Commenting on deaconesses in Eastern Christianity, an important text is
the Didascalia of the Apostles, which
has only been known since 1854 when Paul de Lagarde published its Syriac texts
from a manuscript found in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. According to Aimé
Georges Martimort:
On the basis of the
available testimony from antiquity, we can readily conclude that the work was
originally written in Greek; indeed a fragment of the Greek version has been
discovered. More than that, the very ancient date of the non-Greek versions
obliges us to date the original work from the first half of the third century,
some time before the persecution of Decius. (Aimé Georges Martimort,
Deaconesses: An Historical Study [trans. K. D. Whitehead; San Francisco:
Ignatius Press, 1986], 35-36)
While acknowledging that female “deacons” are mentioned twice in the
text, Martimort notes that, from the context, “the installation of deaconesses
was both a new and rather unstable instruction in the Church” (Ibid., 40-41).
Furthermore, as
with Phoebe in Rom 16, it was not a “priestly” function, but an
administrative:
The first take of the
deaconess was to visit the homes of those Christian women who lived in pagan
households and were immobilized by illness or could not otherwise go out. The deaconesses
were supposed to “serve them in whatever their needs might be”, a spiritual
work of mercy, but they were also supposed to perform corporal works of mercy and
“bathe those who [had] begun to recover from their illness” (the Latin version
of the text confirms that it is not baptism that is being referred to here but
definitely “baths”: “ . . . in balneis .
. . ut lavet”). The same kinds of acts were performed by deacons for men.
The second task of
the deaconess involved the baptism of women. Certainly the deaconess, like the
widow, was herself forbidden to baptize. The bishop alone administered baptism,
or, at his command, the priests and deacons could administer it: “But a man
should recite the epiclesis over them in the water.” For the Church of the
author of the Didascalia, however,
the baptismal immersion was accompanied by an anointment with holy oils over
the whole body, and it was not considered “good for women to be viewed by men”.
Thus, when a deaconess was present, the celebrant limited himself to anointing women
candidates for baptism on the head only; the deaconess would then go on to
apply the oil over the whole body. In fact, in the absence of a deaconess, this
function could be carried out by another woman. But the participation of a
deaconess meant that she assumed a responsibility vis-à-vis the neophyte similar
to that of a godmother: “When the woman who has been baptized comes up out of
the water, the deaconess should receive her and instruct and educate her . . . “(Ibid.,
42)
This is mirrored in many texts in both the East and West. Another text
from the East Martimort discusses is that of “The Ordo [ταξις] and the Canons Concerning
Ordination [χειροτονιαι]
in the Holy Church,” a text that has been transmitted by means of the Jacobite
tradition. According to Martimort:
It was copied from a Syriac manuscript of the
eighth or ninth century, but it is generally recognized that it is much more
ancient than that; it probably dates from some time before the end of the fifth
century. (Ibid. 53).
Commenting on the texts’ discussion of the offices of the church and the
duties thereof, Martimort writes:
The “Ordo” lays out, in its first part, the
duties of bishops, priests, deacons, subdeacons, lectors and exorcists (canons
5-11; Rahmani 1-7). It then presents the ordination rites of these same
ministers (canons 12-17; Rahmani 8-13). Then it adds (canon 18; Rahmani 14) the
following prescriptions concerning deaconesses:
Canon 18. The
deaconess is brought into the diaconicon, or place set apart for deaconesses,
and the bishop prays over her; when he has placed her before the altar and she
has bowed her head, the bishop then lays
his hand upon her head and prays using a prayer that is known and that in no
way resembles the prayer used in the ordination of a deacon. The deaconess
should not approach the altar; her task lies principally in assisting with the
anointing at baptisms. When women are called to receive by baptism the seal
of life, this should not give rise to any impurity which might soil or blemish
the Church of God; on the contrary, everything should be carried out with good
order, preserving purity and chastity. It is not fitting for deacons to anoint
women and thus see their nudity, and it was for this reason that the blessed
apostles transmitted to us the discipline that men coming to receive the seal
of the new life should be brought forward by deacons and be anointed by them with
the oil of sanctity. They should not be approached by anyone else, not
subdeacon, lector or exorcist. Lay people, men or women, just not so much as
cast their glance on anyone being anointed by the deacons for fear that our
holy mysteries might thereby be exposed to ridicule and contempt. It was for
this same reason that the blessed apostles transmitted these mysteries to us
not in writing but by a purely oral tradition; it was appropriate that these
mysteries be known only by deacons and priests, not by just anyone.
Deaconesses, for their part, were instituted [ette sîm (y)] in order to anoint the women coming to
receive the seal of baptism. Since it is not fitting that a priest who is baptizing
women should view their nudity, he should extend his hand toward them from
behind a veil serving as a screen. The deaconess brings forward a woman who is
to be baptized to the hand of the priest, and he lays his hand on her hand
without directly seeing her, he then pronounces the threefold baptismal
invocation in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
This action is carried out in exactly the same fashion as when the deacons
bring forward male candidates to the priest to be baptized. Laying his hand
upon their heads, he does thus baptize them.
In addition, at the
moment of the service of the offering, the deaconesses station themselves at
the church door leading into the part of the church occupied by the women; this
is to prevent men from coming to mingle there with the women, which would allow
impurity right there in the Church of God. The deaconesses also separate out
those women who have not yet received the seal of baptism which allows them to
view with their own eyes the holy mysteries being carried out or to hear the
sacred word with their own ears. Finally, it is the responsibility of the
deaconess to exhort the daughters of the covenant as well as lay women in
general to behave themselves properly. (Ibid., 53-54, emphasis added)
