Cornelius I (251-53) in a letter to Fabius of Antioch mentions that the Church of Rome has forty-two acolytes and fifty-two exorcists, readers and doorkeepers. 105).ĭuring the first centuries all the lessons in the liturgy, including the Epistle and Gospel, were read by the lector. 82 see also the “Egyptian Church Order”, V, ib., p. Ap.”, xiii Funk, “Didascalia”, Paderborn, 1905, II, p. The derived documents however forbid an imposition of hands. Const.”, viii, xxii, tells the bishop to ordain a reader by laying on his hand and saying a prayer, which is given. All the group of rituals that depend on the “ Apostolic Constitutions” contain the rite of ordaining readers. Readers were blessed and set apart, as were the fossores who dug graves, the notarii who kept registers, and widows. As the idea obtained that a special blessing and dedication should be given to everyone who performs an office for the Church, the reader too was instituted by prayers and some ceremony. Although Justin says that the bishop preached the sermon, it appears that the reader himself often went on to expound what he had read.

It involved a higher standard of education than that of most offices. The position of reader was honorable and dignified. ad Corinthios” also contains a reference to a lector, anaginoskon (xix, 1). The first mention of a Christian liturgical reader is by Justin Martyr (d. Jewish practice of reading the Sacred Books publicly. The primary reason for a special class of readers was the need of some persons sufficiently educated to be able to read the books in church, for the Christians continued the. In all Eastern Churches also, readers are ordained to a minor order preparatory to the diaconate. A lector (reader) in the West is a clerk having the second of the four minor orders.

Ostiarius lector exorcista acolytus