SUBDEACON
It is the first, in ascending order, of the sacred and major Orders. The term subdeacon (Gk. ὑποδιάκονος: subministrant) denotes the office of a minister of the second degree, entirely subordinate to the deacon. Regarding the sacramental nature of the subdiaconate, a theological debate ensued following the affirmative opinion of St. Thomas Aquinas; today it is commonly held that it is not a Sacrament.
### I. HISTORY
The first mention of the subdeacon in the West occurs at the beginning of the 3rd century in the *Traditio Apostolica*, 14 (ed. B. Botte, Paris 1946, p. 4; ed. A. Casamassa, Rome 1947, p. 22 [for private use]), then in the correspondence of St. Cyprian (e.g., *Ep.*, 24: PL 4, 294) and in the letter of St. Cornelius to St. Fabian of Antioch (c. 252). In the East, the subdeacon is first mentioned at the end of the 3rd century in the *Didascalia Apostolorum* (IX, 34, 3), then in the *Canons of the Apostles* (can. 43 [42]), and in the Council of Antioch of 341 (can. 10).
### II. ORDINATION
According to the *Traditio Apostolica* 14: “The laying on of hands shall not be done for the subdeacon, but he shall be named, so that he may follow the deacons.” The laying on of hands is also excluded by the *Canones Hippolyti*, cann. 48–49 (ed. L. Duchesne, *Origines du culte chrétien*, 5th ed., Paris 1909, p. 534), by St. Basil (*Ep.* 217, 51: PG 22, 706), and by the *Statuta Ecclesiae antiqua*: “When a subdeacon is ordained, since he does not receive the laying on of hands, he shall receive from the bishop’s hand an empty and a void chalice. From the hand of the archdeacon, however, he shall receive the cruet with water, the maniple, and the towel” (F. Cavallera, *Thesaurus doctrinae catholicae*, no. 1311, 2nd ed., Paris 1936, p. 675). The *Constitutiones Apostolicae* (VIII, 21, 1–4), on the other hand, require the laying on of hands. By the 5th century in the Roman Church, it was conferred with a simple blessing (cf. A. Michel, *Ordre*, in *DThC*, col. 1264). In the Gallican rite, nearly all the elements found in the present Roman Pontifical are present: an exhortation to consider the gravity of the obligations attached to the order, the singing of the litanies, an admonition to the candidates regarding their proper functions, the handing over of the chalice with the paten by the bishop with corresponding formulas, of the cruets by the archdeacon, two *Oremus*, the handing over of the vestments (amice, maniple, tunic) and of the epistle book with the corresponding formula (cf. Michel, *op. cit.* in bibliography, cols. 1266, 1268–79).
### III. OBLIGATIONS AND FUNCTIONS
Only at the end of the 12th century was the subdiaconate counted among the sacred and major Orders, and from that time onward the obligation of celibacy (v.) was imposed upon the subdeacon, followed later by the obligation of reciting the Divine Office daily (v.). The functions of subdeacons were formerly varied and numerous, extending even to the external life of the Church (e.g., the administration of the patrimony of the Roman Church, the exercise of judicial power in ecclesiastical tribunals; V. DEACON AND ARCHDEACON). At present their functions are reduced to pouring water into the chalice, singing the epistle, assisting the deacon at the altar and presenting him with the chalice and paten, and washing the corporals and sacred linens (cf. *Pontificale Romanum*, admonition *Adepturi*).