Subdeacon
Subdeacon is a minor order of ministry for men in various branches of Christianity. The subdeacon has a specific liturgical role and is placed below the deacon and above the acolyte in the order of precedence.
Subdeacons in the Eastern Orthodox Church
A subdeacon, also called hypodeacon, is the highest of the minor orders of clergy in the Eastern Orthodox Church. This order is higher than the reader and lower than the deacon.
Canonical discipline
Like the reader, the clerical street-dress of the subdeacon is the cassock, which is usually black but only need be so if he is a monk. This is symbolic of his suppression of his own tastes, will, and desires, and his canonical obedience to God, his bishop, and the liturgical and canonical norms of the Church. As a concession in countries where Eastern Orthodoxy is little known, many only wear the cassock when attending liturgies or when moving about the faithful on church business. In some jurisdictions in the United States, a clergy-shirt will sometimes be worn instead of a cassock, and is commonly worn buttoned but with no collar or collar-tab to indicate a rank lower than deacon.
There is a special liturgy for the tonsuring of a subdeacon, although in contemporary practice an
A custom in some jurisdictions is that former seminarians who have discerned not to have a calling to the priesthood or diaconate, are, if they wish (and provided that they are married, or being unmarried, do not intend to marry), ordained subdeacons as a sign of investment, faith, and to award their service.
Function, vesture, and ordination
Byzantine Rite
In the
The clerical street-wear of a subdeacon is the inner-cassock (podryasnik) and outer cassock (ryasa). Many wear the cassock only when present among the church community or attending to church business.
For liturgies, the subdeacon is vested in a sticharion with an orarion tied around his waist, up over his shoulders (forming a cross in back), and with the ends crossed over, and tucked under the section around the waist.[3] This distinguishes them from acolytes in those jurisdictions where acolytes are ordained and blessed to wear the orarion, as the latter do not wear the orarion crossed in front but simply hanging straight down.
The ordination to the subdiaconate is performed outside of the altar and in a context other than the Divine Liturgy. The reader who is to be tonsured subdeacon is presented to the bishop by two other subdeacons, who first lead him to the nave. There he faces east and makes a prostration before turning to make three prostrations towards the bishop, moving further west after each one. He is then led to stand immediately before the bishop. The subdeacons present the orarion to the bishop, who blesses it. The ordinand then kisses the orarion and the bishop's hand, and the subdeacons vest the ordinand in the orarion.
The bishop blesses the ordinand three times with the sign of the Cross upon his head, then lays his right hand upon the ordinand's head and prays the prayer of ordination. The new subdeacon kisses the bishop's right hand and makes a prostration before the bishop, after which the more senior subdeacons drape a towel over his shoulders and present him with a ewer and basin, with which he washes the bishop's hands after the usual manner. The bishop dries his hands and the three subdeacons receive the bishop's blessing and kiss his hands.
The senior subdeacons return to the altar while the new subdeacon, still holding the ewer and basin, stands on the soleas, facing the icon of the Mother of God and saying particular prayers quietly. The Sixth Hour is completed and the Divine Liturgy continues as usual. The subdeacon remains on the soleas until the Cherubikon, when he and two senior subdeacons wash the bishop's hands as usual.
At the Great Entrance, the new subdeacon joins on the very end of the procession, carrying the ewer and basin and, after the commemorations, takes the blessed water to the people so that they may bless themselves with it.
On occasions when there is a shortage of altar servers, the newly ordained subdeacon may be required to serve at the Liturgy, in which case the taking of the blessed water to the people may be omitted, and he may be asked not to stay on the soleas but rather to assist with serving duties in the altar and at the entrances.[4][5][6]
The Western Rites
In the Western Rite, the subdeacon's role is essentially as an assistant to the deacon in performing his diaconal role. This perhaps more clearly reflects the origins of the subdiaconate than in the Byzantine Rite, where, rather than the subdeacon assisting the deacon, many formerly diaconal functions have, over time, come to be seen as properly belonging to the subdeacon in his own right. In the Western Rite, the subdeacon is charged with reading the epistle at a High Mass (the most solemn and elaborate form of the western Eucharist) – a role that may be performed by a priest or reader at a simpler form of the mass, and with assisting the deacon with the preparation of the oblations and with carrying them to the altar, (in those western rites that retain the Offertory Procession). He also assists the deacon during the reading of the Gospel by carrying the Gospel book to and from (depending on the rite used) the place of proclamation, and by acting as a support for the book while the Gospel is read. At pontifical liturgies (at which a pontiff or bishop is present and presiding), the subdeacon also assists the deacon in the vesting of the bishop.
The usual street-wear of the subdeacon is the cassock. (There is no distinction between an inner and outer cassock in the Western Rite, and all clergy wear one cassock only).
During liturgies, the subdeacon vests in an alb, over which he wears the maniple, the cincture, and the tunicle. Unlike his brother subdeacons in the Byzantine Rite who wear the orarion, the subdeacon does not wear its western equivalent - the stole - which is reserved for deacons, priests, and bishops.
Subdeacons in the Catholic Church
Latin Church
Prior to the reform instituted by Pope Paul VI with his motu proprio Ministeria quaedam of 15 August 1972, the subdiaconate was regarded as the lowest of the major orders of the Latin Church. He decreed that "the major order of subdiaconate no longer exists in the Latin Church" and that the functions previously assigned to the subdeacon are now entrusted to the acolyte and the lector; he also decreed that, where the local episcopal conference so desired, the acolyte could be called a subdeacon.[7]
The traditional rites of ordination to the subdiaconate and the minor orders (those of acolyte,
As men in major orders, subdeacons, like deacons, were styled in English-speaking countries as "The Rev. Mr." In French the title of Abbé was often given to them and even to those in minor orders, as in the case of Franz Liszt.
The subdiaconate was generally considered a major order in the Latin church from the late 12th century.
The other major orders were those of the
Today the Latin Church, as stated in the Code of Canon Law in force since 1983 ("The orders are the episcopate, the presbyterate, and the diaconate"),[10] recognizes only three orders, those of bishop, priest (presbyter) and deacon, also referred to as "sacred orders" or "holy orders".[11][12] In line with Pope Paul VI's Ministeria quaedam, what were called minor orders are now called ministries.[13]
In the Solemn High Mass form of Tridentine Mass and the Ordinariate Mass, the duties of a subdeacon included those of crucifer, singing the Epistle, holding the Book of Gospels while the deacon sings the Gospel, carrying it back to the celebrant afterwards and assisting the priest or deacon in setting the altar. Although the subdeacons were allowed to carry out numerous functions specific to the diaconate, however they were always precluded from distributing Communion, in the form of both bread and wine.[14] The subdeacon's specific vestment is the tunicle, in practice almost indistinguishable in form from the deacon's dalmatic (the tunicle is sometimes somewhat longer than the dalmatic or had slightly less elaborate decoration, but this is often unnoticeable by the casual church-goer). Unlike deacon and priest, he never wears a stole. In the former Mass rites he wore a maniple and also wore a humeral veil while holding the paten from the Offertory to the Our Father; and, if the chalice and paten with host are not already on the altar, he also used the humeral veil when bringing these to the altar at the Offertory. In practice, the roles of deacon and subdeacon in Solemn High Mass were generally performed by men already ordained as priests, wearing the subdiaconal or diaconal vestments. The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter uses instituted acolytes in the role of subdeacon, but also uses men ordained as priests or deacons for the subdiaconal role.
Eastern Catholic Churches
In the Eastern Catholic Churches which use the Byzantine Rite, the order of subdeacon is the highest of the minor orders and its functions are equivalent to those of Orthodox subdeacons.[citation needed]
Subdeacons in the Anglican Church
Whilst the office of subdeacon was not included in the Orders of Clergy when the Church of England was established during the 16th century, certain churches and communities in the
References
- Ecumenical Council
- ^ Canon 15 of the 6th Ecumenical Council
- ^ "SVS: 2004 Feast of Three Hierarchs' Chapel / DSC_0061.JPG". Archived from the original on 2006-09-12. Retrieved 2006-01-12.
- ^ The Great Book of Needs, Volume II, (St Tikhon's Seminary Press MM)
- ^ A Subdeacon's Manual (Archdeacon Kirill Sokolov MMIV)
- ^ The Hierarchical Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom (New Sarov Press, MCMXCV)
- ^ Pope Paul VI, Ministeria quaedam
- ^ The 1917 edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia
- ^ The Catechism of the Council of Trent. 1833. p. 288.
- ^ Code of Canon Law, canon 1009 §1
- ^ Concordance of use of the term "orders" in the Code of Canon Law
- ^ Catechism of the Catholic Church, The Three Degrees of the Sacrament of Holy Orders
- ^ Ministeria quaedam, II
- ^ Ex Quo Primum, n. 42, citing the Canon of Laodicea XXV