Deaconesses: An Historical Study

by Aimé-Georges Martimort

Since the 17th century the history of deaconesses in the Church has been the subject of numerous monographs. What is most evident about the history of deaconesses, however, is how complex the whole subject is. In this exhaustive and thoroughly researched work, Martimort presents a very readable analysis that has become the standard study of the role of women deaconesses in the early Church. He presents in as complete and objective fashion as possible the history, who and what these deaconesses were and what their functions were.

Genres: Theology, Christian, History, Religion

268 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1986

Reviews

[Arthur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scholarly Text, Lots of Latin

There are not many translations of the many texts cited. Fortunately, this Lutheran remembered his high school and graduate school Latin! Obviously this is not for a wide audience. However, the topic is : women's ordination, in this case to the diaconate.
Full disclosure: I am a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, whose wife can also say that.
I find the author's dismissal of Phoebe's role in the Early Church too easily made. There were female deacons in the Eastern Church, but their exact liturgical role is unknown. Usually they assisted at the baptisms of females. When infant baptism became normative, female deacons we're not needed. Their role in the Byzantine church continued in ways not so easy to trace; heads of convents were often referred to as deaconesses. Byzantine influence in Italy and further west brought the concept of female deacons with it. Roman tradition knew nothing of female deacons.
Martimort rightly cautions about drawing conclusions on either little evidence or of reading one's own interpretations into what sources are available
I have two closing thoughts. There is a sense of "Roma locuta, cosa finita"(Rome has spoken, case closed) in the book. Was Martimont going to be open to any other conclusion? Secondly, there is considerable evidence of abbesses and senior nuns leading worship with some sense of ordination/authorization. Did they leave any sources or records?

[Peter Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the most meticulous works of scholarship I have seen. The subject is narrow and the research is thorough. Martimort examines the office of deaconess from the post-apostolic era to the late middle ages. A majority of the work is devoted to the early church through the tenth century. The reason for this is that the office had disappeared by the Middle Ages due to the rise of nuns and other factors. He is Roman Catholic, but he examines the history of the deaconess in both Western/Latin and Eastern/Greek church. He looks at texts which mention deaconesses, including sermons, manuals, and liturgical documents. He also looks at inscriptions, which mention deaconesses. Like a previous reader I dropped one star because a later chapter has too much untranslated Latin.

He is careful not to overstate his case, but several things are clear from his study. There is no definitive office of deaconess in the history of the Church. The office was absent at points, at some points they were right under a deacon, and at other points they were pretty far down the list of non-ordained ministers in the church. The role of deaconess was almost always restricted to ministering to females. The exception is when they were ministering to the sick, but even then it was usually restricted to females. Deaconesses were in certain situations equivalent to an Abbess in a convent. They were allowed to perform certain liturgical functions in the convent, but only when a priest or deacon was not available and only to women. They did perform baptisms of women at some points because adult women were baptized naked. However, there are several baptismal documents that make no mention of a deaconess, yet do mention women being baptized naked. In other words, deaconesses were not necessary to baptize women, nor were they standard.

They were not equivalent to deacons. They were not ordained in the same manner (when they were ordained), they were not given the same role as deacons, they did not play a role in the Lord's Supper, they of course, did not teach, which deacons often did, and their presence in the history of the church is inconsistent, while the presence of deacons is prevalent. From the early church onward the office of deacon is there and mentioned over and over. This is not the case with a deaconess.

The office of widow is the only office mentioned for women in the 1st and 2nd century and continues to be the dominant office for women through the first several centuries of the history the church. Virgins eventually come in, though it is worth noting that in one place widows are called "virgins" by a church father. That is, they were spiritual virgins who were now espoused to Christ.

On a historical note, Martimort notes that many later liturgical manuals retained the liturgical order for ordaining deaconesses, but they did not actually have deaconesses in practice.The copyists simply copied what the earlier manuscripts had written down. This is interesting because it shows that just because an office or liturgical practice can be found in a document does not mean it was actually used in real life. I think this is important in many areas, not just this subject of deaconesses.

The one thing I wish he had done was more comparison between what the deaconesses did and what deacons did. He covers it in some places, but I wish that had been more thorough.

All in all, a very interesting and excellent study. It is not an easy read for a Protestant. The writing is not exciting and at times he is tedious. Martimort speaks in Roman Catholic terms, which makes it difficult at times to understand everything he means. However, any attempt to formulate a doctrine of deaconess grounded in church history must give heed to this book. Now we need a thorough study for Protestants from the 1300's to the present.

[Bethany · Rating 4 out of 5]

The sheer level of content in this book is brilliant and full. Five stars for the content -- but, alas, three stars for organization and, to an extent, readability. This book is translated from French, and it does show in places. I had a hard time navigating the organization. Other than that, I learned heaps from this! If you ever want to know about the history of deaconesses from the dawn of the Christian church, then start here.

[Jacob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very helpful. Careful scholarship. The only complaint is that in the last 30-50 pages, there are several blocks of untranslated Latin from which he draws points and deductions. This isn't the meat of the text, and one can still follow the argument. Nonetheless, it is still a tad annoying! But, I imagine that's what you get with a book written primarily for Catholic scholars. On the aspect of bias in his research, I think one can simply say that Martimort is careful and doesn't let his agenda drive him to conclusions. The topic isn't replete with sources, and the ones we have are sparse and at times questionable. You see Martimort's careful analysis in how he treats his sources: A single source clearly outlining deaconesses and/or women deacons in church history does not equate to a widespread practice of this function of women's ministry across the Church at that time. He speaks within the bounds of the sources, which is why this book sits above others on the subject. He presents the facts, and with his liturgical expertise, he helps us understand them. All-in-all, this is a very helpful resource, without academic or ecclesiological agenda. Indispensable for both Protestant and Catholic researchers on the topic.

[Daniel Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deaconesses - and women ordination in general - are a very controversial issue in the Catholic Church. This book is meant to be a historical compendium and analysis of basically every reference made to deaconesses in any of the churches.

What I appreciate about this book is that the author is striving as hard as possible to be honest and unbiased. Deaconesses pop up in texts from throughout the Christian world in various times and places, and their role is rather ambiguous and messy. The author carefully analyzes a few details that are easy to overlook - what was the meaning of a word in this time, place, and context; how did the language surrounding deaconesses compare to the language surrounding deacons vs. the language surrounding other female ministries; was a text from a local church actually used in that church, or just copied from other sources?

In the end, the author concludes that while deaconesses were used at various points in time in the Mesopotamian, Greek, and Latin churches, they were always seen as inferior and more circumscribed compared to male deacons. In addition, there were a lot of geographic and temporal ambiguities around their office, or even whether they were blessed vs. ordained.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good. Would have been four stars, but the last 50 pages or so were so cluttered with untranslated that I ended up skipping over most of them.

[Jeremy]

Review here.