This article examines the origins and history of the female deaconate and illustrates the very real differences that emerged in the East and the West in regards to the growth and development of that vocation. These historical differences have led to different positions and perspectives between the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches today in regards to this ministry.
The New Testament accounts of the historical Jesus show that he was radical in his encounters with women and treated them equally and Luke is quite clear that Jesus made his way through towns and villages not only with the twelve but also with certain women including Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Suzanna and others (Luke 8: 2-3). Jesus’s disciples were often surprised by his attitude towards women and this can be seen in their reactions to his long discourse with the Samaritan woman (John 4:27); his anointing by a woman (John 12: 4-6; Mark 14: 4-5; Matt 26: 8-13) and his healing of a Canaanite woman’s daughter (Matt 15: 21-27). Jesus was also very radical and empathetic in his attitude towards widows and told his disciples that a widow’s small offering was much greater than those of the rich because she had given everything she had. Finally, and ultimately, Jesus chose a woman, Mary Magdalene, to be the first witness of the resurrection (Matt 28: 1-10; Mark 16: 1-11; Luke 24: 1-11; John 20: 1-18).
It is hardly surprising, bearing in mind the fact that a woman was the first witness of the resurrection, that women were very active in the early church. However, Christianity in its early stages was made up of a variety of communities in the eastern Mediterranean which were often isolated from each other and it is highly unlikely that all these communities possessed the same documents. Therefore, different church traditions grew up around different groups and individuals. Nevertheless, what is common to all of these traditions is the fact that the oldest forms of female consecrated life were those of the order of consecrated widow and the order of consecrated virgin and women were originally enrolled individually into one or other of these orders. The enclosed consecrated life and the first female religious communities did not begin to develop until the fourth century when St Pachomius established two communities of nuns in the fourth century.
The first reference that we have today in regards to a female deacon is made by St. Paul (Romans 16: 1-3) who refers to a deacon called Phoebe. However, she may very well have been either a consecrated widow or a consecrated virgin as well, as later evidence mentioned here will demonstrate that the early female deacons usually belonged to one or other of these orders. The first evidence of the existence of women deacons outside of the New Testament is in a letter written by Pliny the Younger (AD 61 – 113). He was a lawyer and magistrate of ancient Rome and he wrote of two female deacons whom he arrested and tortured.
In the first, second and third centuries there are a variety of references to the order of female deacons by the early church fathers and it would seem that the main ministries of the female deacons were to baptise women, to anoint women when they were sick and also to ‘keep the holy gates’ which may have been the central doors of a church which separated the nave from the sanctuary. Some of the documents that discuss the female diaconate include the Ignatian Letter to the Antiochians, the Apostolic Constitution of the Holy Apostles by Clement and the writings of St. Epiphanius of Salamis.
During the early Christian centuries female deacons were common in both the East and the West; however, from the fourth century onwards a major difference began to occur in regards to the prominence of the female diaconate. In the West, partly due to the emergence of monasticism, the female diaconate began to decline and was abolished by rising patriarchal movements whereas, in the East, the order reached its height in the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries but eventually fell into disuse around the ninth century probably due to the rise in infant baptism. However, the female diaconate was never abolished in the East.
Evidence of the abolition of the female diaconate in the West can clearly be found in the records of the Synod of Epaone which was a synod of the Bishops of Burgundy which took place in 517 AD. Canon 21 abolishes the female diaconate and also makes it clear that those female deacons at that time were all consecrated widows. It is likely that this abolition of the female diaconate occurred in many other Western areas as this female ministry seems to have completely disappeared in the West around the sixth century.
Within the East the female diaconate reached its height in the fifth and sixth centuries and was filled by women who were either consecrated virgins or consecrated widows. Abbesses of convents and nuns could also serve as deacons. The woman deacon received communion directly after the clergy and was addressed in terms that illustrated her high esteem such as ‘Most Honoured’ or ‘Most Pious’. Her role was concerned with the pastoral and sacramental care of women and she assisted at baptisms, visited the sick and the elderly, supervised women during worship, prepared their bodies for burial and acted as an intermediary between women and the bishop.
Although the female diaconate declined in the East from the ninth century onwards, it never ceased to exist completely and individual women of the monastic order were ordained as deacons in the twentieth century. For example, in 1911 Bishop Nektarios ordained nuns into the diaconate and the institution of deaconesses was also activated in cases of necessity. Therefore, in 1986, the Metropolitan of Demetrias ordained the Abbess of the Convent of St Spyridon as a deacon. This was because there was no priest in the area and she was given the right to keep and administer the sacrament of holy communion to the nuns.
In the late twentieth and early twenty first century the Orthodox Church began seriously to discuss the restoration of the female diaconate and in October 2004 the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece made the historic decision to restore it. In the extensive discussion which proceeded the decision 64 representatives of various dioceses submitted a report entitled ‘The Role of Women in the Organism of the Church.’ Since then, there has been some debate as to whether women deacons should either be consecrated or ordained but four women have been received into the diaconate. In 2017 Patriarch Theodoros II consecrated three women as sub-deacons and in 2024 His Eminence Metropolitan Serafim of Zimbabwe ordained Angelic Molen as a deacon. In addition to her pastoral duties, she will have the same role as a male deacon serving in the liturgy.
The Orthodox Church is now well on the way to restoring the female deaconate and it is likely that more women will be ordained in the future particularly in areas where there is a shortage of priests. However, the ordination of women as deacons should not simply be based on the administration of some sacraments and the distribution of communion. The psychological and emotional needs of women should also be considered. For example, many women may actually prefer to be visited by an ordained woman deaconess in hospital than a priest not because it matters from which sex they receive the sacrament but because there may be some spiritual issues they have which they would prefer to discuss with a woman. They may also, when making arrangements for their own funeral before their death, prefer to have that funeral conducted by a woman even if that means that the funeral would not include a Requiem Mass. Some women would simply like to be ministered by a person of their own sex. Women, who are half of the human race, have had their psychological and emotional needs neglected for centuries by both the Orthodox and Catholic churches. The Orthodox are now addressing this and it is time that the Vatican did the same.
Rev’d Debra Maria Flint is a former social care inspector and a Catholic feminist writer. She left the Roman Catholic Church in 2021 in order to be ordained a deacon within the Independent Catholic Movement.
References
Bishop ordains Orthodox woman as deaconess in response to local needs in Africa – Anglican Ink © 2024
Orthodox Christianity in 21st Century Greece (Routledge 2010)
No Place for a Woman (Lantern 2024)
