Everything about The Seven Deacons totally explained
The
Seven Deacons were leaders elected by the early
Christian church to minister to the people of
Jerusalem. They are described in the
Acts of the Apostles, and are the subject of later traditions as well; for instance they're supposed to have been members of the
Seventy Disciples who appear in the
Gospel of Luke. The Seven were:#
Stephen, the first
martyr
- Philip the Evangelist
- Prochorus
- Nicanor
- Timon
- Parmenas
- Nicholas
The Deacons
Only Stephen and Philip are discussed in much detail in Acts. Stephen became the first
martyr of the church when he was killed by a mob stirred up by
Saul of Tarsus, the future Saint Paul. Philip evangelized in
Samaria, where he converted
Simon Magus and an
Ethiopian
eunuch, traditionally beginning the
Ethiopian Orthodox Church.
Tradition calls Prochorus the nephew of Saint Stephen and a companion of
John the Evangelist, who consecrated him bishop of
Nicomedia in
Bithynia (modern-day
Turkey). He was traditionally ascribed the authorship of the
apocryphal Acts of John, and was said to have ended his life as a martyr in
Antioch in the 1st century. According to
Caesar Baronius'
Annales Ecclesiastici, now considered historically inaccurate, he was a
Cypriot Jew who returned to his native island and died a martyr in 76. Other accounts say he was martyred in "Berj", an unidentified place possibly confused with
Botrys. Timon was said to have been a
Hellenized Jew who became a bishop in
Greece or in
Bosra,
Syria; in the latter account, his preaching brought the ire of the local governor, who martyred him with fire. After preaching for years in Asia Minor, where
Hippolytus claimed he was bishop of
Soli (Pompeiopolis; though he may have been referring to
Soli, Cyprus), he was said to have settled down in
Macedonia, where he died at
Philippi in 98 during
Trajan's persecutions.
Nicholas wasn't remembered fondly by some early writers. According to
Irenaeus'
Adversus Haereses, the
Nicolaitanes, a heretical sect condemned as early as the
Book of Revelation, took their name from the deacon. In
Philosophumena,
Hippolytus writes he inspired the sect through his indifference to life and the pleasures of the flesh; his followers took this as a licence to give in to lust. The
Catholic Encyclopedia records a story that after the
Apostles reproached Nicholas for mistreating his beautiful wife on account of his jealousy, he left her and consented to anyone else marrying her, saying the flesh should be maltreated. The
Catholic Encyclopedia notes that the historicity of the story is debatable, though the Nicolaitanes themselves may have considered Nicholas their founder.
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