16:1 Phebe…who is in the ministry of the church: is literally rendered, who is also a Deaconess of the church. (Bishop John McEvilly) DEACONESS, such women were called deaconesses [attendants], who served the church in those offices, in which the deacons could not with propriety exercise themselves; such as keeping the doors of that part of the church where the women sat; for they were not seated with the men, but had separate places in the church. They assisted the women to undress and dress at baptism, privately instructed those of their own sex, and visited others imprisoned for the faith. They were of mature and advanced age when chosen; of good manners and reputation. They were in the primitive times appointed to this office, with the imposition of hands. Council. Laodic. cap. xi. St. Paul speaks of Phoebe, deaconess of the church at the port of Cenchrea, the eastern haven of Corinth, Rom. Xvl 1.
These persons appear to be the same as those whom Pliny in his famous letter to Trajan (Epist. 97.), styles “Ancillis, qua Ministry dicebantur”—female attendants called assistants, ministers, or servants. It appears, then, that these were customary officers throughout the churches; and when the fury of persecution fell on Christians, these were among the first to suffer: the most cruel of tortures were inflicted on them, not sparing even extreme old age. Vide Suicer, Thesaurus, Deaconess; Lardner, Test. vol. ii. p. 42. Is it not remarkable that this office, which is so well adapted to the matronly character of the female sex, should be wholly excluded from our list of assistants in the church? This female church-officer continued long to be useful and popular among the faithful; but is gradually more rarely adverted to by ecclesiastical writers; and ceases to be mentioned in connection with church-services, after A. D. 1000. Deaconesses are most particularly mentioned by St. Epiphanius (Hares. Ixxix.), who says, " There are also deaconesses in the church: but this office was not introduced as a priestly function, nor has it any interference with priestly administrations; but it was instituted for the purpose of preserving a due regard to the modesty of the female sex; especially at the time of baptismal washing, and while the person of the woman is naked; that she may not be seen by the men performing the sacred service, but by her only who, by order of the priest, had charge of the woman during the time that her person was naked." It is usually understood that at first, deaconesses were widows, who had lived with one husband only; not less than sixty years of age: which, by the fifteenth canon of the council of Chalcedon, was reduced to forty years. In later times they wore a distinguishing dress. They visited women, in the name of the church, when sick, or in poverty: they also, it is supposed, visited prisoners, suffering as Christians. The Apostle Paul says, that Phoebe had been his patroness, as well as of many others, Rom. xvi. 2. This implies a dignity which is seldom considered: and it shows, at least, that great respectability of station in life was the reverse of inconsistent with the office of deaconess. Afterwards (Ignatius, Epist. Smyr. ad. fin.) we read of “virgins who were called widows,” that is, deaconesses: and it should seem that maiden ladies of a certain age were invested in this office. We have the sepulchral inscription of “Daciana, a deaconess, who lived forty-five years and three months; in the time when F. Palmatus was consul: she was sister to Victorinus the presbyter; and had Instructed (in religion) many of her sex.” Muratori. p. 1537. Considering that in the East men had scarcely any access to the younger women at home, there can be little doubt, but what they received the major part of their religious instruction from the deaconesses; and so much of this as was previous to baptism, became a very convenient preparation for that rite. The practice of anointing after baptism is extremely ancient, and was, in a manner, universal. In this the deaconess performed the principal part; for the presbyter anointed the woman’s head only. (Augustin Calmet Bible Dictionary)
run in the opposite direction at the sugestion of such a thing!)