Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/729

 DEACONESSES

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DEACONESSES

tn the deacons the insignia of the order which they have received, to wit, the stole and the dahiiatic, ac- companying them with the formulae which express their special significance. Finally he makes all the (■;i7ididates touch the book of the Gospels, saying to tlicra: "Receive the power of reading the Gospel in the Church of God, both for the li\'ing and for the dead in the name of the Lord". Although the actual form of words which accompanies the laying on of the bishop's hands, Accipe Si>iritum Sanctum ad robur, itc, cannot be traced further back than the twelfth c .Titury, the whole spirit of the ritual is ancient, and -nine of the elements, notably the conferring of the -1 lie and the prayer which follows the delivery of the liook of the Gospels, are of much older date. It is noteworthy that in the "Decretum pro Armenis" of I'opo Eugene IV the delivery of the Gospels is spoken of as the ''matter" of the diaconate, Diaconatus vera j'cr libri evungeliorum dationem (traditur).

In the Russian Church the candidate, after having liien led three times around the altar and kissed each (I irner, kneels before the bishop. The bishop lays the riiii of his omophorion upon his neck and marks the ,-ii;ii of the cross three times upon his head. Then he hivs his hand upon the candidate's head and says two prayers of some length which speak of the conferring of the Holy Ghost and of strength bestowed upon the ministers of the altar and recall the words of Christ th:it he "who would be first among you become as a servant" (SidKoms): then there are delivered to the ■ li;icon the insignia of his office, which, besides the stole, include the liturgical fan, and as each of these i- given the bi.shop calls aloud, 4?io5, "worthy", ma tone increasing in strength with each repetition see Maltzew, Die Sacramente der orthodox-katholi- schen Kirche, 318-333).

In modern times the diaconate has been so entirely regarded as a stage of preparation for the priesthood th:it interest no longer attaches to its precise duties .iiid privileges. A deacon's functions are now prac- tically reduced to the ministration at high Mass and to exposing the Blessed Sacrament at Benediction. But he maj', as the deputy of the parish priest, distribute the Communion in case of need. Of the condition of celibacy see the article Celib.\cy of the Clergy.

Deacons outside the Catholic Church. — It is only in the Church of England and in the Episcopal communions of Scotland and North America that a deacon receives ordination by the imposition of hands of a bishop. In consequence of such ordination, how- ever, he is considered empowered to perform any sacred office except that of consecrating the elements and pronouncing absolution, and he habitually preaches and assists in the commimion-service. Among the Lutherans, however, in Germany the word deacon is generally applied to assistant, though fully ordained, ministers who aid the minister in charge of a particular cure or parish. However, it is also used in certain localities for lay helpers who take part in the work of instruction, finance, district- visiting, and relieving distress. This last is also the use of the word which is common in many Noncon- formist communions of England and America.

Seidl in Kirchcrd^T., s. v. Diaccm; Idem, Drr Diacimal in der kalh. Kirche (Ratisbon, 1884): Onslow in Diet, of Christ. Aniiq., s. V. Deacon; Zoeckleh, Dinkonpn nnd Evannclislen in Biblische und Kirchenhuilorische Slutlien (Munich, 1893), II; Bruder, Verfassung der Kirche (Freiburg. 1904), 348 sqq.; Lamothe-Tenet, Le Diaconat (Paris, 1900); Leder, Die Dia- konen der Bischvfe und Presbyter (StuttRart. 1905); Acheus in Realencyk. f. prot. TheoL, s. v. Diakonen: Thomassin, Vctus ei Nova Eixl. Dicipl., Part I, Bk. II; Hefele-Leclercq, Les ConcOes, I, 610-614; MCnz in Kralb Real-Encuk.. s. v. Diakon; Gasparri, Tractalua Canonicus dc Sacra Ordinatitme; Webnz, Jua Decrelalium, II.

Herbert Thurston.

Deaconesses. — We carnot be sure that any formal recognition of deaconess. s ,ts an institution of eon.secrated women aiding the clergy is to be found in the

New Testament. There is indeed the mention of Phebe (Rom., xvi, 1), who is called Sidmxos, but this may simply mean, as the Vulgate renders it, that she was "in the ministry [i. e. service] of the Church", without implying any official status. Again it is not improbable that the "widows" who are spoken of at large in I Tim., v, 3-10, may really have been deacon- esses, but here again we have nothing conclusive. That some such functionaries were appointed at an early date seems probable from Pliny's letter to Trajan concerning the Christians of Bithynia (Ep. x, 97, A. D. 112). There he speaks of obtaining informa- tion by torture from two aiicitlw qua: ministra; dice- bantur, where a technical iLse of words seems to be im- plied. In any case there can be no question that be- fore the middle of the fourth century wome.i were per- mitted to exercise certain definite functions in the church and were known by the special name of Sidrnvot or StaK^yuraat.

Hi.story and Consecration. — Most Catholic schol- ars incline to the view that it is not always possible to draw a clear distinction in the early Church between deaconesses and widows (xw"')- The Didascalia, Apostolic Constitutions, and kindred documents un- doubtedly recognize them as separate classes ami they prefer the deaconess to the widow in the duty of assisting the clergy. Indeed the Apostolic Constitu- tions (III, 6) enjoin the widows to be obedient to the deaconesses. It is probable also, as Funk maintains, that in the earlier period it was only a widow who could become a deaconess, but undoubtedly the strict limits of age, sixty years, which were at first pre- scribed for widows, were relaxed, at least at certain periods and in certain localities, in the case of those ap- pointed to be deaconess ; for example, the Council of Trullo in 692 fi.xed the age at forty. Tertullian speaks with reprobation of a girl of twenty in viduatu ab episcopo collocatatn, by which he seems to mean or- dained as a deaconess. There can again be no ques- tion that the deaconesses in the fourth and fifth cen- turies had a distinct ecclesiastical standing, though there are traces of much variety of custom. According to the newly discovered " Testament of Our Lord " (c. 400), widows had a place in the sanctuary during the celebration of the liturgy, they stood at the ana- phora behind the presbyters, they communicated after the deacons, and before the readers and subdeacons, and strange to say they had a charge of, or superin- tendence over, the deaconesses. Further it is certain that a ritual was in use for the ordination of deacon- esses by the laying on of hands which was closely modelled on the ritual for the ordination of a deacon. For example the Apostolic Constitutions say: "Con- cerning a deaconess, I Bartholomew enjoin, O Bishop, thou shalt lay thy hands upon her with all the Presbytery and the Deacons and the Deaconesses and thou shalt say: Eternal God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Creator of man and woman, that didst fill with the Spirit Marj' and Deborah, ami Anna and Huldah, that didst not disdain that thine only be- gotten Son should be boni of a woman; Thou that in the tabernacle of witness and in the temple didst appoint women guardians of thy holy gates : Do Thou now look on this thy handmaid, who is appointed unto the office of a Deaconess and grant unto her the holy Spirit, and cleanse her from all pollution of the flesh and of the spirit, that she may worthily accomplish the work committed unto her, to thy glory and the praise of thy Christ." Comparing this form with that given in the same work for the ordination of deacons we may notice that the reference to the outpouring of Holy Ghost in the latter case is much more strongly worded: "fill him with the .spirit and with power as thou didst fill Stephen the martyr and follower of the sufferings of thy Christ". Moreover, in the case of the deacon, prayer is ma<le that he "may be counted worthy of a higher standing", a clause which not im-