Women's Ordination in the Catholic Church

John O'Brien

• Publisher: Cascade Books
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781725268043, 9781725268036
• eBook ISBN: 9781725268050
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

Women's Ordination in the Catholic Church argues that women can be validly ordained to ministerial office. O'Brien shows that claims by Roman dicasteries for an unbroken chain of authoritative tradition on the non-ordainability of women--a novel rather than traditional argument--are not historically supported. In the primitive Church, with the offices of deacon, presbyter, and bishop in process of development, women exercised ministries later understood as pertaining to those offices. The sub-apostolic period downplayed women's ministry for reasons of cultural adaptation, not because it was thought that fidelity to Christ required it. Furthermore, extensive epigraphical evidence, from a wide geographical area, references women deacons and presbyters during the first millennium. Restrictive developments in the concept of ordination from the twelfth century onwards do not negate how, before that, women were validly ordained according to contemporary ecclesial understanding. Repeated canonical prohibitions on ordaining women show both that women were being ordained and how those bans were very selectively implemented. These canons were a cultural practice in search of a theology, and the subsequent theological justifications for restricting ordination to men appealed to supposed female inferiority against the background of priesthood as eminence rather than service. O'Brien shows that the assertion of women's non-ordainability is a matter of canon law rather than doctrine. As such, that law can be reformed.

chapter 4

Ordained Women in the First Millennium

There is a veritably massive amount of literary and epigraphic evidence of ordained women in the Catholic Church during the first millennium, especially during its first five centuries. This is especially the case in relation to women deacons, but the literary and epigraphic evidence also points to women presbyters and, in some cases, to women exercising some form of the ministry of episcopos.

EPIGRAPHIC EVIDENCE OF WOMEN DEACONS

From an inscription in Palestine near the Mount of Olives, we learn of deacon Sophia. After a cross, it reads: “here lies the servant and bride of Christ, Sophia, deacon, the second Phoebe, who fell asleep in peace on 25 March . . . .” Description of bishops, presbyters, and deacons as “servant of Christ” is a motif widely found from the third century onwards. Sophia is called diakonos and “second Phoebe.”106

The ministry of other women deacons is epigraphically attested in the Jerusalem area. For one, the inscription reads: “Here lies Maria, deacon, the daughter of Valens, who lived 38 years and died in 548.” “Deacon” is abbreviated to dk so diakonos and diakonissa are equally possible readings. Contrary to the Council of Chalcedon (451), which set forty as the lowest age for ordination (cheirotoneisthai) of deaconesses, she was clearly younger. The age of forty had been set to ensure that deaconesses would not re-marry after widowhood, a prohibition most likely pointing to ordained office (1 Tim 3:12; 5:9). The inscription indicates that this lower age-limit for women deacons could not always be sustained.

The many Christian inscriptions in Asia Minor are often signalled by a cross or a pair of peacocks, a symbol of immortality and renewal. In one, at Krykos in Cilicia, we read: “Grave chamber of the diak . . . Timothea of the ‘monastery?’ of . . .” Once again, it is uncertain if the title is διάκονος or διακόνισσα. It seems likely from what remains of the inscription that Timothea was a monastic deaconess. In the travelogue of a Western nun called Egeria, there is mention of a διακόνισσα named Marthana. Other Korykos inscriptions refer to women deacons, including a Maria, a Theodora, a Theophilia, and a Charitina.

At Archlais in Cappadocia, an inscription reads: “Here lies Maria of pious and blessed memory who according to the word of the Apostle, raised children, sheltered guests, washed the feet of the saints and shared her bread with the needy . . . .” Of significance is how three lines of this inscription quote 1 Timothy 5:10, even if stylistically, thus implicitly arguing the historical reality of women’s diaconal ordination from 1 Timothy, as we have sought to do in the previous chapter. That text, as does this inscription, refers to the qualifications for office holders in the Church, clearly implying that Maria too held office.

At Iconium in Lycaonia we read of a deaconess Basilissa: “The first man of the village, Quintus son of Heraclius, with his wife Matrona and his children Anicetus and Catilla, all four lie in this grave. The wife of Anicetus, the deacon [the word is spelt deiakonos], Basilissa has erected this pleasant tomb together with her only son Numitorius who is still an immature child.” The text suggests that Basilissa was a young widow, thus providing evidence of married women deacons—unless she became a deacon after her widowhood. Other women holding Church office, attested to in Phrygia, include Strategis, Aurelia Faustina, Matrona, and many more. At Laodicea Combusta in Phrygia, we read of: “Paula, the most blessed deacon [diakonos] of Christ +. She built me the tomb of her dear brother Helladius . . . .” In the same place another inscription attests a woman deacon (διάκ), Masa.

Near Nicomedia in Bithynia, an intriguing but undated inscription reads: “In memory of the deacon [genitive: diakonou] Eugenia, we the poor of Geragathis have restored the coffin we decorated.” It is all but impossible to know who these restorers were. Of note is a letter of Pliny (Ep. X, 96) from around 112 CE, speaking of him torturing two Christian slave women (ancillae) who are called ministers/deacons (quae ministrae dicebantur) to obtain information about Christian worship. While open to debate, for some that text provides early witness to women deacons. Women deacons in Asia Minor were called both diakonos and diakonissa. Their ministerial activities are not mentioned on the inscriptions. Some were mothers and wives and some monastic deacons. Several of a very extensive number of surviving inscriptions were dedicated by women.

Similarly, abundant inscriptions are found in Greece. An inscription to a clergy family found at Melos in Cyclades reads: “The presbyters worthy in every memory, Asclepis and Elpizon and Asclepiodotos and the deacon [(d)iakonos] Agalliasis . . . .” It is not introduced by the third-century formula “in Christ,” indicating probable fourth-century provenance.

INSTALLED BY THE BISHOP

At Patras in Achaia, an inscription reads: “The best beloved of God, the deacon [diakonos] Agrippiane, has laid this mosaic in order to fulfill her vow.” There is another surviving fourth-century votive inscription from Macedonia for a deacon, Matrona. A caption at Delphi reads: “The most pious deaconess [the word is used three times] Athanasia, . . . who was installed as deaconess by the most holy bishop Pantamiano[;] . . . if anyone dares to open this tomb where the deaconess has been buried, may he suffer the fate of Judas . . . .” This inscription is noteworthy because it explicitly mentions the installation (katastathisa) of a deaconess by a bishop. In the same area, there is an inscription to another deaconess, Neikagore.

Bonitsa in Macedonia furnishes an inscription that reads: “Here Theoprepia the slave of the Lord, eternal virgin and deacon [diak] of Christ, who has finished an ascetic life . . . .” Theoprepia is shown to hold office in the Church not only by the designation “deacon” but by being called “slave of the Lord,” a quasi-technical term for an ordained minister. At Philippi in Macedonia, we find the inscription: “The graves belong to the deacon Posidonia and to Panchareia, the least of the canons.” That bears witness to two officeholders, though one cannot determine with certainty the meaning of “canon.” Basil of Caesarea addressed two letters to “canons,” one to a canon called Theodora. The term probably implies an ascetic and may be the forerunner of the medieval title “Canoness.” The former may have had responsibility for burials. Another inscription at Philip...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Orientations
• Beginnings
• Women’s Ministry in the New Testament
• Ordained Women in the First Millennium
• Women’s Ordination in the Middle Ages
• New Answers to a New Question
• A Theology Whose Time Has Come
• Select Bibliography