A deaconess is a member of a ministry for women in some Christian churches to provide pastoral care, especially for other women, and who may carry a liturgical role. The word comes from the Greek (), for "deacon", which means a servant or helper and occurs frequently in the Christian New Testament of the Bible.
Deaconesses trace their roots from the time of Jesus Christ through to the 13th century in the West. They existed from the early through the middle Byzantine periods in Constantinople and Jerusalem; the office also existed in Western European churches. There is evidence to support the fact that the diaconate including women in the Byzantine Church of the early and middle Byzantine periods was recognized as one of the major non-ordained orders of clergy.
The English separatists unsuccessfully sought to revive the office of deaconesses in the 1610s in their Amsterdam congregation. Later, a modern resurgence of the office began among Protestants in Germany in the 1840s and spread through Nordic States, Netherlands, United Kingdom, and the United States. Lutherans were especially active, and their contributions are seen in numerous hospitals. The modern movement reached a peak about 1910, then slowly declined as secularization undercut religiosity in Europe and the professionalization of nursing and social work offered other career opportunities for young women.
Deaconesses continue to serve in Christian denominations such as Lutheranism and Methodism, among others. In those denominations, before they begin their ministry, they are consecrated as deaconesses.
Non-clerical deaconesses should not be confused with female ordained deacons, such as in the Anglican churches, the Methodist churches, and the Protestant Church in the Netherlands, many of which have both ordained deacons and consecrated deaconesses; in Methodism, the male equivalent of female deaconesses are Home Missioners.
Early Christian period
The oldest reference to women as deaconesses (or female deacons—there is no distinction between the two roles in Latin or Greek) occurs in Paul's letters (). Their ministry is mentioned by early Christian writers such as Clement of AlexandriaCommentary on 1 Corinthians 9:5, Stromata 3,6,53.3-4. and Origen.Commentary on Romans 10:17; Migne PG XIV col. 1278 A–C. Non-Christian sources from the early 2nd century confirm this. In a letter Pliny the Younger attests to the role of the women deaconesses. Pliny refers to "two maid-servants" as deacons whom he tortures to find out more about the Christians. This establishes the existence of the office of the deaconesses in parts of the eastern Roman Empire from the earliest times. 4th-century Fathers of the Church, such as Epiphanius of Salamis,Migne PG 42, cols 744–745 & 824–825 Basil of Caesarea,I. Defarrari (ed.), Saint Basil: the Letters, London 1930, Letter 199. John ChrysostomMigne PG 62, col. 553. and Gregory of NyssaMigne PL 46, cols 988–990. accept the ministry of deaconesses as a fact.
The Didascalia of the Apostles is the earliest document that specifically discusses the role of deacons and deaconesses more at length. It originated in Aramaic speaking Syria during the 3rd century, but soon spread in Greek and Latin versions. In it the author urges the bishop: "Appoint a woman for the ministry of women. For there are homes to which you cannot send a deacon to their women, on account of the heathen, but you may send a deaconess ... Also in many other matters the office of a deaconess is required."Didascalia 16 § 1; G. Homer, The Didascalia Apostolorum, London 1929; http://www.womenpriests.org/minwest/didascalia.asp The bishop should look on the man who is a deacon as Christ and the woman who is a deaconess as the Holy Spirit, denoting their prominent place in the church hierarchy.
Deaconesses are also mentioned in Canon 19 of Nicaea I, which states that “since they have no imposition of hands, are to be numbered only among the laity”. The Council of Chalcedon of 451 decreed that women should not be installed as deaconesses until they were 40 years old. The oldest ordination rite for deaconesses is found in the 5th-century Apostolic Constitutions.Apostolic Constitutions VIII, 19-20; F. X. Funk, Didascalia et Constitutiones Apostolorum, Paderborn 1905, 1:530. It describes the laying on of hands on the woman by the bishop with the calling down of the Holy Spirit for the ministry of the diaconate. A full version of the rite, with rubrics and prayers, has been found in the Barberini Codex of 780 AD. This liturgical manual provides an ordination rite for women as deaconesses which is virtually identical to the ordination rite for men as deacons. Other ancient manuscripts confirm the same rite.Many texts are now online: ; ; and However some scholars such as Philip Schaff have written that the ceremony performed for ordaining deaconesses was "merely a solemn dedication and blessing." Still, a careful study of the rite has persuaded most modern scholars that the rite was fully a sacrament in present-day terms.R. Gryson, The Ministry of Women in the Early Church, Collegeville 1976; originally Le ministère des femmes dans l'Église ancienne, Gembloux 1972, esp. pp. 117–118; Y. Congar, 'Gutachten zum Diakonat der Frau', Amtliche Mitteilungen der Gemeinsamen Synode der Bistümer der Bundesrepublik Deutschlands, Munich 1973, no 7, p. 37–41; C. Vaggagini, 'L'Ordinazione delle diaconesse nella tradizione greca e bizantina', Orientalia Christiana Periodica 40 (1974) 145–189; H. Frohnhofen, 'Weibliche Diakone in der frühen Kirche', Studien zur Zeit 204 (1986) 269–278; M-J. Aubert, Des Femmes Diacres. Un nouveau chemin pour l'Église, Paris 1987, esp. p. 105; D. Ansorge, 'Der Diakonat der Frau. Zum gegenwärtigen Forschungsstand', in T.Berger/A.Gerhards (ed.), Liturgie und Frauenfrage, St. Odilien 1990, pp. 46–47; A. Thiermeyer, 'Der Diakonat der Frau', Theologisch Quartalschrift 173 (1993) 3, 226–236; also in Frauenordination, W. Gross (ed.), Munich 1966, pp. 53–63; Ch. Böttigheimer, 'Der Diakonat der Frau', Münchener Theologische Zeitschrift 47 (1996) 3, 253–266; P. Hofrichter, 'Diakonat und Frauen im kirchlichen Amt', Heiliger Dienst 50 (1996) 3, 140–158; P. Hünermann, 'Theologische Argumente für die Diakonatsweihe van Frauen', in Diakonat. Ein Amt für Frauen in der Kirche – Ein frauengerechtes Amt?, Ostfildern 1997, pp. 98–128, esp. p. 104; A. Jensen, 'Das Amt der Diakonin in der kirchlichen Tradition der ersten Jahrtausend', in Diakonat. Ein Amt für Frauen in der Kirche – Ein frauengerechtes Amt?, Ostfildern 1997, pp. 33–52, esp. p. 59; D. Reininger, Diakonat der Frau in der einen Kirche, Ostfildern 1999 pp. 97–98; P. Zagano, Holy Saturday. An Argument for the Restoration of the Female Diaconate in the Catholic Church, New York 2000; J. Wijngaards, Women Deacons in the Early Church, New York 2002, pp. 99–107.
Olympias, one of the closest friends and supporters of the Archbishop of Constantinople John Chrysostom, was known as a wealthy and influential deaconess during the 5th century. Justinian's legislation in the mid-6th century regarding clergy throughout his territories in the East and the West mentioned men and women as deacons in parallel. He also included women as deacons among those he regulated for service at the Great Church of Hagia Sophia, listing men and women as deacons together, and later specifying one hundred deacons who were men and forty who were women. Evidence of continuing liturgical and pastoral roles is provided by Constantine Porphyrogenitus' 10th-century manual of ceremonies (), which refers to a special area for deaconesses in Hagia Sophia.
Pauline text Paul's earliest mention of a woman as deacon is in his Letter to the Romans 16:1 (AD 58) where he says: "I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is the servant [NIV uses the word Deacon] of the church at Cenchreae". The original Greek says: , , being [the] [female] servant of the church at Cenchreae. The word means servant in nearly all of its 30 uses in the New Testament, but may also be used to refer to the church office of deacon. Phoebe is the only person in scripture named a "diakonos" in relation to a specific church. There is no scholarly consensus regarding whether the phrase here denotes "an official title of a permanent ministry." The term may refer to her serving in a more generic sense, without holding a church office.H. Schlier, Der Römerbrief, Freiburg 1977, pp. 440–441 (full discussion); same view in the commentaries by Th. Zahn, Der Brief des Paulus an die Römer, Leipzig 1925; E. Kühl, Der Brief des Paulus an die Römer, Leipzig 1913; M.J. Lagrange, Saint Paul, Épître aux Romains, Paris 1950; F. J. Leenhardt, L'Épître de saint Paul aux Romains, Neuchâtel 1957; H.W.Schmidt, Der Brief des Paulus an die Römer, Berlin 1962; O. Michel, Der Brief an die Römer, Göttingen 1963; E. Käsemann, An die Römer, Tübingen 1974. Major article: G. Lohfink, "Weibliche Diakone im Neuen Testament", in Die Frau im Urchristentum, ed. G. Dautzenberg, Freiburg 1983, pp. 320–338.
A reference to the qualifications required of deacons appears in Paul's First Epistle to Timothy 3:8–13 (NRSV translation):
This verse about "the women" appears in the middle of a section that also addresses the men. However, the words regarding "the women" may refer to the wives of male deacons, or to deacons who are women. The transition from deacons generally to female deacons in particular may make sense linguistically, because the same word covers both men and women. To indicate the women, the Greeks would sometimes say ("deacon women"). This expression appears in the church legislation of Justinian.Novella 6. 6 par. 1–10; 131. 23; 123.30, etc.; R. Schoell and G. Kroll, eds. Corpus iuris civilis, vol. III, Berlin 1899, pp. 43–45, 616, 662. This interpretation is followed by some early Greek Fathers such as John ChrysostomHomily 11,1 On the First Letter to Timothy; Migne, PG 63, col. 553. and Theodore of Mopsuestia.In Epistolas b. Pauli Commentarii, ed. H. B. Swete, Cambridge 1882, vol. II, pp. 128–129. However, this is not the phrase used here, where Paul refers simply to (women).
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 9:5 "Have we not the right to take a woman around with us as a sister, like all the other apostles?" by Clement of Alexandria (150 AD to 215 AD):
As Clement of Alexandria made mention of Paul's reference to deaconesses in 1 Timothy 3:11, so Origen of Alexandria (184 AD to 254 AD) commented on Phoebe, the deacon that Paul mentions in Romans 16:1–2:
The Apostolic Constitutions say:
Women as deacons