noun

• (in some Christian churches) a minister of an order ranking below deacon. Now largely obsolete in the Western church, the liturgical role has been taken by other ministers.

  ‘The rest were secular cathedrals, governed by a chapter consisting of a dean and canons whose duty to maintain the Divine Office in choir was carried out by deputies or vicars, normally in priests ’, deacons ’, or subdeacons ' orders.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Adam A. J. DeVille, a doctoral student at the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute for Eastern Christian Studies at St. Paul University, Ottawa, Canada, is a subdeacon in the Eparchy of Toronto of the Ukrainian Catholic Church.’
  • ‘Deacons, subdeacons, and readers assist the priests during services.’
  • ‘4 According to the Apostolic Constitutions the woman deacon is ordained ‘according to her worthiness’ into a ministry of the lower clergy (subdeacon, lector, cantor).’
  • ‘It contains sections describing the bishop, presbyters, deacons, confessors, widows, lectors, virgins, subdeacons, healers, neophyte Christians, and artisans and craftsmen.’
  • ‘Fixtures include a triple sedilia (three seats inset in the south wall for priest, deacon and subdeacon), while the central east lancet window contains a complete Jesse Tree (the upper part C13, the lower put together from scraps in 1960).’
  • ‘Above these on the left side stood the parish, the basic building-block of the secular Church, with its priest and attendants, the deacon, subdeacon, acolyte, exorcist, reader, and doorkeeper.’
  • ‘Currently, at the time of ordination as a deacon, usually a year or so before priesthood; and, before the elimination of the subdiaconate as a major order after Vatican II, as a subdeacon.’
  • ‘Widows are to be appointed, not ordained, and hands are not to be laid on subdeacons, virgins, or those who say they have the gift of healing; thus reads Part 1, composed of 15 brief chapters.’