A Dorcas Meeting in the 6th century by Edwin Long
In the Gospel Jesus is dealing with the twelve apostles who are questioning his teaching. However, after the Lord’s Passion and Resurrection the apostles came to believe more fully. They remembered what the Lord had taught them and instructed others in small gatherings in homes throughout the Greco-Roman world. Many of these homes belonged to wealthy widows like Phoebe, Lydia and Dorcas.
Paul spent eighteen months in Corinth with Priscilla and Aquila, fellow tent-makers who were Jewish converts to the Christian movement (Acts 18:2). They introduced him to a widow named Phoebe who owned a large estate in Cenchreae, the prosperous sea port on the eastern side of Corinth. While Paul, Priscilla and Aquila carried the teachings of the Lord to Ephesus, Phoebe was placed in charge of instructing the Corinthian converts in the faith. Later Paul introduced her to the Roman converts as the
diakonos of the church in Cenchreae, and instructed them to welcome her as they would a saint because she was the benefactor his missions to other lands and support for many people (Romans 6:1-2).
Paul used the Greek word
diakonos (διάκονος) to describe men and women who helped him to teach the faith. This early diaconate was, in a sense, the first Catholic catechetical program. Prisca, Aquila, Phoebe, Apollos, Tychicus, Epaphras, Archippus, and Onesimus are all identified by Paul as
diakonos, a word that implies entrustment with leadership and stewardship.
The reference to Phoebe in Romans 16:1-2 is the first mention of such a leader in the early Christian movement. Paul’s letters to the Corinthians were sent to Greek converts who gathered in Phoebe’s home. Another leader in the early church movement was Lydia, a woman who dealt in purple cloth. Lydia was a province of the same name in the city of Thyatira where the first gold and silver coins were invented there to facilitate trade. It is not known whether Lydia was a virgin or a widow, but she must have been unmarried because she owned a prosperous business trading and was in control of her own wealth.
Lydia met Paul and Silas in Philippi. “The Lord opened her heart to listen eagerly to what was said by Paul” (Acts 16:14). Afterwards she offered Paul hospitality in her home, and he baptized her and her whole household. She gave hospitality to Paul before and after he went to prison, looked after his companions while he was in prison, and supported the converts after Paul and his companions left to bring the faith to Thessalonica (Acts 16:40-17:1). Paul’s letter to the Philippians was most likely addressed to Lydia, who requested help resolving a disagreement between Euodia and Syntyche two members of the Philippian church. The Orthodox Churches honor Lydia as “Equal to the Apostles.”
Dorcas, whose story is told in the reading today, was a prominent widow living in Joppa, a large active seaport on the Mediterranean now called Jaffa. She owned her own home and supported herself as a seamstress. She was renowned for sewing clothes for the poor and providing generously for widows who were less well off. When Dorcas took sick and had no family to care for her the widows whom she had helped gathered in her house to care for her. When she died they shared their grief with Peter and showed him the fine robes she had made for them. Peter went straightaway, knelt in prayer before her body, took her hand and said, “Tabitha, arise.” Whereupon the life returned to her body and she sat up. (Matthew 9:25; Mark 5:40, 41).
In the United States Dorcas, Lydia and Phoebe are honored together on January 27th in the Episcopal and the Evangelical Lutheran churches on January 27. The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod (LCMS) commemorates the three women on October 25. The Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches commemorate Dorcas under her Aramaic name, Tabitha on that same date. In honor of her Dorcas societies were formed in the United States and the United Kingdom to sew clothing and provide for the poor.