Canon 18 No women living in episcopal residences or monasteries

Κανόνες τῆς ἐν Νικαίᾳ Ἁγίας καὶ Οἰκουμενικῆς Ζ´ Συνόδου

The Seventh Ecumenical Council · Nicaea, 787 · convened by the empress Irene and the emperor Constantine VI · Seventh Ecumenical Council: Nicaea II (787) on the map

Be without offence also to those outside, says the divine Apostle. And for women to live in episcopal residences or monasteries is a cause of every offence. If anyone, then, is caught keeping a slave woman or a free woman in an episcopal residence, or in a monastery, for the undertaking of some service, let him be put under penance; and if he persists, let him be deposed. And if it should happen that there are women on the suburban estates, and a bishop or an abbot wishes to make the journey there, while the bishop or abbot is present let no woman at all undertake any service at that time, but let her keep apart in another place until the bishop has gone back, for the sake of blamelessness.

Ἀπρόσκοποι γίνεσθε καὶ τοῖς ἔξωθεν, φησὶν ὁ θεῖος Ἀπόστολος· Τὸ δὲ γυναῖκας ἐνδιαιτᾶσθαι ἐν ἐπισκοπείοις, ἢ μοναστηρίοις, παντὸς προσκόμματος αἴτιον. Εἴ τις οὖν δούλην, ἢ ἐλευθέραν ἐν ἐπισκοπείῳ κτώμενος φωραθείη, ἢ ἐν μοναστηρίῳ, πρὸς ἐγχείρησιν διακονίας τινός, ἐπιτιμάσθω· ἐπιμένων δέ, καθαιρείσθω. Εἰ δὲ καὶ τύχοι ἐν προαστείοις γυναῖκας εἶναι, καὶ θελήσοι ἐπίσκοπος, ἢ ἡγούμενος, πορείαν τὴν ἐκεῖσε ποιήσασθαι, παρόντος ἐπισκόπου, ἢ ἡγουμένου, μηδόλως ἐγχείρησιν διακονίας ποιείσθω κατ᾿ ἐκεῖνον τὸν καιρὸν γυνή, ἀλλ᾿ ἰδιαζέτω ἐν ἑτέρῳ τόπῳ, ἕως ἂν τὴν ἐπαναχώρησιν ποιήσηται ὁ ἐπίσκοπος, διὰ τὸ ἀνεπίληπτον.

The Seventh Ecumenical Council, the canons

English: this site's translation of the Greek beside it. Greek: the text of the Pedalion, as transcribed at users.uoa.gr/~nektar and corrected here. About these texts.