This century brought great wealth to upper-class families, especially in the Byzantine part of the Roman Empire which was ruled from Constantinople. Many Hellenist women lived in luxury. People, belonging to all classes of society, offered themselves to the Church for instruction and baptism.

At baptism, catechumens were stripped naked and anointed from head to toe. Where adult women were concerned, it was obvious that a woman deacon would be more appropriate for this ministry than a male deacon or priest. That is why almost every parish had an ordained woman deacon.

In his book the Spiritual Meadow 6th-century Joannes Moschus tells the amusing story of a priest who preferred to anoint the women catechumens himself. It reveals the attitudes of the time, and testifies to the ministry of women deacons.

The central Byzantine emperor during this century was Justinian who reigned for almost 40 years (527-565). In his famous Justinian Code of Law he also laid down the organization of the Church. Various provisions seek to regulate the behaviour of women deacons.

"Whatever we have decreed about the venerable [male] clerics, we want also to apply to the God-pleasing deaconesses . . . In age they should neither be young, nor in their flowering which could easily lead to transgressions, but from those who have passed their middle age and who are, in harmony with divine rules more that 50 years old. Only then they merit sacred ordination (Novella 6, 6, § 1-2).

from painting by Alma-Tadema (1836-1912)