acolytate

plural acolytates

1. CatholicismThe minor order of acolytes.

   1 more example

   Secondly, only men are eligible to be "installed" or "instituted" in the lay ministries of lector and acolyte (c.230 §1). These two ministries used to be among the “minor orders,” but Pope Paul VI suppressed the minor orders and established the lectorate and acolytate as lay ministries in 1972; since that time, lay men—and only men—may be installed (or instituted) as lectors and acolytes (c.230 §1).

   2016, Marie Failinger, Feminism, Law, and Religion, page 352