Dean (Christianity)
This article is about the clerical office. For other uses, see Dean (disambiguation). A dean , in a church context, is a cleric holding certain positions of authority within a religious hierarchy. The title is used mainly in the Anglican Communion, the Roman Catholic Church, and many Lutheran denominations. A dean's assistant is called a subdean. Contents 1 History 2 Officials 3 Anglican Communion 3.1 Cathedrals 3.2 Rural or area deaneries 3.3 Other uses 4 Catholic Church 5 Lutheran Church 6 United Methodism 7 Other uses 8 See also 9 References History Latin decanus has various meanings related to the most important of ten parts, perhaps originally in astrology. In the military, it was the head of a group of ten, and by the 5th century CE, it was the head of a group of ten monks. It came to refer to various civil functionaries in the later Roman Empire. [1] Based on the monastic use, it came to mean the head of a chapter of canons of a collegiate church or cathedral ch...