Deaconesses

The title "deaconess" appears in documents from the early Church period, particularly in the East. Their duties were different from that of male deacons; deaconesses prepared adult women for baptism and they had a general Apostolate to female Christians and catecumens. Deaconesses existed in the West until about the 6th century and in the East until about the 11th century.Liturgies for the installation of Deaconesses are identical to those for male Deacons; although some argue it is not clear that the deaconesses of history were sacramentally "ordained" in the same sense used in the present day in Canons 1008 and 1009 of the Code of Canon Law .
In any event, history can neither prove nor disprove the current historical-theological quesiton.Roger Gryson argues that some historical Deaconesses received sacramental ordination,. Aimé Georges Martimort argues that historical deaconesses did not receive a sacramental ordination. Phyllis Zagano presents a contemporary, original, argument for the female Diaconate that includes the historical debate.Currently, the Catholic Church does not ordain women to the diaconate.
The Russian Orthodox Church had a female diaconate into the 20th century. The Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of Greece restored a monastic female diaconate in 2004Deaconess (and also deacon) comes from a Greek word diakonos (διακονος). This Greek word means a servant or helper and occurs frequently in the Christian New Testament of the Bible and is sometimes applied to Christ himself. Deaconesses trace their roots from the time of Jesus Christ through the 13th century. Evidence for the presence of ordained female deacons in the early Christian period in portions of the Eastern Church, is “clear and unambiguous" according to religious scholar Valerie Karras. Deaconesses existed from the early through the middle Byzantine periods in Constantinople and Jerusalem; although the office may not have been in existence throughout the Europe churches. The female diaconate in the Byzantine Church of the early and middle Byzantine periods was recognized as one of the major orders of clergy. A modern resurgence of the office began in the early nineteenth century in both Europe and North America. Deaconesses are present in many countries of the world at the present time, but not in the Roman Catholic Church, in which it is held that ordained ministry is restricted to men.