Women Deacons in Ancient Christian Communities

This chapter considers ‘Women Deacons in Ancient Christian Communities: Leadership and Ordination’. Women deacons are widely attested in the Greek-speaking Catholic East during the first millennium. Ancient rites that have been preserved show that the ordination of women deacons was truly ‘sacramental’, just as that of male deacons. Their role consisted in instructing and baptizing female catechumens, guiding women at Sunday worship, taking communion to the sick, and ministering at funeral services. They belonged to the clergy in virtually every parish. They enjoyed more or less the same legal status as male deacons. As time passed, however, the female diaconate was relinquished, partly because of the diminishing of adult baptisms, partly on account of growing anxiety about female clergy possibly polluting the altar through menstruation.