f active service, and having won the respect
and protection of the Church are supported in old age from a fund set
apart for that purpose. In the _Apostolic Constitutions_ the order of
deaconesses stands forth independently, its many official activities are
mentioned, and the importance of its service emphasized.

By combining the different references we obtain a tolerably clear
picture of the deaconess and her duties. She must be a "pure virgin," or
"a widow once married, faithful, and worthy" (Book vi, chap. xvii). Her
special duties were as follows:

(a.) She was a door-keeper at the women's entrance to the church. This
was an ancient service, dating back to the oldest times.[7] Ignatius
died a martyr's death not long after the beginning of the second
century, and in a letter which bears his name is written, "I greet the
doorkeepers of the holy doors, the deaconesses who are in the Lord."

This guardianship was maintained not only in times of persecution, but
as a matter of order and discipline in times of peace.

(b.) She showed women their places in the congregation, being especially
bound to look after the poor and strangers, giving each due attention.

(c.) She instructed the female catechumens. She also visited the
women's apartments, where male deacons could not enter, carried messages
to the bishops, and acted as a missionary. Teaching was an important
part of the duties of the early deaconesses.

(d.) The deaconess had certain duties in connection with the baptism of
women that were considered important and indispensable.

(e.) In times of persecution she visited those who were oppressed or in
prison, and ministered to their bodily and spiritual needs. She seems to
have been less endangered in performing these acts than were men. Lucian
alludes to the service of these devoted women in prisons. She also cared
for the sick and sorrowing, being especially "zealous to serve other
women."

(f.) On occasion she was a mediator when there was strife in families,
or among friends. Both to deacons and deaconesses "pertain messages,
journeys to foreign parts, ministrations, services." The
ever-to-be-remembered journey of Phebe to Rome, when a whole system of
theology was committed to her keeping, was quite within the sphere of
her duties. It has also been said that to them was given the
safe-keeping of the holy books in periods of persecution. The
enumeration of these principal duties implying so many lesser det