Diaconia

DIACONIA. - A charitable assistance institution, very well known in the East and West from the 4th to the 9th century; in Rome the churches attached to the diaconiae later became, in the late Middle Ages, parishes and cardinalitial diaconiae.

I. ETYMOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SENSE OF THE WORD

From the classical διώχονος, διώχονεῖν, servant, to serve, in New Testament and Christian Greek it came to mean: a) alms, work of charity (Act. 6, 1; 11, 29; II Cor. 8, 4; 9, 1. 12. 13; Acta Pauli et Theclae, 41; Didascalia Apost., III, VIII, 2; X [XIII], 6; IV, VII, 1; Cassian, Collatio XVIII, VII, 8; whence διώχονεῖν to place oneself at the service of the needy: Rom. 15, 25; I Cor. 16, 15); b) the complex of works of assistance (Hermas, Pastor, similit. I, 9; IX, 26, 2; 27, 2); c) the order of the diaconate (Didascalia, III, XIII [XIX], 2; Constitutiones Ap., VIII, X, 9; XIII, 4; XVIII, 2-3); d) the office of the deaconess (ibid., XIX, 2; Justinian, Novellae, VI, 6); e) any monastic office to which a monk was called annually by the hegumen or abbot or by the elders (Cyril of Scythopolis, Vita s. Johannis, 6, 7, in Acta SS. Mali, III, Venice 1738, p. 780), hence the word διώχονητῆς, which means servant of a monastery (Apophthegmata Patrum: PG 65, 100, 104, 393; John Moschus, Pratum, 138: PG 87, 3, 3001), or simply a monk placed at the head of an office (John Moschus, Pratum, 16, 39, 92: PG 87, 3, 2864, 2889, 2949); f) finally, from the 4th century onward, a special institution of charitable assistance.

While the pre-Jeromian versions and the Vulgate translate διώχονία with the word "ministerium," without distinguishing the various acceptations, Western authors from the 4th century onward mostly limited themselves to its transliteration: "d." with its derivative "diaconitae." In the late Middle Ages in Rome, as in Naples, instead of d. the word "diaconatus" was used with the same meaning (cf. Ordo of Cencio Camerario, § 11 [end of the 12th century], ed. L. Duchesne, in Le Liber Censum de l'Eglise romaine, I, Paris 1889-1910, p. 293; Neapolitan inscription of 1084, cited by D. Mallardo, in Riv. di scienze e lettere, new series, 8 [1937], p. 164).

II. ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE D. AS A WORK OF ASSISTANCE: EGYPT, PALESTINE, CONSTANTINOPLE, ITALY

From the very origins of the Church, assistance to the poor was one of the principal tasks of the Christian communities, which the deacons attended to as their proper office. This daily assistance, often called by the generic word d., took the most varied forms and had a character quite different from that of the public distributions of the State (frumentatio, panis gradilis etc.: cf. G. Cardinali, Frumentatio, in Diz. ep. di antichità Romana di E. Ruggiero, III, pp. 225-315). With the second half of the 4th century the generic term d. takes on a well-determined meaning and is used to indicate a particular institution whose purpose was to distribute aid in kind to the indigent.

1. Egypt

Cassian was the first to define its meaning, giving this name to the almonry of the Egyptian monastery of Diolco, supplied by pious faithful and presided over by a virtuous monk elected by the elders (Collat., XXI, 1, 2-3; II, 1; VIII, 1; IX, 7). This monk, called in the Apophthegmata Patrum: ὁ τῆς διακονίας, the one in charge of the d. (PG 65, 184, 237), will be called in the papyri διακονητής.

On the basis of the testimonies known until now, it was believed that the d. had remained a purely monastic institution in its first centuries of life. Unexpectedly an Egyptian papyrus of ca. the 5th century, containing an interesting account of receipts for a d., has revealed the existence of a diocesan d. in the nome Apollonopolites Heptahomias (cf. A. P. Frutaz, Una d. diocesana in Egitto, in Miscellanea liturgica in honorem L. C. Mohlberg, II, Rome 1950, pp. 71-74).

The document just mentioned and the Egyptian monastic papyri of the 6th century, brought fully to light by H.-I. Marrou, present the d. in a state of perfect organization; they are no longer the modest almonries of a monastery, as in the 4th century, but are autonomous, capable of providing for large charitable distributions. In fact the d. possess real estate; receive donations "inter vivos"; make commercial exchanges of oil and wine; they lease land, have their own cells for offering hospitality, even to men, when the monastery is of strictest enclosure; they even receive certain contributions in grain owed to the state annona, and collect fixed contributions in money or in kind. The various d. must not be considered as peripheral seats of an institution with centralized administration, but each d. lives and administers itself independently.

The direction of the d. is entrusted to a monk, when it is a monastic d., the διακονητής, assisted by other monks διακονηταί and sometimes also by pious laymen, such as that Flavius Dioscorus, curator "of the juridical person of the holy d." of the monastery founded by Apa Apollo, in Aphrodite.

The Egyptian d. recorded to date are the following: the diocesan d. of the nome Apollonopolites Heptahomias (ca. 5th century); the monastic d.: of Diolco (mid-4th century); of Pharaus in the Thebaid (522); of the Metanoia near Canopus (527-30, 585; it receives the annona [ἐμβολή] of Aphrodite); of Psinabla, of the Oasites, of Apa Apollo, of St. Michael the Archangel (recorded by Bertolini) and of another monastery, all of Aphrodite, a monastic city par excellence (527-30, 552, 573-74, 585), the presbyteral d. of Thebes (8th century?), known through inscriptions engraved on pieces of liturgical silverware: ἐκ διακονίας Πραιποσίτου πρεσβυτέρου.

2. Palestine

Outside Egypt, at Gerasa the excavations of the Anglo-American mission of the years 1928-30 (cf. J. W. Crowfoot, Churches at Jerash. A preliminary report of the joint Yale-British School expeditions to Jerash 1928-30, London 1931, pp. 13-16) brought to light a d. that occupied an ancient public building erected in 150 A.D. Its architectural equipment comprised: a Church for the religious assistance of the indigent, an atrium for gathering them, various rooms for the offices of those in charge of the d. and the storehouses. An inscription in the mosaic pavement of the atrium reveals its date: "By the grace of God the d. was established in the month of Artemisios, indiction 13, in the year 627" of the Palestinian era, that is, in May 565.

3. Constantinople

From one of the leading exponents of the Monophysite party of Constantinople, John of Ephesus, who was writing the third part of his Historia ecclesiastica in 581, we have notice of the existence of several diaconiae "virorum et mulierum" in the capital and in other cities of the Byzantine Empire, many of which were erected by the Monophysite patriarch of Antioch, Paul, in favor of the poor followers of his party. Of the Monophysite diaconiae of Constantinople, one had been founded by the aforesaid Paul and another by the cleric Cometas, attached to the church of S. Maria of Blachernae. The first was directed by a certain Thallus, a notable personage of the capital, who was assisted by clerics and monks. At the time of the drastic enforcement of the edict of Justin II (571) against the Monophysites, Thallus found himself compelled to remove the clerics and monks from the diaconia and to entrust its care to laymen alone. When Thallus died in 577, the direction of the diaconia was given to the silversmith Romanus. The other diaconia had been erected by Cometas in a house he had inherited for that purpose; in this diaconia too a kind of community had formed, which was dispersed in 571 with the exile of its Monophysite founder. However, the surviving friends continued it in another location (cf. John of Ephesus, Historia eccl., III, II, 15-16, version of E. W. Brooks, in Corpus Script. Christ. Orientalium. Scriptores Syri, 3rd series, III, Louvain 1936, pp. 55-56; see also Michael the Syrian, Chronique, X, 7, French trans. by J.-B. Chabot, III, Paris 1906, pp. 305-306). These were, as is evident, diaconiae of private origin, a kind of hospice, in which "omne ministerium pauperum perficiebatur" with particular regard for the poor sick abandoned in the streets, who were among other things "washed."

4. Italy (Pesaro, Naples, Rome)

In the West, the oldest diaconia is that of Pesaro, which presents itself as a moral body on the model of the Egyptian diaconiae, capable of commercial transactions. Its existence is attested by a letter of St. Gregory the Great of February 595 (cf. Registrum, V, 25, ed. L. M. Hartmann, in MGH, Epistulae, I, II, Berlin 1891, p. 306). The testament of St. Remigius of Reims (d. ca. 533) contains a mention of diaconiae, but the passage relating to them is an interpolation of the 11th century (cf. Vita Remigii ep. Rem. auctore Hincmaro, ed. by B. Krusch in MGH, Scriptores rerum Meroving., III, Hannover 1896, pp. 336, 341, 343). In two other letters St. Gregory the Great uses the word diaconia (cf. Registrum, X, 8; XI, 17, ed. cit., II, Berlin 1893-99, pp. 242, 278), but in both cases the word diaconia is rather a synonym for charitable distribution than for a diaconia properly so called. In the first, of March 600, the Pope reproaches John, praetorian prefect of Italy, for having diverted public revenues in grain or money that were to be distributed to the poor, "annonas et consuetudines diaconiae quae Neapolim exhibetur"; in the second, of December 600, he places a certain John "religiosus," without specifying the place (therefore not at Ravenna, as is usually repeated, where up to now no document has confirmed the existence of a diaconia), over the "mensis pauperum et exhibendae diaconiae." To prove the existence of true and proper diaconiae in Rome, nothing avails to adduce the testimony of John the Deacon, who wrote between 873 and 875, since in his Vita of St. Gregory (II, 24, 51: PL 75, 97, 109) he seems to depend simply on the third letter mentioned above, whose text he gives, rather than on the great paper register, in which the Pontiff kept a record of his largesses, still extant in his time. At Rome and at Naples no testimony speaks with certainty of a diaconia as a charitable work in its own right before the second half of the 7th century. And it is evident that their institution was due to Eastern influences.

At Naples, the first true diaconia is that of S. Gennaro, annexed to the basilica of the same name "intus civitatem," founded by Bishop Agnello (ca. 675-96), who assigned to the diaconia a suitable annual endowment of wheat and wine from the revenues of the episcopal mensa; at Christmas and Easter the diaconia furthermore received a thousand siliquae of soap "pro labandis curis," that is, for bathing the poor. The diaconia also had at its disposal a certain number of cells in which to lodge the "fratres Christi," that is, the poor (cf. Gesta Episcoporum Neapolit., 31, ed. G. Waitz, in MGH, Scriptores rerum Langobardicarum, Hannover 1878, p. 418). From the first half of the 8th century there is information about the diaconia of S. Andrea ad Nidum (text of the epitaph of a certain Theodimus, regional subdeacon and rector of the Holy See, dispensator [administrator] of the diaconia) and about the diaconia of Sts. John and Paul (original marble of the epitaph of the consul and duke Theodore, founder of the church and restorer of the diaconia annexed to it).

One must probably discern a diaconia in the monastery of Sts. Cyricus and Julitta, founded by Duke Anthimus (801-18): "in quo duodecim statuit cellulas, quas hospitibus peregrinisque censuit habiteri, qui ex ipsius ecclesiae alerentur rebus" (Gesta Ep. Neap., 50, ed. cit., p. 428; D. Mallardo, in Riv. di storia della Chiesa in Italia, 2 [1948], p. 335). Of three other diaconiae there is only very late information, namely those of S. Giorgio ad Forum (recorded on 30 March 936), of S. Pietro (25 June 941), of S. Maria in Cosmedin (19 May 1018). About the diaconia of S. Maria Rotonda there is no explicit information (cf. B. Capasso, Pianta della città di Napoli nel sec. XI, in Archivio storico per le province napoletane, 17 [1892], pp. 475-84). It should be noted that all the churches with a diaconia stood in the center of the city between the episcopium and the residence of the duke, that is, in the most densely populated part. The Neapolitan diaconiae provided independently of one another for the ordinary charitable distributions and, following the example of those of Constantinople, for the hygiene of the poor and their shelter. They were moral entities, as in Egypt, capable of owning and receiving donations both from the clergy and from the laity. They arose alongside churches, in order to facilitate religious assistance, and they enjoyed the trust of the most generous benefactors. Some of them were later transformed in the late Middle Ages into hospitals, such as those of S. Gennaro, S. Andrea and S. Giorgio.

At Rome, it is known that the Church already in the 6th century possessed its horrea and actively provided on its own part, in times of emergency, for the cura annonae of the city. Alongside the official charitable assistance, presided over by the regional deacons, numerous private charitable works must have flourished. However, the welfare work called diaconia appears only, for the first time, in the biography of Benedict II (684-85), who leaves a donative "monasteriis diaconiae," an expression that includes the diaconiae in themselves and the communities that performed there their work of assistance to the poor. Diaconiae came into fashion at Rome from the close of the 7th century to the 9th century further. As in Naples, they arose in large numbers in the central part of the city where the population had at that time become concentrated; generally they were installed next to churches or oratories built close by or even in ancient public buildings that had fallen into disuse, so as to be able to have, at little expense, premises already ready for storehouses and offices. The churches or oratories were necessary to ensure a certain regularity in the religious assistance of the beneficiaries. From the whole of the documentation it emerges: a) that the Roman diaconiae have nothing to do with the work of assistance carried out in Rome by the seven regional deacons, created by Pope Fabian; b) that their origin has no connection with the Byzantine military division of the city into 12 "scholae militiae"; c) that, autonomous in their administration, they remained active until they were replaced, after the 9th century, by other forms of charitable assistance better suited to the times and the tastes of the faithful; d) that the annexed buildings of worship continued to preserve their memory through the designation of cardinal titular diaconal churches.

Besides the religious and charitable assistance in favor of the needy class of the City (something quite distinct from the cura annonae), the Roman diaconiae were also charged with administering hospitals (cf. Lib. Pont., I, p. 441) and provided for the bodily hygiene of the poor by means of a weekly bath (on Thursday), called in the sources, by a Greek word, Iusma (ἀνδάμωα): the poor went there in procession, singing psalms (cf. Liber Diurnus, formula 95, ed. Th. E. von Sickel, Vienna 1889, p. 124, which must be interpreted together with the parallel notice in Lib. Pont., I, pp. 506, 510).

The directing personnel of the individual Roman diaconiae comprised: the Pater diaconiae (cf. Ordo Romanus, I, n. 26, ed. M. Andrieu, Louvain 1948, p. 75, and below the inscription of Theodore) with functions analogous to those proper to a pater familias; the dispensator, that is, the administrator; the diaconitae (cf. Liber Diurnus, formula 95), that is, the monks who were in direct contact with the poor for the distributions and religious assistance; the priest for the celebration of the divine offices. The diaconitae and the chaplain received a remuneration from the revenues of the diaconia, as is gathered from the donation of duke Eustathius (cf. below, n. 9). The fragmentary nature of the documentation does not allow one to go into other particulars concerning the directing personnel of the individual diaconiae; indeed, it is not even possible to point out from which monasteries the diaconitae came.

At Rome too, as already in Egypt (let us recall Flavius Dioscorus, curator of the diaconia of Apa Apollo) and at Constantinople, laymen could be placed at the head of the diaconiae, such as Theodore "ex duca Pater uius benereabilis diaconiae" (cf. below, n. 6), the "primicerio defensorum" Theodore "dispensatore Scè Dei Genitricis semperque virgo Maria qui appellatur Antiqua" (cf. below, n. 5), the duke Eustathius "sanctae tuae diaconiae dispensatorem" (cf. below, n. 9): the three inscriptions cited are found in A. Silvagni, Monumenta epigraphica Christiana. Roma, I, Città del Vaticano 1943, pls. XIV, 3; XXXIV, 5; XXXVII, 4-5).

The Roman diaconiae constantly preserved (from their beginning, at the end of the 7th century, to their slow self-transformation, after the 9th century) the specific character of public institutions of religious-social charitable assistance, hence moral bodies with all the juridical prerogatives attached, for whose functioning various popes, the clergy and the laity contributed with grants and provisions. The numerous notices of the Lib. Pont. (end of 7th-9th century), the various formulas of the Liber Diurnus (formulas 88, 95, 98 [this formula is for guaranteeing a diaconia founded by a bishop outside Rome], ed. cit., pp. 115-17, 123-25, 129-31) and some other documents of the 8th century are proof of the interest aroused by the diaconiae destined to supply "fratribus nostris Christi pauperibus... alimonia", as is read in the "Privilegium de diaconiis" of the Liber Diurnus (formula 95), from which it is gathered that the Pope was accustomed to grant the enjoyment of landed properties of the Church of Rome to determined diaconiae by means of an annual census to be paid by the dispensator of the diaconia to the actionarii of the same Church in recognition of its title as owner.

The Eastern influence in the institution of the Roman diaconiae is also reflected in the fact that they were often established near sanctuaries dedicated to Eastern saints, as will be seen from the list that follows. This list, arranged by pontificates, up to the death of Leo III (816), has been compiled with notices drawn from some documents of the period and from the Lib. Pont. The asterisk placed before some names indicates that the diaconia is still cardinalitial.

BENEDICT II (684-85) leaves a donative "monasteris diaconiae", an expression that then recurs in the biographies of John V (685-86), of Conon (686-87) and Gregory II (715-731): Lib. Pont., I, pp. 364, 367, 369, 410.

GREGORY II (715-31):

1. *S. Eustachio: the Pope donates to the diaconia properties of the Labican and Tiburtine patrimonies: cf. P. Kehr, Italia Pontificia, I, Berlin 1906, p. 97.

Church founded shortly before on the ruins of the Baths of Nero-Alexander. Region Augustae IX.

GREGORY III (731-41):
2. SS. Sergius and Bacchus near S. Peter: the Pope enlarges the buildings of the diaconia and its small oratory: Lib. Pont., I, p. 420. Afterward no further trace of it is found.

3. *S. Maria Acryo (or in Ciro, in Aguiro): the Pope transforms the small oratory of the diaconia into a basilica and adorns it with paintings: Lib. Pont., I, p. 419. The Basilica is founded, as it seems, on the enclosure of the temple of Matidia. Region Augustae IX.

ZACHARY (741-52):
4. *S. Giorgio in Velabra (ad Velum aureum): the Pope donates to this diaconia the head of St. George: Lib. Pont., I, p. 434. The basilica of the 7th century replaces, as it seems, an ancient oratory of the end of the 5th century or the beginning of the 6th. Region Augustae XI. Ecclesiastical region "secunda ad Velum aureum".

5. S. Maria Antiqua: Theodore "primicerio defensorum" and "dispensatore" of the diaconia has the chapel of Sts. Quiricus and Julitta decorated there; Pope Zachary appears there with the square nimbus, a sign that he was living. The church built between the 5th and 6th centuries occupies the "atrium Minervae" where the discharge diplomas of the legionaries were kept; it was restored and decorated several times. Region Augustae X. Leo IV (847-55), seeing that it was in danger of collapsing, transferred the diaconia to the church of S. Maria Nova (today S. Francesca Romana) which he built near the via Sacra. Alexander VII, in the Conclave of Jan. 14, 1664, transferred this cardinalitial diaconia to *S. Maria della Scala (cf. G. Novaes, Elementi della storia de' SS. Pontefici..., X, Rome 1822, p. 141).

STEPHEN II [III] (752-57):
6. *S. Paolo Apostolo (S. Archangeli [806], then S. Angeli piscium venalium, de piscivendulis, in Foro piscium: S. Angelo in Pescheria): church and diaconia erected in the Portico of Octavia (June 1, 755), as an inscription attests to us, by the primicerius Theodore "Pater uius benereabilis diaconiae", uncle of Pope Adrian I. Region Augustae IX.
7. S. Maria Foris porta (sic!) B. Petri or in caput portici.
8. S. Silvestro iuxta hospitale S. Silvestri, the Pope entrusts to these two suburban diaconiae near S. Peter the two xenodochia erected by him in the vicinity of the same

Basilica. Having fallen into decay, they were re-established by Adrian I:
Lib. Pont., I, pp. 441, 506.

9. * S. Maria in Cosmedin: Duke Eustathius donates landed property to the deaconry of which he was "dispensator," as appears from an original inscription. It was originally a small church (6th century), built in the loggia of the merchants (statio annonae), transformed into a true basilica by Adrian I: Lib. Pont., I, p. 507. Augustan Region XI.

ADRIAN I (772-95):

10. SS. Sergius and Bacchus sub Capitolio: the Pope rebuilt it after, through the incompetence of the "dispensator," the temple of Concord above it had collapsed upon it: Lib. Pont., I, p. 512. The church, now vanished, stood between the "rostra vetera," the "umbilicus urbis" and the arch of Septimius Severus. Augustan Region VIII.

11. * SS. Cosmas and Damian, deaconry erected by Pope Adrian: Lib. Pont., I, p. 509; the basilica, which arose from the transformation of a large profane apsidal hall, through the work of Pope Felix IV (526-30), was restored by Adrian. Augustan Region IV.

12. S. Adrian, deaconry erected by Pope Adrian: Lib. Pont., I, p. 509, near the church built by Honorius I (625-38) in the "curia senatus" and restored by Adrian: Lib. Pont., I, pp. 324, 508, 509. Augustan Region VIII. The cardinal deaconry, owing to the destruction of the church for the restoration of the ancient Curia of the Senate, was transferred by Pius XII, on 25 Jan. 1946, to S. Paolo Apostolo alla Regola (cf. AAS, 39 [1947], pp. 54-55).

13. S. Maria quae ponitur in Adrianium (in Hadrianio, or in Transpadina), deaconry erected by Adrian near the mausoleum of Adrian: Lib. Pont., I, pp. 505-506.

LEO III (795-816):

14. * S. Maria in Dominico, receives various gifts from the Pope, in particular in 806: Lib. Pont., II, pp. 9, 14, 16, 19, 30; basilica built over rooms of the barracks of the fifth cohort of the Vigiles; rebuilt by Paschal I (817-20): Lib. Pont. II, p. 55. Augustan Region II.

15. S. Lucia in Orphea (after the 10th century, in silice), receives gifts, as above: Lib. Pont., II, pp. 11, 21, 28; church built by Honorius I near the monumental fountain "lacus orphei": Lib. Pont., I, p. 324. Augustan Region III.

16. * S. Vito in Macello, receives gifts, as above; Lib. Pont., II, pp. 12, 21; church built in the immediate vicinity of the "Macellum Liviae." Augustan Region V. In the lists of deaconries of John the Deacon and Peter Mallius of the second half of the 12th century, the church "S. Quirici" (SS. Quiricus and Julitta) appears in place of S. Vito (cf. the edition of R. Valentini and G. Zucchetti, Cod. top. della città di Roma, III, Rome 1946, pp. 361, 438). It is difficult to explain this substitution, which was in any case temporary.

17. S. Agata in Diaconia (or de Caballo, or in Equo Marmoreo), receives gifts, as above: Lib. Pont., II, pp. 12, 22, 28, 32; church situated on the southern side of the alta Semita, the site of today's public garden of the Quirinal. Augustan Region VI. This deaconry is not to be confused with the basilica of * S. Agata de Subura, which became a cardinal deaconry only in the first half of the 16th century, at which time the church of "S. Agata in diaconia" had fallen into ruin.

18. * S. Maria in via Lata, receives gifts, as above: Lib. Pont., II, pp. 12, 19; church built over a "horreum": ancient oratory with paintings of the end of the 5th century and the beginning of the 6th (cf. E. Sjöqvist, cited in the bibliography). Augustan Region IX.

19. S. Theodore, receives gifts, as above: Lib. Pont., II, pp. 12, 21; church built in the second courtyard of the "horrea Agrippiana" (6th-7th centuries). Augustan Region X.

20. S. Lucia in Septem vica (or in Septem Solii), receives gifts, as above: Lib. Pont., II, pp. 11, 21; church built between the "caput circi" (Circus Maximus) and the Septizonium. Augustan Region X.

21. SS. Nereus and Achilleus, receives gifts, as above: Lib. Pont., II, pp. 9, 21, 33; church that was already a title in the 4th century, became a deaconry (8th century), then again a presbyteral title. Augustan Region XII.

22. S. Boniface (from the end of the 10th century S. Alexius), receives

(from R. Lucciani, Forma Cribis Romae, Milan 1833-1901, fol. 51)
DIACONIA - Plan of St. Mary in Cosmedin after the reconstruction by Adrian I with the underlying remains of the Roman monuments. The single nave of the little church of the diaconia occupied transversally a part of the loggia of the Merchants, that is, of the Statio Annonae -- Rome.

donations, as above: Lib. Pont., II, pp. 9, 21; church built at the end of the 6th century, beginning of the 7th century. Augustan Region XIII. These last two deaconries were replaced, at an undetermined date, certainly before the beginning of the 12th century, by S. Nicola in Carcere, to which the care of prisoners was subsequently entrusted, and by S. Maria in Porticu.

23. Sts. Sylvester and Martin inxta Orphea, receives donations, as above: Lib. Pont., II, p. 22; this is the titular church of the same name that temporarily became a diaconia. Augustan Region III.

24. St. Martin inxta B. Petrum (or de Cortina or de Porticu), receives donations, as above: Lib. Pont., II, p. 22; a small church that disappeared in the enlargement of St. Peter's Square.

As can be seen, the golden age of the Roman deaconries falls under the pontificates of Adrian I and Leo III: at the death of the former, 19 must have existed; at that of the latter, 24, including the suburban ones. The number of the urban ones from Adrian I to Sixtus V, however, normally remained at 18.

III. TRANSFORMATION OF DEFAMATION IN ROME

Throughout the whole of the 10th century and part of the 11th nothing more is known of the functioning of the Roman d., only some names are known of personages who were at the head of diaconal churches, such as the archpriest John, it seems, of S. Giorgio in Velabro (cf. P. Batiffol, Inscriptions byzantines de St-Georges au Vélabre, in Mélanges d'arch. et d'hist., 7 [1887], pp. 426-29; A. Silvagni, Monumenta epigraphica Christ. Roma, I, Vatican City 1943, pl. XXXIV, 4); Pope John XII (955-64), formerly tituli (by error) S. Mariae qui vocatur in Dominico, and Pope Benedict VI (973-74), formerly diaconiae S. Theodori (cf. the list of 10th-century popes drawn up in 989 and prefixed to the itinerary of Archbishop Sigeric: Lib. Pont., II, p. XV and B. Pesci, L'itinerario romano di Sigerico arcio. di Canterbury e la lista dei papi da lui portata in Inghilterra (a. 990), in Riv. di archeol. crist., 13 [1936], pp. 49, 59).

The d. reappear in the 11th century, with an entirely new aspect, in a folkloristic document that describes the Cornomania (v.), a sacred-profane feast of Holy Saturday, which fell into disuse under the pontificate of Gregory VII (1073-85). The d., still 18 in number, are presented to us as parishes with their own clergy, under the direction of an archpriest: « omnes archipresbyteri XVIII diaconiarum post prandium predicti diei sonant campanas et omnis populus sue parrochie concurrit ad ecclesiam » (cf. the edition of L. Duchesne, in Le Liber Censuum, II, Paris 1905, p. 171). The archpriest could sometimes also be a cardinal, as, between 1070 and 1081, is the case of Peter, chancellor and cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, prior atque rector, or rector ac auementator (= dispensator) of S. Maria « que holim vocabatur antiqua nunc autem nova » (cf. P. Fedele, Tabularium S. Mariae Novae, in Archivio della Soc. rom. di storia patria, 23 [1900], p. 224 ff.), and of Falco, cardinal of the Holy Apostolic See, rector et dispensator « venerabilis monasteri SS. Christi Martirum Cosme e Damiani quod nuncupatur Mica aurea » (cf. P. Fedele, Carte del monastero dei SS. Cosma e Damiano in Mica Aurea, ibid., 22 [1899], p. 412 ff.). In close connection with this new aspect of theirs is also the fact, recorded in the Ordines of the 12th century of Benedict the Canonist, of Albinus and of Cencio Camerario, that the clergy and people of the d., with their 18 standards (« exeunt XVIII imagines a diaconiis et cum clericis et populo veniunt ad sanctum Adrianum » [Benedict], « deferuntur XVIII ymagines beate Marie ex XVIII diaconiis » [Albinus]), took part in the solemn morning processions that set out toward S. Maria Maggiore for the celebration of the « station » of the Purification, the Annunciation and the Nativity (cf. the ed. of L. Duchesne, in Le Liber Censuum, I, Paris 1889-1910, p. 293 [Cencio]; II, ibid. 1905, pp. 128 [Albinus], 148-49 [Benedict], 168 [Catalogue of popes with liturgical prescriptions]). There is more: with the reorganization of the college of cardinals in the second half of the 11th century the churches of the d. begin to be assigned to the cardinal deacons, as is gathered from a constitution of Urban II, 1088-99 (cf. the ed. of P. Kehr, Nachträge zu den Papsturhunden Italiens II., in Nachrichten of Göttingen, 1908, pp. 228-29). With Paschal II (1099-1118), the eighteen cardinal deacons add in their subscriptions, following the example of the cardinal priests, to their respective names that of their church: for example, « Gregorius S. Angeli card. diac.; Romanus card. diac. Scte Marie in Porticu; Guido diac. card. SS. Cosme et Damiani iuxta templum Romae » etc. (cf. P. Kehr, art. cit., p. 232 ff.; B. Katterbach-W. M. Peitz, Die Unterschriften der Päpste und Kardinäle in den « Bullae Maiores » vom 11. bis 14. Jhdt., in Miscellanea F. Ehrle [Studi e Testi, 40], Rome 1924, pp. 177-262; W. Klewitz, Die Entstehung des Kardinalskollegiums, in Zeitschr. der Savigny-Stiftung f. Rechtsgeschichte, 25 [1936], pp. 115-221, in particular pp. 176-204, 218-21). The Descriptio Lateranensis Ecclesiae, in its three redactions (end of 11th-12th century), alludes to these cardinal deacons when it speaks of the 6 palatine deacons with the archdeacon at their head and of the 12 regionary deacons who were to take part in the papal liturgy: « Isti decem et octo diaconi totidem ecclesias habent infra muros civitatis et tamen omnes sunt canonici patriarchalis basilicae Lateranensis » (ed. R. Valentini-G. Zucchetti, Cod. top. della città di Roma, III, Rome 1946, p. 345). The church of the archdeacon was S. Maria in Domnica (a deacon had thus to remain without a church). In this way with the 12th century the diaconal churches receive the destination that they still preserve today. Their charitable function had by now passed away and other charitable institutions had taken their place, such as the national « Scholae peregrinorum » that provided for the needs of pious pilgrims and the numerous hospices and hospitals for the poor. A distant echo of this substitution is still G. Cassander (Ordo Romanus de officio Missae, Cologne 1561, p. 61)

when he writes that "Diaconiae sic dicta sunt hospitalia pauperum cum suis capellis."

Sixtus V, with the constitution Religiosa of 13 April 1587 (§ 3), reduced the diaconal churches to 14 (cf. Cod. Iuris Can. Fontes, I, Rome 1926, no. 160, p. 295), and the number of cardinal deacons is still 14 (CIC, can. 231). However, the diaconal churches are today 16, since in 1600 Clement VIII declared S. Cesario de Appia a deaconry (called "in Palatio" by error; cf. V. Forcella, Iscrizioni, XII, Rome 1878, p. 253), a presbyteral title erected by Leo X in 1517 but suppressed by Sixtus V, and in 1725 (Conclave of 23 July: Diario di Roma, no. 1246) Benedict XIII erected S. Maria ad Martyres (Pantheon) as a deaconry, a title transferred, on 26 May 1929, following the Concordat with the Italian State, to S. Apollinare (cf. AAS, 21 [1929], pp. 308-309). - See plate XCIII.

A. Pietro Frutaz