PALESTINE AND EGYPT - Women Priests

Anastasia

Basilis

Manaris (of Gaza)

Sources: Monumenta Asiae Minoris Antiqua, vol. I – VIII, Manchester 1928 – 1962; Ute E. Eisen, Amsträgerinnen im fruhen Christentum, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1996; Kyriaki Karidoyanes Fitzgerald, Women Deacons in the Orthodox Church, Holy Cross Orthodox Press, Brookline 1998; John Wijngaards, Women Deacons in the Early Church. Historical Texts and Contemporary Debates, Crossroad, New York 2002; Kevin Madigan and Caroloyn Osiek, Ordained Women in the Early Church: A Documentary History, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2005.

PALESTINE

Anastasia (of Palestine)

Source	funerary inscription of the Byzantine period in Wadi Kilt, between Jerusalem and Jericho
Date	Early 6th century
Greek text
Translation	*“Here lies Anastasia deacon, in the month of February 27, in the 11th Indiction (= 11th year in a 15 year cycle).”*

Basilis

Source	inscription on a stone with cross in the middle, near Amisos
Date	6th century
Greek text
Translation	“Basilis deacon, who died the third of March in the fifteenth Indiction** (= 15th year in a 15 year cycle).”**

Manaris (of Gaza)

Literary source	Mark the Deacon, Life of Porphyry, Bishop of Gaza (102)
Date	395 AD
Place of Deacon	Gaza in Palestine
Sample text/quote from source	“Then it happened in those days that the old lady came to her rest and went to the Lord. Then calling the girl, he sent for deacon Manaris, whose name means in Greek Photeine [= light].”

Eneon

Source	fragmentary inscription above the entrance of a burial chamber in the village of Siloam, south of ancient Jerusalem
Date
Image
Greek text
Translation	*“. . .* Tomb of Eneon, daughter of Neoiketes, deaconess in this hospital . . .“**

Maria (of Moab)

Source	inscription from Mahaiy, Moab, in present-day central Jordan
Date	Died 643-644 AD
Greek text
Translation	“Here lies deacon[ess] Maria daughter of Valens who lived thirty-eight years and died in the year 538 [according to the Arabian calendar starting from Trajan’s establishment of the province in 105/106 = 643-44 AD.”

Marthana

Literary source	Egeria, Pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre (23.3)
Date	400-417 AD
Place of Deacon	Jerusalem (?)
Sample text/quote from source	“I found there a very dear friend of mine named Marthana, a holy deaconess (diaconissa) whom I had met in Jerusalem, where she had come to pray, to whose way of life all in the East bore testimony. She was governing (regebat) these monastic cells of apotactites or virgins (apotactitae virginum).”

Severa (of Jerusalem)

Literary source	Evagrius Ponticus, Letters (7.2, 8.2, 19.2, 20)
Date	383-397 AD
Place of Deacon	Jerusalem
Sample text/quote from source	“With regard to the chaste deacon Severa, I praise her intent but cannot accept the deed.”

St. Syncletica (of Alexandria)

Literary source	Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, vol. X and XI, ed. J. Huemer, Vienna 1885, pp. 9-10.
Date	Died about 350 AD
Place of Deacon	Alexandria
Sample text/quote from source	“Who would not wish and desire to be pleasing in the excellent judgment of Syncletica, sacred nun and deacon, who brought the dignity of her noble blood in such a way to glory through her humility that she deserved to be joined to the Senate of our heavenly homeland? (Her body) a worthy temple for the Lord to live in, brought under control by fasting, refreshed by prayer, utterly cleansed by chastity. Thirsting as she was, she drank the Scriptures of ecclesiastical teaching to such an extent that, if she had not lacked the permission of her gender, she could even have taught – although in the members of her female body her soul was masculine.” Caelius Sedulius (5th cent.), Letter to Macedonius

Susanna

Literary source	Acta Sanctorum [= The lives of the saints]
Date	4^th century AD ?
Place of Deacon	Eleutheropolis in Palestine
Sample text/quote from source	“After all this, the thrice-holy bishop took holy Susanna and brought her to Eleutheropolis and put her at the head of a monastery of virgins, also making her a deacon of the holy church.”

Nonna (of Palestine)

Source	inscription from the west side of the Jordan River in the Byzantine province of Palaestina Tertia, the southernmost section of Palestine
Date	“Byzantine period”
Greek text
Translation	“Here was placed the blessed Nonna deacon, the twenty-third of the month of Daisius, in the first Induction.”

Sophia

Source	inscription on a broken stone on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
Date	Probably 4th century
Image
Greek text
Translation	“Here lies the slave and bride of Christ Sophia, deacon, the second Phoebe, who slept in peace the twenty-first of the month of March in the eleventh Indiction . . . the Lord God . . .”

Helladis

Source	An iron coffin from the crypt of a Roman mausoleum at Um Qais (Gadara), now in the museum at Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan. Museum inscription – “Helladis, a female Byzantine deaconess. she was a relatively low rank Christian clergy”.
Date	‘4th or 5th Century’
Greek text	(No text available just yet)
Translation

EGYPT

St Apollonia

City or Province	Alexandria
Date	Martyred in AD 249
Details from biographies	St. Apollonia A holy virgin who suffered martyrdom Alexandria during a local uprising against the Christians previous to the persecution of Decius (end of 248, or beginning of 249). During the festivities commemorative of the first millenary of the Roman Empire, the agitation of the heathen populace rose to a great height, and when one of their poets prophesied a calamity, they committed bloody outrages on the Christians whom the authorities made no effort to protect.
Feast Day in liturgical calendar	February 9

Pentadia (of Egypt)

Literary source	John Chrysostom Letters 94, 104, 185
Date	404-407AD
Place of Deacon	Egypt
Sample text/quote from source	“To Pentadia, deaconess.”

St Domnika

City or Province	Alexandria
Date	Born 4th century
Details from biographies	St. Domnika She lived in Alexandria in the late fourth century. In order to avoid a forced marriage she ran away from home. Patriarch Nektarios of Constantinople ordained her ‘to the priestly rank of the diaconate in Christ’. She set up a religious community of women and was involved in a ministry of teaching, but towards the end of her life she withdrew into a solitary life in the desert
Feast Day in liturgical calendar	January 8

Theodula

Literary source	Life of St. Euphrasia
Date	380-410 AD
Place of Deacon	Egypt
Sample text/quote from source	“One day the deacon Theodula said to the girl kindly: Lady Eupraxia, do you love this monastery and the sisters?”

Yemen

St Elizabeth of Najrân

Click here for more information

Literary source	‘The Martyrs of Najrân: New Documents’, by Shahid Irfan, Subsidia Hagiographica, 49, 1971. The martyrs of Najrân were added to the Roman Martyrology in 16th century and commemorated on October 24th.
Date	First quarter of 6th century
Place of Deacon	Najrân, Yemen
Sample text/quote from source