That the order of Deaconess existed in the Christian church, even in apostolic days, is evident from : 'I commend unto you Phebe, our sister, which is a servant (a deaconess) of the church which is at Cenchrea.' The earliest Fathers of the church, moreover, speak of the same order of persons.
Certain qualifications were necessary in those who were taken into this order.
1. It was necessary that she should be a widow.
2. No widow, unless she had borne children, could become a deaconess. This rule arose out of a belief that no person but a mother can possess those sympathizing and tender feelings which ought to animate the deaconess in the discharge of her peculiar duties.
3. The early church was very strict in exacting the rule which prohibits the election of any to be deaconesses who had been twice married, though lawfully, and successively to two husbands, one after the other.
It is a disputed point with some learned men whether deaconesses were ordained by imposition of hands. However, the fifteenth Can. of the Council of Chalcedon expressly declares that deaconesses were so ordained, and this is fully confirmed by the author of the Apost. Constitutions, viii. 19. Still, deaconesses were not consecrated to any priestly function. Some heretics, indeed, allowed women to teach, exorcise, and to administer baptism; but all this he sharply rebukes as being contrary to the apostolic rule.
5. One of the peculiar duties of the deaconesses was to assist at the baptism of women.
6. Another duty the deaconesses had to perform was to instruct and prepare the catechumens for baptism.
7. In times of danger and persecution it was the duty of the deaconesses to visit the martyrs in prison, because they could more easily gain access to them, and with less suspicion and hazard than the deacons.
8. The deaconesses stood at the entrance of the church in order to direct the women as to the place each one should occupy during divine service.
How long this order continued in the Christian church is not quite certain. It was not however discontinued everywhere at once, and it was not till the tenth century that it was wholly abrogated.
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John Kitto was an English biblical scholar of Cornish descent.Born in Plymouth, John Kitto was a sickly child, son of a Cornish stonemason. The drunkenness of his father and the poverty of his family meant that much of his childhood was spent in the workhouse. He had no more than three years of erratic and interrupted education. At the age of twelve John Kitto fell on his head from a rooftop, and became totally and permanently deaf. As a young man he suffered further tragedies, disappointments and much loneliness. His height was 4 ft 8 in, and his accident left him with an impaired sense of balance. He found consolation in browsing at bookstalls and reading any books that came his way.
From these hardships he was rescued by friends who became aware of his mental abilities and encouraged him to write topical articles for local newspapers, arranging eventually for him to work as an assistant in a local library. Here he continued to educate himself.
One of his benefactors was the Exeter dentist Anthony Norris Groves, who in 1824 offered him employment as a dental assistant. Living with the Groves family, Kitto was profoundly influenced by the practical Christian faith of his employer. In 1829 he accompanied Groves on his pioneering mission to Baghdad and served as tutor to Groves's two sons. In 1833 Kitto returned to England via Constantinople, accompanied by another member of the Groves mission, Francis William Newman. Shortly afterwards he married, and in due course had several children.
A London publisher asked Kitto to write up his travel journals for a series of articles in the Penny Magazine, a publication read at that time by a million people in Britain, reprinted in America and translated into French, German and Dutch. Other writing projects followed as readers enquired about his experiences in the East amidst people living in circumstances closely resembling those of Bible times.
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