subdeacon

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sub·dea·con

(sŭb-dē′kən)
n.
1. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, a cleric ranking just below a deacon.
2. In the traditional rite of the Roman Catholic Church, a cleric who acts as assistant to the deacon at High Mass and normally reads the Epistle at the Eucharist.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

subdeacon

(ˌsʌbˈdiːkən)
n
1. (Roman Catholic Church) a cleric who assists at High Mass
2. (Roman Catholic Church) (formerly) a person ordained to the lowest of the major orders
subdeaconate n
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

sub•dea•con

(sʌbˈdi kən, ˈsʌbˌdi-)

n.
a member of the clerical order next below that of deacon.
[1275–1325; Middle English subdecon, -dekene < Late Latin subdiāconus. See sub-, deacon]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun 1. subdeacon - a clergyman an order below deacon; one of the Holy Orders in the unreformed western Christian church and the eastern Catholic Churches but now suppressed in the Roman Catholic Church
clergyman, man of the cloth, reverend - a member of the clergy and a spiritual leader of the Christian Church
Holy Order, Order - (usually plural) the status or rank or office of a Christian clergyman in an ecclesiastical hierarchy; "theologians still disagree over whether `bishop' should or should not be a separate Order"
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
References in periodicals archive ?
That prospect may now be a giant step closer to reality, since the Patriarch of Alexandria, who presides over the entire Orthodox church in Africa, followed up on his 2016 decision to reintroduce women deacons and in February appointed six nuns to be subdeacons within the church.
Orthodox church reintroduces women deacons
(18) Margot Fassler argues persuasively that the young subdeacons of the cathedral school composed a play featuring a youthful protagonist as part of a deliberate effort to reform the carnivalesque excesses and inversions associated with the season's feast of fools:
The twelfth-century Story of Daniel for Performance by Hilarius: an introduction, translation, and commentary
BAR contains formularies for the ordinations of bishops, presbyters, deacons, deaconesses, and subdeacons, along with the prayers for the setting aside of readers and hegumens, the ordained superiors of monastic communities.
Primacy, synodality, and collegiality in orthodoxy: a liturgical model
A literal interpretation of this clause underlay the liturgical innovations for the Circumcision, the special feast of the subdeacons, as it did for the choirboys on their feast of the Holy Innocents.
Max Harris. Sacred Folly: A New History of the Feast of Fools
archbishops and bishops, deacons and subdeacons, patricians, praetors,
The legal legacy of Pope Gregory I: in life and in letters
36), marriage for subdeacons, deacons, priests, and those under solemn vows (dd.
Sex and marriage in the sentences of Peter Lombard
That is the reason the Dominus vobiscum was even at an early age restricted to those endowed with major orders, bishops, priests and deacons, and not given to subdeacons, who were numbered among the higher orders only since the 13th century."
'And with your spirit': the sacramental implications of the restored response
Others argue they belonged to a fourth, minor order ranked between deacons and subdeacons. Still others argue that the titles deacon and deaconess are interchangeable and neither prove nor disprove anything about these women's status in the early church.
The case for Deacon Pam: while the Catholic Church has ruled out the ordination of women priests, there is no such categorical ruling against women deacons
After describing the feast of the Circumcision (the octave after Christmas), he then comments on "the feast of subdeacons" or "On the feast of fools":
Liturgists and dance in the twelfth century: the witness of John Beleth and Sicard of Cremona
While serving as a rector of theology in Paris, Beleth describes a sequence of rituals that culminated during the month of December, when lower members of the clergy, including deacons, priests, subdeacons, choristers, and massserves, were allowed to take over the Church and preside over all manner of buffoonery:
The Liberties of December and Gonzalo De Berceo's miracle of St. Ildefonsus
It contains sections describing the bishop, presbyters, deacons, confessors, widows, lectors, virgins, subdeacons, healers, neophyte Christians, and artisans and craftsmen.
Matthew 8-20: a Commentary
The most gifted, talented seminary graduates, those most dedicated to the church, should be admitted to theological academies (and not solely the offspring of archpriests or episcopal subdeacons who are offered a place "by acquaintance").
Orthodox Theology on the Threshold of the 21st Century

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