Deacon, lit. a 'servant' or 'follower' (and, in that sense, found in classic and also in Hellenistic Greek), became in ecclesiastical usage the name for an office-bearer in the Christian church. In Acts vi. we read of the appointment of seven men chosen by the laity and ordained by the apostles to attend to the finances of the infant church, and to see that its alms are fairly distributed. The name deacon is not applied to them. They are to be spiritually-minded men; they are solemnly set apart from the rest of the congregation; and almost immediately they are found preaching and baptising (Acts, vi. vii. and viii. 38); and the most distinguished of them, St Stephen, dies as the first Christian martyr. In the epistle to the Philippians they are named along with the bishops, and in the pastoral epistles they are recognised as part of the Christian ministry (1 Tim. iii. 8-13) without any special reference to financial duties. Chrysostom suggested that the appointment in the Acts was of a temporary nature, and distinct from the sacred ministry of the diaconate subsequently instituted; and this view obtained some sanction from the sixth General Council. But a great Anglican antiquary, Bingham (supported in this matter by the Roman Catholics Thomassinus and Petavius), takes the opposite side, and is able to appeal to Justin Martyr, Irenæus, Hilary, Cyprian, and other doctors, to the effect that the seven were truly deacons in the later sense, and were authorised by the apostles to undertake these higher functions. The number seven continued to be adhered to in many churches—e.g. at Rome, until the 11th century, when the number was doubled.
During the 2d and 3d centuries, the duties falling to the deacons had considerably increased; and since as confidential attendants and helpers of the bishops, they had risen into consequence, it became necessary to divide the various functions among an archdeacon, deacons, and sub-deacons. Deacons might now dispense the bread and wine at the communion, but not consecrate them. They had to receive the offerings and presents for the bishop, to keep the sacred vessels, to chant the introductory formulas of public worship, and to take the oversight of the morals of the congregation; and they were allowed, in many cases, with the leave of the bishop, to preach and baptise, and receive penitents into the communion of the church. At an early period, the offices of archdeacon and deacon were considered to belong to the higher orders of consecration (ordines maiores): this was not the case with that of sub-deacon till after the 12th century. At the consecration of a deacon, according to the Roman rite, certain sacred vessels may be handed to him as symbols of his office; but this does not seem to be regarded as essential. In the Greek rite the flabellum (a fan for driving away flies from the sacred elements) is given to the deacon. The peculiar robes are the dalmatica and the stole, but the stole (both in East and West) is only placed over the left shoulder.
In Protestant churches the position of deacons varies. Among Presbyterians, the elders have the spiritual oversight of the congregations; while deacons (as in the Free Church of Scotland) and managers in others have the care of the financial affairs. Among Congregationalists, the deacons combine both spiritual and financial duties. The Church of England has retained in the main the older form of ordination. The deacon has only the hands of the bishop laid upon him, and not those of any attendant priests also; he cannot consecrate the elements at holy communion or pronounce the absolution or benediction; and he only preaches by special license from the bishop, and not directly by virtue of his office. For this, as well as for holding any benefice or church-preferment, priest's orders are necessary. The office is now regarded very much as simply one of probation before admission to priest's orders. But in ancient times it was not uncommon for a man to remain a deacon for life. The cardinal deacons at Rome sometimes remain such, especially if much occupied with secular business. Thus the late celebrated Cardinal Antonelli always remained a deacon. Before a person can be appointed deacon in the English Church, he must have reached the age of twenty-three, and he usually remains in this office one year at least.
DEACONESES (aneille, ministræ, viduæ, virgines, episcopæ, presbyteræ), female ministers or servants of the church or Christian society in the time of the apostles (Rom. xvi. 1). At a later period, they co-operated with the deacons, showed the women their place in the church assemblies, assisted at the baptism of persons of their own sex, instructed those who were about to be baptised as to the answers they should give to the baptismal questions, arranged the agape or love-feasts, and took care of the sick. In the 3d century it seems to have been also part of their duty to visit all Christian women who were suffering imprisonment, and to be hospitable to such as had come from afar. In very early times they were consecrated to their office by ordination in the same manner as other ecclesiastical or spiritual personages; later, however, they were inducted into their office by prayer without the imposition of hands. Until the 4th century, the deaconesses had to be either maidens or widows who had been only once married, and sixty years of age; but after the Council of Chalcedon the age was fixed at forty. Their assistants were called sub-deaconesses. After the 6th century in the Latin Church, and after the 12th century in the Greek Church, the office of deaconess was discontinued; but the former has retained the name. In convents, for example, the nuns who have the care of the altar are called deaconesses. In the Reformed Churches of the Continent there are deaconesses who nurse the sick and tend the poor. The first deaconesses' house at Kaiserswerth on the Rhine, near Düsseldorf, was founded by Pastor Fliedner in 1836; and now scattered over the Protestant world there are upwards of sixty similar institutions, with fully 6000 sisters. The Church of Scotland adopted the office of deaconess in 1887-88. The Diocesan Deaconess Institution, London, was established in 1861; but Sisterhoods (q.v.) have struck a much deeper root in the Anglican communion. See works by Dean Howson (1886) and Cecilia Robinson (1899).