From The Seven Of Acts To A Restored Permanent Order

The Acts of the Apostles describes the community in Jerusalem appointing seven men, traditionally headed by Stephen, the first Christian martyr, to oversee the distribution of food to widows so that the apostles could devote themselves to preaching, an account Christian tradition has long read as the diaconate's founding narrative even though the text itself does not use the later technical vocabulary of ordained diaconal ministry. The permanent diaconate flourished in the early centuries, with deacons such as Lawrence of Rome, martyred in 258 CE, holding significant administrative and charitable responsibility within their local churches, before the order gradually became, across the medieval West, almost exclusively a transitional stage on the way to priestly ordination, its independent, permanent form largely disappearing for over a millennium.

The Second Vatican Council's 1964 decision to restore the diaconate as a permanent order in its own right, implemented by Paul VI in 1967, responded partly to pastoral needs in mission territories and regions with priest shortages and partly to a broader theological re-emphasis on the diaconate's own distinct character rather than viewing it only as an apprenticeship for priesthood. The restoration has produced substantial growth in permanent deacon numbers worldwide since the late twentieth century, with the great majority in developed countries being married men serving part-time alongside secular careers.