The Subdeacon is an ancient order of the Roman Catholic Church. While not as ancient as Bishop, Priest, and Deacon, it shows up in the writing of bishops early on in church history. A letter of Pope Cornilius makes mention of the sub-deacon by the mid-3rd century.[i] This is the earliest known reference to the subdeacon and given that they are referenced around 251 AD, it is safe to presume that they predate that by sometime as they are not mentioned as something new or alien to a bishop who would be reading the letter.
For the next 1721 years the subdeacon would exist in the Roman Church before Pope St. Paul VI suppressed the Order of Subdeacon in 1972 with this Moto Proprio Ministeria quaedam.[ii]There is some debate if the subdeacon still exists in the Latin Church. However, Rome as late as 2018 while acknowledging that they were not cleric’s, did seem to implicitly suggest that the Order of Subdeacon still exists, even if it is outside the modern canonical structure.[iii]
(more…)