Pearls from the Pedalion: On the Role of Deaconesses
- The Orthodox Ethos Team
- 5 hours ago
- 20 min read
Read the two-part introduction to the "Pearls from the Pedalion" series here.
From The Orthodox Ethos: We have seen in our day a renewed interest in the historical role of the deaconess, a role which largely became obsolete throughout the Orthodox Church several centuries ago. The Pedalion includes many canons from Ecumenical and Regional councils and Holy Fathers concerning deaconesses, along with extensive commentary by St. Nikodemos under the relevant canons and in the footnotes. St. Nikodemos discusses the role of the deaconess not only based on the relevant text of the canons but also with reference to the interpretations of the ancient canonists and the words of the Scriptures and Holy Fathers. Yet, in discussions today regarding deaconesses, the applicable canons and explanations given by St. Nikodemos and other canonists and Fathers are often overlooked. The relevant texts from the Peladion are provided here for the education of the faithful regarding the Orthodox understanding of deaconesses and their historic role in the Church.
First Ecumenical Council
Canon 19
Concerning the Paulianists who afterwards took refuge in the Catholic Church, it is established that they be rebaptized without fail. If in the past any of them have been covered [ordained] in the clergy, if under close examination are shown to be blameless and irreproachable, after rebaptism let them be ordained by a Bishop of the Orthodox Catholic Church. But if the investigation finds them unfit, let them be deposed. Likewise as concerning deaconesses, and all those who are embraced by the Canon in any way and are being examined, the same form shall be observed. We have referred to the deaconesses who have been examined under cover of the habit, since they have neither any claim to appointment to any order, so that they are to be examined without fail among the laymen.
Interpretation of St. Nikodemos
…if any Orthodox Bishop has ordained any of the women of the Paulianists deaconesses, because of his being unaware of their heresy, or if they had been ordained in the order of deaconesses instituted by the Paulianists, in this case, I say, let them be rebaptized; and thereafter if they appear to be worthy of a diaconate, let them be ordained deaconesses also (see also Apostolic Canons XLVI and XLVII, and Canon VII of the 2nd Ecumenical Synod). As for that which the Canon proceeds to add, namely, “We have referred to the deaconesses who have been examined under cover of the habit, [this phrase means "in a habit but not ordained"] since they have neither any claim to appointment to any order, so that they are to be examined without fail among the laity.” Notwithstanding that these words are hard to understand, yet their meaning is this: We have referred to deaconesses separately, who wore this habit when they were with Paulianists, or at any rate who were following the profession of deaconesses, since they too, like their other clergymen, ought to be reckoned as laymen, for just as those clergymen possessed no real ordination, being destitute of divine grace, so too the deaconesses in their church possessed only the habit of deaconesses, but no true appointment impartible of grace; so that they ought to be reckoned as laywomen after baptism, just as they were prior thereto.
Concord
Canon XCV of the 6th Ecumenical Synod says in identically the same way as does the present Canon: It is made a definition that Paulianists be rebaptized, by which name is meant those who have been adherents of Paul’s heresy from birth. However, Canon XV of the 4th Ecumenical Synod, commands that a deaconess be ordained when forty years old (Canon 14 of the 6th Ecumenical Synod, and Canon XI, of the same synod say the same); but it anathematizes her if after staying a short while in the service38 she later gets married.
Canon XLIV of St. Basil excommunicates from the Mysteries any deaconess that commits fornication with a Greek for a period of seven years, though it does not deprive her of prayer and communion with the faithful. The second ordinance of the first Title of the Novels (Photios, Title VIII, Chapter 14) states that a deaconess ought not to live with any of the male sex who might arouse a suspicion of immodesty or indecency. If when ordered by the Bishop to oust him from sharing her dwelling or sleeping quarters, she postpones the time, she is deprived of the diaconate and is shut up in a convent for the rest of her life.[1]
Footnote 38
THE ROLE OF DEACONESS UNLIKE DEACONS
Note that a Deaconess, though apparently ordained later by a Priest and Deacon, according to Canon XIV of the 6th Ecumenical Synod, was authorized to officiate in the Divine Liturgy, according to Canon XV of the 4th Ecumenical Synod, yet according to the Apostolic Injunctions she does not appear to carry out the male deacon’s service in the Liturgy of the Divine Mysteries in the Bema, but only that service which is performed outside the Bema. For these Injunctions indicate in Book III, Chapter 9 relative to this that: “Although we have not allowed women to teach in church (because St. Paul expressly says, in his First Epistle to Timothy, Chapter 2, Verse 12: “I do not permit a woman to teach”), how can anyone permit them to serve as priestesses? For this reason it is an error of the godless Greeks to ordain priestesses to their female goddesses and not be of the legislation of Christ. So this deaconess was ordained at first (ibid. Chapter 15 and 16) for the sake of women being illuminated, i.e., being baptized, whom after the Bishop anointed their head with holy oil, and the deacon only their forehead, she took charge to anoint their whole body, owing to the fact that it was not proper for a woman’s naked body to be seen by men. Secondly, for the other services the Church offered to women. For in homes where women were dwelling together with unbelieving men, to which it was not proper or decent for male deacons to be sent on account of the risk of evil suspicions, a woman deaconess was sent according to the 15th Chapter of the 3rd book (of the Injunctions) to watch at the doors of the church lest any uncatechized and unfaithful woman might enter (Book II, Chapter 17). Also she examined those women who went from one city to another with commendatory letters as to whether they really were Orthodox Christian women; as to whether they were tainted by any heresy; as to whether they were married or were widows. And after the examination she would provide a place in the church for each one of them to stand according to chance and her position (Book III, Chapter 14 and 19).
DEACONESSES DID NOT PERFORM IN SERVICES AS DEACONS
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 presbyteras. 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.[2]
Fourth Ecumenical Council
Canon 15
Let no woman be ordained a deaconess before the age of forty, and even then after a strict test. But if she, after receiving the gift of chirothesy and remaining for some time in the ministry, proceeds to give herself in marriage, thus insulting the grace of God, let any such actress be anathematized together with the man who has joined himself with her in marriage.
Interpretation of St. Nikodemos
Owing to the ease with which women are deceived and the ease with which they are ruined, the present Canon commands that no woman shall be ordained a deaconess if she is less than forty years old. Yet even if she is forty years old, again, it forbids her to be ordained at random and perfunctorily; on the contrary, it requires the ordination to be performed only after a strict investigation of her life and past habits. In case, however, even after being thus ordained and serving as a deaconess for some time, she afterwards scorns the grace of God and marries, any such woman is to be anathematized together with the man who has married her. Armenopoulos, moreover, says (Book VI, Title III) that those who have induced deaconesses and nuns to become prostitutes are to have their noses cut off along with those of the women whom they have led into prostitution. See also the Interpretation of Canon XIX of the First Ecumenical Synod and the third Footnote thereto.[3]
Sixth Ecumenical Council
Canon 14
Let the Canon, of our holy and God-bearing Fathers be observed also in respect to this, that a Priest may not be ordained before he is thirty years old, though the man be thoroughly worthy; but, instead, let him be obliged to wait. For our Lord Jesus Christ was baptized when He was thirty years old, and then He began teaching. Likewise, let no one be ordained as a deacon before he is twenty-five years old, nor a deaconess before she is forty years old.
Interpretation of St. Nikodemos
The present Canon reiterates word for word the fifteenth of the Synod in Neocaesarea. Accordingly, it decrees that no one must be ordained a priest until he has reached the age of thirty, even though the candidate for ordination be otherwise quite deserving of Holy Orders; on the contrary, let him await his time. For even the Lord who was baptized in His thirtieth year and then began to teach the preaching of the Gospel. “And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age,” says Luke (3:23).
Certainly He ought to be imitated by priests, who are ordained through the priestly to act as teachers of the faithful. Likewise neither can anyone be ordained a deacon until he has reached the age of twenty-five. That is exactly what Canon XXI of Carthage also says. Nor can a woman become a deaconess until she has reached the age of forty. But may God be lenient in regard to the present day transgression of these Canons. And even though the transgressors of these Canons are not abashed by the holy and God-bearing and holy Fathers, let them at any rate be abashed by a mundane layman such as was Emperor Justinian, who in his Novel 123 says: “We do not allow a man to become a, priest below the age of thirty, nor a deacon below the age of twenty-five, nor a subdeacon below the age of twenty.”[4]
Quinisext Ecumenical Council
Canon 40
Since it is very conducive to salvation for one to become closely attached to God by retiring from the turmoil of life, we must not welcome without examination those who unseasonably choose the solitary (or monastic) life, but must observe the definition handed dozen to us by the Fathers even in these matters, so as to make it incumbent upon us to welcome the confession (or promise) of a life in accordance with God then, when it is already certain and has been done with consent and judgment, after the completion of the reason. Therefore let anyone who is about to submit to the monastic yoke and who is not less than ten years old, the test for this resting with the president, if he deems the time to be more advantageous for growth as preparation for entrance into and continuance in the solitary life. For even though St. Basil the Great in his holy Canons welcomes the girl who voluntarily offers herself to God and embraces virginity when passing through her seventeenth year, and makes it a law for her to be enrolled in the battalion of Virgins, yet, even so, following the example with respect to widows and deaconesses closely we have allowed those choosing the solitary life the said time proportionately. For in the divine Apostle it is written: “Let a widow not be taken into the number under sixty years old if she has been the wife of one husband” (I Timothy 5:9). The Holy Canons, on the other hand, give instructions to the affect that a deaconess can be ordained only when she is at least forty years old, the Church having by the grace of God become mightier and advancing forward, and the tendency of the faithful to keep the divine commandments having become firmly fixed and secure, after exquisitely perceiving which fact quite recently we have seen fit to decree the blessing of grace upon the one about to undertake the struggle of living in accordance with God, impressing it precisely like a seal quickly and hence seeking to prevent him from lingering too long, and urging him forward into the arena, or rather indeed we might say impelling him to the choice and state of what is good.
Interpretation of St. Nikodemos
Those who wish to become monks or nuns ought not, according to the present Canon, to be accepted without examination, and at an unseasonable or improper time and in defiance of the definition prescribed by the divine Fathers (and especially St. Basil the Great), but only then ought the confession and promise they make to God to be accepted as reliable and representative of their state of mind, when of their reasoning faculty has reached its maturity, as Basil the Great asserts in his Canon XVIII and especially in his Definition 15 in extenso. So, in sum, let the one who is about to become a monk be not less than ten years old; but, nevertheless, let it be in the power of the bishop to try him out and to increase the number of years for him (in proportion, that is to say, to his natural knowledge) if he deems it more to the person’s interest. For although Basil the Great specifies in his aforesaid Canon that a virgin girl over sixteen or seventeen years may be admitted to the battalion of virgins, we nevertheless, following the example of the widows and deaconesses, have reduced the sixteen or seventeen years of St. Basil to ten years, because the Apostle prescribes that a widow may be admitted to the Church if she is not less than sixty years old, while the Fathers of the 4th Ecumenical Synod say that a woman may be ordained a deaconess when she is forty years old, in their Canon XV,48 seeing the Church of God to be advancing with the grace of God and the constancy shown by Christians in the keeping of the divine commandments. Giving these facts due thought, we have decreed this Canon, engraving in the tender soul of the one about to commence the spiritual struggles of monks, as a seal, the blessing of divine grace, and bracing him by means of this Canon, not to neglect the business of virtue for a long time, but rather to choose the good portion so much the sooner. But Canon VI of Carthage says also that virgins ought to be consecrated to God by only the bishop; and Canon LI of the same Synod says that they ought to be provided for by him also, or, in his absence, by the priest.[5]
Footnote 48
WIDOWS AND DEACONESSES
The example of the widows and deaconesses which the Canon adduces here is not inept, as some have said, in view of the fact that the reference is to widows in the one case and to deaconesses in the other. But neither is it with regard to temperance in marriage, which the deaconesses are able to exercise in their fortieth year, and the widows in the sixtieth year, of their age, that the Canon introduces these women into the midst of the argument. But then, on the same ground, neither is it that which Zonaras asserts, to the effect that the deaconess, being a virgin and never having tasted of hedonistic pleasure, if she has succeeded in preserving her chastity up to the fortieth year of her age, shall be convinced that she can safely remain a virgin henceforth, whereas the widow, having tasted of the sensual pleasure afforded by her husband, needs all the sixty years to complete a more satisfactory test by trial to ensure that henceforth she shall be able to abstain from it: for these two hypotheses are inconsistent with the meaning and acceptation of the present Canon. Reconciling as much as possible the example, we say that the widow whom St. Paul mentions, notwithstanding the fact that she used to be enrolled in the Widowed Battalion without any ritual imposition of hands, according to chapters 1 and 2 of Book III of the Apostolic Injunctions, in order to be ministered to by the Church, according to Canon XXIV of St. Basil, and to be furnished with a sufficiency to supply her with the necessaries of life. Just as St. Paul himself goes on to say by adding: “If any man or woman that believes have widows let him or her relieve them, and let not the Church be burdened, so that she may relieve those women who really are widows” (1Timothy 5:17). Although, I say, this widow used to be enrolled in the Widowed Battalion, and not in the Battalion of Deaconesses, yet, in spite of this fact, since deaconesses were also ordained also from these once-married (or monogamos) widows, it is obvious that these deaconesses used to be ordained when sixty years old. And the reason is that if the lower battalion of widows were enrolled after so many years, i.e., at such an advanced age, in order to preclude their slipping away from Christ, how much the more ought not the widows, and deaconesses by virtue of an imposition of hands, to be ordained after so many years, whose marriage after ordination would have been incomparably more unlawful than the marriage of (unordained) widows, and consequently the fear engendered on this account, by comparison, would have been greater? Not only, however, is this shown by argument, but also by the facts. For Sozomen (Book VII, Chapter 17) bears witness to the fact that Emperor Theodosios made a law (before the Fourth and the present Synod were held) that no woman should receive any ministration (i.e., relief or assistance) unless she had children or unless she had become sixty years old. “This is the cause that led Emperor Theodosios to provide for the (enhancement of the) good report and decency of the Churches by making a law that women should not be allowed God’s relief unless they had children and became over sixty years old, in accordance with St. Paul’s express command.” But, the Fourth Ecumenical Synod reduced these sixty years of deaconesses to forty, by decreeing in a general and indefinite manner that no deaconess should be ordained until forty years of age, irrespectively, that is to say, of whether she was one of the virgins or one of the once-married (or, in Greek, monogamous) widows. So for the reasons reckoned up here the example of the widows and deaconesses which the Canon cites is germane to the issue and is eminently consistent with its meaning, for it compares deaconesses with deaconesses that have been drawn from the ranks of the widows. Concerning the fact that deaconesses actually were ordained from among these once-married widows. This is corroborated:
a) By the Apostolic Injunctions, which say, in Book VII, Chapter 77: “Let a chaste virgin become a deaconess; or, otherwise, one that is a believer and honest”;
b) Canon XLVIII of the present 6th Ecumenical Synod [see below], which says that the wife of one destined to become a bishop, may, if she be worthy, become a deaconess;
c) And that famous Olympias who, though a widow, was a deaconess. The fact, too, that the marriage of deaconesses was more unlawful than the marriage of widows is shown by reference to Canon XV of the 4th Ecumenical Synod and Canon XXIV of Basil: for the former anathematizes any deaconess that has married together with the man who married her; while the latter, of Basil, only excommunicates any widow that has married by denying her Communion until she ceases from her uncleanliness. This too is perfectly reasonable in view of the fact that the widows were wont to promise and solemnly undertake not to get married a second time just as did Anna the daughter of Phanuel, and in accordance with Chapter 1 of Book III of the Apostolic Injunctions, and in accordance with that which St. Paul says: “Having been damned because they disregarded their first faith” (I Timothy 5:12).[6]
Canon 48
The wife of a man who is being elevated to the presidency of an Episcopate, and who by mutual agreement gets divorced in advance, after his ordination to the Episcopate, let her enter a Monastery that is in a location far removed from the residence of the Bishop, and let her be provided for by the Bishop. But if she also appears to be worthy, let her also be elevated to the dignity of Deaconess.
Interpretation of St. Nikodemos
The present Canon commands that any woman who is the wife of a man who is about to become a bishop must first be divorced by mutual consent of both her and him. And after he has been duly ordained, she must enter a Monastery that is far away from his eparchy, or province, by which expression it is implied that she is to become a nun in some far off Monastery and is to be provided with the necessities of life by him (if, that is to say, she is needy). The Canon commanded this to be done, in order that they might not from seeing each other be led to recollect their former conduct and association in life, and consequently be burned up with a desire for carnal love. But if the wife, however, is worthy, she may be made a deaconess... From this Canon Blastaris rightly infers that neither ought the wife of deceased priests marry a second time.[7]
Regional Council of Laodicea
Canon 11
Concerning the necessity of avoiding the appointment of so-called presbyteras, or presiding women, in the church.
Interpretation of St. Nikodemos
Zonaras and Balsamon assert that this Canon decrees that so-called elderly women are not to be appointed in the church to take precedence over the rest of the women in the matter of sitting down in church, but neither must they be called by such a name (as presbytides, i.e., “elderly women”). For in the olden time there used to be in the churches such old women, to keep the other women in order, and to show each one of them how and where to stand and to sit in the temple, which function, since they exploited it for the sake of greedy profits and ostentatious pride, they were prohibited from exercising by this Canon. But others opine that these presbytides and presiding women were forbidden by the Canon to be appointed, or, in other words, to be ordained by means of prayers,8 since term “appoint” also denotes (in Greek) “ordain by means of prayers,” as we said in connection with Canon IV of the First Ecumenical Synod.[8]
Footnote 8
DEACONESSES WERE OLDER LADIES
Nevertheless, the Canon did not forbid them to be ordained deaconesses, as they asserted, since these old women in the times of this used to be made deaconesses. That is why, in commenting on Chapter 28 of the second book of the Apostolic Injunctions, Franciscus Turrianus declares that Clement calls deaconesses presbytides, as anyone may learn, I say, even from St. Epiphanios in his pages on the heresy of the Collyridians. For “presbytides” and “old ladies” are the women sixty years of age from whom deaconesses were made, as is stated by St. Paul and the Footnote to Canon XL of the 6th Ecumenical Synod (which the reader must consult for himself). But it also prohibits them from being ordained to act as Presbytides and women presiding over and having precedence over the others. These Presbytides are mentioned also in the Apostolic Injunctions, Book II, Chapter 57. “Let virgins and widows, and Presbytides be the first ones of all to stand up or to sit down.” Even St. Paul mentions them specifically in his Epistle to Titus, Chapter 2, Verse 3. (where the A.V. as well as the R.V. of the English Bible calls them “aged women”). “That aged women likewise be priestly in their deportment, not calumniators, not enslaved to excessive wine, teachers of refinement, in order that they may persuade the young women to be sensible.” I am astonished that some persons have suggested that they were the wives of priests or of priests, owing to the fact that they were required to be “priestly,” a conjecture which is wrong. For, by saying “in order to persuade the young women to be sensible,” the Apostle revealed that by the word “aged women” (or, in Greek, “presbytides”) he meant old women, just as he called old men presbytae (i.e., “aged men”, according to the A.V. and R.V.) further above, and not priestoi (or elder men). Canon XLVI of the 6th Ecumenical Synod also calls old nuns (that is, aged nuns) presbytides. The said St. Epiphanios, on the other hand, in his Heresei 79 states that the older women were called presbytides.[9]
Canons of St. Basil the Great
Canon 44
A deaconess who has been fornicating with a Grecian is admissible to communion, but to the offering she will be admissible in the seventh year, that is, if she lives in chastity. But a Grecian who after belief again indulges in sacrilege is returning to his vomit. We therefore no longer permit the body of the Deaconess to be put to carnal use, on the ground that it has been consecrated.
Interpretation of St. Nikodemos
If perchance any deaconess (concerning whom see the Footnote to Canon of the 1st Ecumenical Synod) fornicates with a Grecian, she shall, after being duly purified, be admitted to communion, or, more explicitly speaking, she shall be allowed to stand with the believers and to join in the prayers said in church; but to the communion of the Holy Mysteries she shall be admitted only after seven years have passed as the sentence for her fornication,45 but even then only on condition that she shall abstain from the evil and live in sobriety. But if the Grecian who has fornicated with her comes to believe, and thereafter seeks to take the deaconess in marriage, according to Balsamon and Blastaris, after she has been purified (for he calls this sacrilege), the man has returned like the dog to his own vomit. Hence we will not allow the consecrated body of the deaconess henceforward to be used for carnal intercourse and pleasure; that is to say, we will not allow her to get married.[10]
Footnote 45
Zonaras and Balsamon agree in that because this deaconess played the harlot with an infidel, and not with a believer, she was sentenced by the Saint, not to the lighter penalty for fornication prescribed by the Fathers before him (see the Interpretation of Canon XX of Ancyra and Canon XXII of Basil) but to a heavier penalty...[11]
Endnotes
Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite and Monk Agapios, translated by Denver Cummings, edited by Ralph Masterjohn. The Rudder, (Chicago, IL: The Orthodox Christian Educational Society, 1957), pp. 459, 461-462.
Ibid., pp. 495-498
Ibid., p. 612
Ibid., pp. 693-694
Ibid., pp. 722-723
Ibid., pp. 823-825
Ibid., pp. 730-731
Ibid., p. 1122
Ibid., pp. 1145-1146
Ibid., p. 1493
Ibid., p. 1557