Women in the church

This chapter investigates discussions concerning the role of women in the Orthodox Church in late imperial Russia. It draws from texts written by Orthodox authors in early twentieth-century Russia and dedicated to various themes pertaining to women. A central question in the material concerns the concept of deaconess and how it could be employed to recognize and channel growing female activity in the Church. This chapter shows how the office of deaconess was a contentious issue in late imperial Russia. Moreover, it also demonstrates how various female communities and especially their leaders played a prominent role in Russian religious life of the time, even though they remained somewhat isolated from the majority of male clerics.