Widows

VALENTINA IZMIRLIEVA

Widows were the most prominent group of women in the first three centuries of the Christian church. The Greek term for widow, χήρα (etymologically related to the preposition “without”), meant not merely a deceased man’s wife, but any woman without a husband. Used as a cover term for celibate women living outside traditional matrimonial structures (whether widowed, separated, divorced, or unmarried) it became associated in the Christian context with charisma, following the Pauline treatment of celibacy as a spiritual gift (1Cor. 7.7–17). Given the patristic understanding of virginity as a spiritual state that can be regained through continence, widows were often linked to virgins: Ignatius of Antioch hails “the virgins who are called widows” (Smyrn. 13.1), while Tertul- lian of Carthage commends the widows for “becoming virgins” (Exhortation to Chastity 1; To His Wife, 2.8). Thus, for the early Christian communities, widowhood came to represent an ideal lifestyle, a privileged opportunity for spiritual progress through chastity and service, offering a new social role for independent women that granted them respectability outside the patriarchal constraints of their society.

In the biblical tradition, widows and their children (the orphans) symbolize all powerless people in society and fall directly under divine protection. Christian law, drawing on both its Jewish roots (Exod. 22.22; Ps. 68.5) and the personal example of Jesus (Mk. 12.38–44; Lk. 7.11–17), made widows the financial responsibility of the church (Acts 6.1–7). Not all widows in Late Antiquity, however, were in need of support. Upper- class widows could inherit substantial property under Roman law. Such financially independent women, who were often also highly educated, were among the most generous benefactors of the Christian communities and the ecclesiastical elite.

The early church generally encouraged widows of childbearing age to remarry (1Tim. 5.11–14), even though St. Paul considered those who remain widows “more blessed” (μακαριωτέρα; 1Cor. 7.39–40). Only menopausal widows (the age limit fluctuates between 60 in 1Tim. 5.9 and 50 in the Didascalia Apostolorum) were entrusted with responsibilities toward their communities in exchange for subvention. To qualify for service, these “real” (oντως) widows had to have married only once, distinguished themselves by good deeds, and pledged a life of celibacy. They were appointed mostly for prayer, since the Lord never ignores the pleas of widows (Sirach 35.17–22) and a widow personifies the New Testament ideal of incessant prayer (Lk. 18.1–8). Yet both Tertullian and the Didascalia Apostolorum refer to more extensive communal duties (teaching, anointing the newly baptized, caring for the sick).

At the peak oftheir prominence in the 3rd century, widows personified active lay service in the church, rivaling the liturgical role of female deacons in later times, and offering a strong model of female Orthodox ministry. Vehement arguments against ordaining widows, especially in Traditio Apostolica, indicate that their exclusion from the clergy was hardly a matter of course. The “office” of widows stood for radical charismatic leadership and, as such, was not sufficiently under the control of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. It was eventually superseded by the clerical office of deaconesses.