User:Mbarda1/sandbox

Throughout the Patristic age, women held a variety of positions in Church office and performed ecclesiastical duties. Despite recurrent opposition of women in office by various Councils and Church fathers like Tertullian, women were involved in shaping the hierarchy of Christianity. In the Eastern Church, women were being ordained as deaconesses from the 3rd century to at least the 7th century, from Armenia to Gaul. By the 3rd century, the office of deaconess was well attested by the Didascalia Apostolorum.