Bible Dictionary · D
Deaconess
Rom 16:1, Rom 16:3, Rom 16:12; Phil 4:2, Phil 4:3; 1 Tim 3:11; 1 Tim 5:9, 1 Tim 5:10; Titus 2:3, Titus 2:4). In these passages it is evident that females were then engaged in various Christian ministrations. Pliny makes mention of them also in his letter to Trajan (A.D. 110).
From Easton’s Bible Dictionary (1897), by Matthew George Easton.