with the authority of God, which he is to exercise over the clergy, and by which he is to govern all the people. But let the deacon minister to him, as Christ does to His Father; and let him serve him unblameably in all things, as Christ does nothing of Himself, but does always those things that please His Father. Let also the deaconess be honoured by you in the place of the Holy Ghost, and not do or say anything without the deacon; as neither does the Comforter say or do anything of Himself, but gives glory to Christ by waiting for His pleasure. And as we cannot believe in Christ without the teaching of the Spirit, so let not any woman address herself to the deacon or bishop without the deaconess. Let the presbyters be esteemed by you to represent us the apostles, and let them be the teachers of divine knowledge; since our Lord, when He sent us, said, Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. Matthew 28:19 Let the widows and orphans be esteemed as representing the altar of burnt-offering; and let the virgins be honoured as representing the altar of incense, and the incense itself. – Apostolic Constitutions, book 2, chapter 26
In the next place, let the presbyters one by one, not all together, exhort the people, and the bishop in the last place, as being the commander. Let the porters stand at the entries of the men, and observe them. Let the deaconesses also stand at those of the women, like shipmen. For the same description and pattern was both in the tabernacle of the testimony and in the temple of God. But if any one be found sitting out of his place, let him be rebuked by the deacon, as a manager of the foreship, and be removed into the place proper for him; for the Church is not only like a ship, but also like a sheepfold. For as the shepherds place all the brute creatures distinctly, I mean goats and sheep, according to their kind and age, and still every one runs together, like to his like; so is it to be in the Church. Let the young persons sit by themselves, if there be a place for them; if not, let them stand upright. – Apostolic Constitutions, book 2, chapter 57
Nay, if a poor man, or one of a mean family, or a stranger, comes upon you, whether he be old or young, and there be no place, the deacon shall find a place for even these, and that with all his heart; that, instead of accepting persons before men, his ministration towards God may be well-pleasing. The very same thing let the deaconess do to those women, whether poor or rich, that come unto them. – Apostolic Constitutions, book 2, chapter 58
The widows therefore ought to be grave, obedient to their bishops, and their presbyters, and their deacons, and besides these to the deaconesses, with piety, reverence, and fear; not usurping authority, nor desiring to do anything beyond the constitution without the consent of the deacon: as, suppose, the going to any one to eat or drink with him, or to receive anything from anybody. But if without direction she does any one of these things, let her be punished with fasting, or else let her be separated on account of her rashness. – Apostolic Constitutions, book 3, chapter 7
Let not therefore either a bishop, or a presbyter, or a deacon, or any one else of the sacerdotal catalogue, defile his tongue with calumny, lest he inherit a curse instead of a blessing; and let it also be the bishop’s business and care that no lay person utter any curse: for he ought to take care of all — of the clergy, of the virgins, of the widows, of the laity. For which reason, O bishop, ordain your fellow-workers, the labourers for life and for righteousness, such deacons as are pleasing to God, such whom you prove to be worthy among all the people, and such as shall be ready for the necessities of their ministration. Ordain also a deaconess who is faithful and holy, for the ministrations towards women. For sometimes he cannot send a deacon, who is a man, to the women, on account of unbelievers. You shall therefore send a woman, a deaconess, on account of the imaginations of the bad. For we stand in need of a woman, a deaconess, for many necessities; and first in the baptism of women, the deacon shall anoint only their forehead with the holy oil, and after him the deaconess shall anoint them: for there is no necessity that the women should be seen by the men; but only in the laying on of hands the bishop shall anoint her head, as the priests and kings were formerly anointed, not because those which are now baptized are ordained priests, but as being Christians, or anointed, from Christ the Anointed, a royal priesthood, and an holy nation, the Church of God, the pillar and ground of the marriage-chamber (1 Peter 2:9; 1 Timothy 3:15), who formerly were not a people, but now are beloved and chosen, upon whom is called His new name as Isaiah the prophet witnesses, saying: And they shall call the people by His new name, which the Lord shall name for them. – Apostolic Constitutions, book 3, section 1, chapter 15
You therefore, O bishop, according to that type, shall anoint the head of those that are to be baptized, whether they be men or women, with the holy oil, for a type of the spiritual baptism. After that, either you, O bishop, or a presbyter that is under you, shall in the solemn form name over them the Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit, and shall dip them in the water; and let a deacon receive the man, and a deaconess the woman, that so the conferring of this inviolable seal may take place with a becoming decency. And after that, let the bishop anoint those that are baptized with ointment. – Apostolic Constitutions, book 3, section 1, chapter 15
Let the deacons be in all things unspotted, as the bishop himself is to be, only more active; in number according to the largeness of the Church, that they may minister to the infirm as workmen that are not ashamed. And let the deaconess be diligent in taking care of the women; but both of them ready to carry messages, to travel about, to minister, and to serve, as spoke Isaiah concerning the Lord, saying: To justify the righteous, who serves many faithfully. Let every one therefore know his proper place, and discharge it diligently with one consent, with one mind, as knowing the reward of their ministration; but let them not be ashamed to minister to those that are in want, as even our Lord Jesus Christ came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many (Matthew 20:28). – Apostolic Constitutions, book 3, section 1, chapter 19
We have already said, that a bishop, a presbyter, and a deacon, when they are constituted, must be but once married, whether their wives be alive or whether they be dead; and that it is not lawful for them, if they are unmarried when they are ordained, to be married afterwards; or if they be then married, to marry a second time, but to be content with that wife which they had when they came to ordination. We also appoint that the ministers, and singers, and readers, and porters, shall be only once married. But if they entered into the clergy before they were married, we permit them to marry, if they have an inclination thereto, lest they sin and incur punishment. But we do not permit any one of the clergy to take to wife either a courtesan, or a servant, or a widow, or one that is divorced, as also the law says. Let the deaconess be a pure virgin; or, at the least, a widow who has been but once married, faithful, and well esteemed. Leviticus 21:7, 14; 1 Timothy 5:9 – Apostolic Constitutions, book 6, chapter 17
And after that, let the bishop partake, then the presbyters, and deacons, and sub-deacons, and the readers, and the singers, and the ascetics; and then of the women, the deaconesses, and the virgins, and the widows; then the children; and then all the people in order, with reverence and godly fear, without tumult.- Apostolic Constitutions, book 8, chapter 13
Concerning a deaconess, I Bartholomew make this constitution: O bishop, you shall lay your hands upon her in the presence of the presbytery, and of the deacons and deaconesses, and shall say:— O Eternal God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator of man and of woman, who replenished with the Spirit Miriam, and Deborah, and Anna, and Huldah; who did not disdain that Your only begotten Son should be born of a woman; who also in the tabernacle of the testimony, and in the temple, ordained women to be keepers of Your holy gates — do Thou now also look down upon this Your servant, who is to be ordained to the office of a deaconess, and grant her Your Holy Spirit, and cleanse her from all filthiness of flesh and spirit, 2 Corinthians 7:1 that she may worthily discharge the work which is committed to her to Your glory, and the praise of Your Christ, with whom glory and adoration be to You and the Holy Spirit forever. Amen. – Apostolic Constitutions, book 8, chapter 19-20
A deaconess does not bless, nor perform anything belonging to the office of presbyters or deacons, but only is to keep the doors, and to minister to the presbyters in the baptizing of women, on account of decency. A deacon separates a subdeacon, a reader, a singer, and a deaconess, if there be any occasion, in the absence of a presbyter. It is not lawful for a subdeacon to separate either one of the clergy or laity; nor for a reader, nor for a singer, nor for a deaconess, for they are the ministers to the deacons. – Apostolic Constitutions, book 8, chapter 19-28
I the same make a constitution in regard to remainders. Those eulogies which remain at the mysteries, let the deacons distribute them among the clergy, according to the mind of the bishop or the presbyters: to a bishop; four parts; to a presbyter, three parts; to a deacon, two parts; and to the rest of the sub-deacons, or readers, or singers, or deaconesses, one part. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, that every one be honoured according to his dignity; for the Church is the school, not of confusion, but of good order. – Apostolic Constitutions, book 8, chapter 19-28
Council of Nicaea:
Concerning the Paulianists who have flown for refuge to the Catholic Church, it has been decreed that they must by all means be rebaptized; and if any of them who in past time have been numbered among their clergy should be found blameless and without reproach, let them be rebaptized and ordained by the Bishop of the Catholic Church; but if the examination should discover them to be unfit, they ought to be deposed. Likewise in the case of their deaconesses, and generally in the case of those who have been enrolled among their clergy, let the same form be observed. And we mean by deaconesses such as have assumed the habit, but who, since they have no imposition of hands, are to be numbered only among the laity. – Council of Nicaea, canon 19
Council of Chalcedon:
Widows and dedicated women who are chosen to assist at the baptism of women, should be so well instructed in their office as to be able to teach aptly and properly unskilled and rustic women how to answer at the time of their baptism to the questions put to them, and also how to live godly after they have been baptized.” – Council of Carthage, AD 398, Canon 12
Gregory of Nyssa:
Now there was a lady called Lampadia, leader of the band of sisters, a deaconess in rank. She declared that she knew Macrina’s wishes in the matter of burial exactly. – Gregory of Nyssa, Life of Macrina
Basil the Great:
The deaconess who commits fornication with a heathen may be received into repentance and will be admitted to the oblation in the seventh year; of course if she be living in chastity. The heathen who, after he has believed, takes to idolatry, returns to his vomit. We do not, however, give up the body of the deaconess to the use of the flesh, as being consecrated. – Basil of Caesarea, Letter 199, Canon XLIV
To the deaconesses, the daughters of Count Terentius…. – Basil of Caesarea, Letter 105
Epiphanius:
It is plain too that there is an order of deaconesses in the church. But this is not allowed for the practice of priesthood or any liturgical function, but for the sake of female modesty, at either the time of baptism or of the examination of some condition or trouble, and when a woman’s body may be bared, so that she will be seen not by the male priests but by the assisting female who is appointed by the priest for the occasion, to take temporary care of the woman who needs it at the time when her body is uncovered. For the ordinance of discipline and good order in the church has been well protected with understanding, by the standard of our rule. For the same reason the word of God does not allow a woman “to speak” in church either, or “bear rule over a man.” And there is a great deal that can be said about this. But it must be observed that the ordinance of the church required not only deaconesses. It mentioned widows too, and called those of them who were still older, “elder,” but nowhere did it prescribe “eldresses” or “priestesses.” Indeed, not even the deacons in the hierarchy of the church have been commissioned to celebrate any mystery, but only to administer mysteries already celebrated. – Epiphanius, Panarion, Heresy 79, Against the Collyridians, 4.1
John Chrysostom:
“Even so must the women be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things.” Some have thought that this is said of women generally, but it is not so, for why should he introduce anything about women to interfere with his subject? He is speaking of those who hold the rank of Deaconesses. “Let the Deacons be husbands of one wife.” This must be understood therefore to relate to Deaconesses. For that order is necessary and useful and honorable in the Church. Observe how he requires the same virtue from the Deacons, as from the Bishops, for though they were not of equal rank, they must equally be blameless; equally pure. – John Chrysostom, Homily 11 on 1 Timothy 3:11-12
To My Lady, the most reverend and divinely favored deaconess Olympias, I John, Bishop, send greeting in the Lord…. – John Chrysostom, Letter 1 to Olympias, chapter 1
Chap. xvi. ver. 1. I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a deaconess (A.V. servant) of the church which is at Cenchrea. See how many ways he takes to give her dignity. For he has both mentioned her before all the rest, and called her sister. And it is no slight thing to be called the sister of Paul. Moreover he has added her rank, by mentioning her being deaconess. – John Chrysostom, Homily 30 on Roman 15:33
And of the women one he addresses by her title, for he does not call her servant of the Church in an undefined way (because if this were so he would have given Tryphena and Persis this name too), but this one as having the office of deaconess, and another as helper and assistant, another as mother, another from the labors she underwent, and some he addresses from the house they belonged to, some by the name of Brethren, some by the appellation of Saints. – John Chrysostom, Homily 31 on Roman 16:16
Palladius:
Again, I met in Antioch a most venerable lady who conversed familiarly with God, the deaconess Sabaniana, aunt of John the bishop of Constantinople. – Palladius, Lausiac History, chapter XLI
Last of all came the priest Domitian, steward of the Church of Constantinople, and one Vallagas, a Nisibian priest, who related the troubles of the monasteries of Mesopotamia, and presented memoranda from one Optatus, the prefect, showing that respectable women of the upper classes, deaconesses of the Church of Constantinople, were publicly brought before him, and compelled either to communicate with Arsacius, or to pay two hundred pounds in gold to the treasury. As for the treatment of anchorites and virgins, I dare not speak of that. They could point to ribs scraped upon the rack, and mutilated ears. – Palladius, Dialogue about John Chrysostom, chapter 3
But he went into the baptistery, and called Olympias, a lady who spent all her time in the church, and Pentadia, and Procle, the deaconesses, and Silvina, the widow of the blessed Nevridius,244 who adorned her widowhood by a beautiful life, and said to them, “Come here, my daughters, and listen to me. I see that the things concerning me have an end; I have finished my course and perhaps you will see my face no more.247 What I want to ask you is this: let no one dissever you from the good-will you have always borne to the Church; and whoever succeeds me, if he be brought forward for ordination not by his own wish, and without place-hunting, with the approval of all, bow your heads to him, as you have done to John. – Palladius, Dialogue about John Chrysostom, chapter 3
Theodoret of Cyrus:
A young man who was a priest’s son, and brought up in impiety, about this time went over to the true religion. For a lady remarkable for her devotion and admitted to the order of deaconesses was an intimate friend of his mother. – Theodoret of Cyrus, Church History, book 3, chapter 10
To the Deaconess Celarina…. – Theodoret of Cyrus, Letter 101
To the Deaconess Casiana…. – Theodoret of Cyrus, Letter 17
Sozomen:
Elpidius was deposed because he had participated in the malpractices of Basil, and had occasioned great disorders; and because he had, contrary to the decrees of the council of Melitina, restored to his former rank in the presbytery a man named Eusebius, who had been deposed for having created Nectaria a deaconess, after she had been excommunicated on account of violating agreements and oaths; and to confer this honor upon her was clearly contrary to the laws of the Church. – Sozomen, Church History, book 4, chapter 24
Olympias was of most illustrious birth, and although she had become a widow while young, and was zealously attached to the exercises of monastic philosophy according to the laws of the church, yet Nectarius had ordained her as deaconess. – Sozomen, Church History, book 8, chapter 9
To sum up all in a few words, we have never known a devoted woman endowed with such manners, gravity, and every other virtue. Although she was so extraordinary, she concealed the greater part of her nature and deeds; for by modesty of character and philosophy she was always studious of concealment. She would not accept of the office of deaconess, nor of instructress of the virgins consecrated to the service of the Church, because she accounted herself unworthy, although the honor was frequently pressed upon her by John. – Sozomen, Church History, book 8, chapter 23
A woman by name Eusebia, who was a deaconess of the Macedonian sect, had a house and garden without the walls of Constantinople, in which she kept the holy remains of forty soldiers, who had suffered martyrdom under Licinius at Sebaste in Armenia. – Sozomen, Church History, book 9, chapter 2
Codex Justinanus:
In accordance with the order of the Apostle [Paul] no woman shall be admitted to the rank of deaconess unless she has reached the age of fifty. We do not permit anyone under thirty-five to become a priest; nor anyone under twenty-five to become a deacon or sub-deacon, nor anyone under eighteen to become a lector. Also we forbid anyone under thirty-five to be ordained a bishop. We order that no woman who is under forty or who has married a second time shall be ordained a deaconess in the holy Church. – Codex Justinianus 1.3.9, (390 AD)
We decree that those who rape virgins, widows, or deaconesses who have been consecrated to God, committing the worst of crimes, shall be subject to the penalty of death because the injury done is not just to man but is also an insult to almighty God himself. If this [crime] has been committed against a holy virgin who is living either in a hermitage or monastery, whether she has been ordained a deaconess or not, the property of the offender shall be forfeited to the hermitage or monastery, so that meeting her needs she might have compensation from his property while she lives; and the hermitage or monastery shall have complete ownership of all the property. – Codex Justinianus 1.3.41, Emperor Justinian
Council of Trullo:
Let the canon of our holy God-bearing Fathers be confirmed in this particular also; that a presbyter be not ordained before he is thirty years of age, even if he be a very worthy man, but let him be kept back. For our Lord Jesus Christ was baptized and began to teach when he was thirty. In like manner let no deacon be ordained before he is twenty-five, nor a deaconess before she is forty. – Council of Trullo (A.D. 692), Canon 14
The wife of him who is advanced to the Episcopal dignity, shall be separated from her husband by their mutual consent, and after his ordination and consecration to the episcopate she shall enter a monastery situated at a distance from the abode of the bishop, and there let her enjoy the bishop’s provision. And if she is deemed worthy she may be advanced to the dignity of a deaconess. – Council of Trullo (A.D. 692), Canon 48
Council of Chalcedon:
A woman shall not receive the laying on of hands as a deaconess under forty years of age, and then only after searching examination. And if, after she has had hands laid on her and has continued for a time to minister, she shall despise the grace of God and give herself in marriage, she shall be anathematized and the man united to her. – Council of Chalcedon (451 AD), Canon 15
Other References:
They asserted, however, that the sum and substance of their fault or error had been that they were accustomed to meet on a fixed day before dawn and sing responsively a hymn to Christ as to a god, and to bind themselves by oath, not to some crime, but not to commit fraud, theft, or adultery, not falsify their trust, nor to refuse to return a trust when called upon to do so. When this was over, it was their custom to depart and to assemble again to partake of food–but ordinary and innocent food. Even this, they affirmed, they had ceased to do after my edict by which, in accordance with your instructions, I had forbidden political associations. Accordingly, I judged it all the more necessary to find out what the truth was by torturing two female slaves who were called deaconesses. But I discovered nothing else but depraved, excessive superstition. – Pliny to Trajan, Letter 10.97
Seraphim Holland on Deaconesses
THE BIG REVERSAL:
Second Council of Orleans:
Women who have so far received the ordination to the diaconate against the prohibitions of the canons, if it can be proved that they have returned to matrimony, should be banned from communion. But if they have given up this living together after they have acknowledged their error in front of the bishop, let them return to the grace of communion after fulfilling a penance. [Faeminae, quae benedictionem diaconatus hactenus contra interdicta canonum acceperunt, si ad coniugium probantur iterum devolutae , a communione pellantur. Quod si huiusmodi contubernium ab episcopo cognito errore dissolverint, in communionis gratiam acta penitentia revertantur.] – Second Council of Orleans (533 AD), Canon 17
It has pleased us to decree that from now on the diaconal ordination should not be imparted to any woman, because of the weakness of her [female] nature. [Placuit etiam, ut nulli postmodum faeminae diaconalis benedictio pro conditionis huius fragilitate credatur.] – Second Council of Orleans (533 AD), Canon 18
The Rudder:
But a deaconess was also needed to render services to those widows who were listed in the church roll, by offering them the alms donated by Christians; and they were useful also in connection with other services too. But most of all, according to chapters 20 and 28 of the eighth book (of the Injunctions) she was ordained for the purpose of guarding the holy gates and serving the priests when they were baptizing women with a view to decency and propriety, wherein it is written that “A Deaconess can neither bless nor do anything that priests and deacons do.” In addition Epiphanios (Hairesei. 9) says concerning them that the ecclesiastical order needed woman only by way of deaconesses who came from the widows, and the elderly among whom it called presbytidas. Nevertheless it did not command anywhere for priestesses or priestesses to be made such. For neither did deacons in the ecclesiastical order receive any authority to perform any mystery, but only to serve as assistant in connection with the rites being performed by the priests.
And again, it is said that the battalion of deaconesses is in the Church, not to serve in the capacity of priests, nor to undertake to pardon anything, but for the sake of preserving the decency of the female sex, either in connection with rite of baptism, or in connection with the function of visiting the sick or those in distress, or in time of necessity of undressing a woman’s body in order that it may be beheld only by her, and not by the male dignitaries officiating in the process of performing the holy offices.
Though it is true that Balsamon says, in reply to Question 35 of Marcus of Alexandria, that Deaconesses enjoyed a rank in the Bema (or Sanctuary), but that the complications due to menstruation dispossessed them of their rank and removed their service from the Bema, yet he himself again in the same reply says that in Constantinople deaconesses are ordained who have no share or privilege in the Bema, but who perform many ecclesiastical services and help to correct women ecclesiastically. Clement of Alexandria, surnamed Stromateus, in his Book III, says that the Apostles had women with them as sisters and fellow deaconesses in the matter of preaching for women confined to the house, through whom the Lord’s teaching penetrated into the chamber and private apartment of women. It is also found stated in some books that the ordination of a deaconess consisted in her bending her head while the prelate laid his hand upon her, and in his making the sign of the cross three times, and repeating some prayers over her.
Concerning deaconesses, St. Paul writes in his First Epistle to Timothy: “Even so must their wives be modest, not slanderers, temperate, faithful in all things” (I Timothy 3:11). Note that although deaconesses were not the same as widows, nor the same as presbytidas, yet, in spite of this fact, it is true that deaconesses were recruited and ordained from the battalion of widows enrolled in the church.
Read also the second footnote to Canon XL of the 6th Ecumenical Synod and the footnote to Canon XXI of Laodicea. If anyone fond of learning would like to know the particular way in which such deaconesses were ordained, he may learn this more in detail from Blastaris.
For the latter states that in old books it was found written that the women in question were forty years old when they were ordained, and that they wore a full monastic habit (that of the great habit), and that they were covered with a maphorion, having its extremities hanging down in front. That when the prelate recited over them the words, “The Divine Grace”, they did not bend their knee like the deacons but only their head. Afterwards the prelate would place a deacon’s orarion on their neck under the maphorion, bringing the two extremities of the orarion together in front. However, he would not permit them to serve in the Mysteries or to hold a fan [which represents the Seraphim] like the deacons, but only to commune after the deacons, and after the prelate communed the others, they could take the cup from his hands and replace it upon the holy table without communing anyone. Blastaris, however, adds of his own accord that they were later forbidden by the Fathers to enter the Bema or to perform any such services due to the unfortunate event of menstruation as Balsamon stated further above. – FOOTNOTES TO THE FIRST ECUMENICAL SYNOD, 38. THE ROLE OF DEACONESS UNLIKE DEACONS
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