The Living Tradition An Orthodox Archive of the Church Fathers and Early Church

The First Council of Nicaea

Canon I

Self-mutilation disqualifies a man from the clergy; mutilation suffered at the hands of others does not.

  • Canonical normEstablished by a received canon of a council, or of a Father whose canons the Church has received. Canons are applied within the Church's pastoral and conciliar life; a canon is not a rule a reader applies to themselves or to anyone else.
  • Historical consensusBroadly agreed among historians working from the surviving evidence. Consensus can shift when the evidence or the method changes.

Primary evidence verified Content last reviewed 2026-08-29

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Canon I — conciliar text

If any one in sickness has been subjected by physicians to a surgical operation, or if he has been castrated by barbarians, let him remain among the clergy; but, if any one in sound health has castrated himself, it behoves that such an one, if [already] enrolled among the clergy, should cease [from his ministry], and that from henceforth no such person should be promoted. But, as it is evident that this is said of those who wilfully do the thing and presume to castrate themselves, so if any have been made eunuchs by barbarians, or by their masters, and should otherwise be found worthy, such men the Canon admits to the clergy.

Henry R. Percival (ed.), The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. XIV (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1900). Public domain.

Ancient Epitome, as printed in the same edition

Eunuchs may be received into the number of the clergy, but those who castrate themselves shall not be received.

A Byzantine-era summary carried in the canonical collections. It is a witness to how the canon was read, not the canon itself.

Plain-language summary — this project's words, not the canon's

A man who has been castrated by physicians for illness, or by captors or masters against his will, may remain in the clergy or be admitted to it if he is otherwise worthy. A man who has castrated himself in sound health may not, and must cease from ministry if already ordained.

The fourth-century problem

A misreading of Matthew 19:12 had led some men to mutilate themselves as a way of securing chastity. Percival's notes record that Origen was among those said to have been misled in this way, and that Justin Martyr describes a young man who sought permission for the operation and was refused by the civil authorities.

The council was legislating against a devotional practice, not against a medical condition or against the consequences of violence — and it says so in the canon itself, which is unusually explicit about the distinction it is drawing.

Canonical principle

The principle is consent. The council does not treat the body's condition as the disqualifying thing; it treats the act. A man who suffered mutilation is admitted; a man who inflicted it on himself is not.

Behind that lies a judgement about the ascetic life: that a physical shortcut to chastity is a refusal of the actual work, and that self-harm is not holiness.

Key vocabulary

The Canon admits
The canon refers to an existing rule rather than making a new one. Percival's note argues this points to an apostolic canon already in circulation.

What kind of canon this is

  • disciplinary
  • moral

Percival's edition groups the Nicene canons without formal classification. The kinds named above are this project's analysis, offered so that a reader can see which parts of a canon are principle and which are the arrangement of a particular century.

Later interpretation and reception

Percival notes that Nicaea is not legislating afresh here but confirming earlier apostolic canons on the same subject, and the canon's own wording — such men the Canon admits to the clergy — refers to a rule already known.

Constantine forbade the practice by civil law, and later canonical collections repeat the prohibition. Instances of the practice after this period are rare in the historical record.

  • The apostolic canons on the same subject, which canon II of Trullo confirms among the collections the Church receives.

  • The First Council of Nicaea

    The council that confessed the Son to be of one substance with the Father, addressed the date of Pascha, and issued twenty disciplinary canons. It did not decide which books belong to the Bible.

    Council

  • The ascetic life

    Fasting, prayer and the healing of the passions — as therapy, not as achievement.

    Theme

  • The twenty canons of Nicaea: an overview

    What the first council actually legislated about, in one pass, before you read them one by one.

    Lesson

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Sources for this page

  1. Tier C The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church Henry R. Percival (ed.); Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (series eds.) Canon I of Nicaea annotated edition of conciliar texts The conciliar text as archived here. Source record
  2. Tier C The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church Henry R. Percival (ed.); Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (series eds.) Ancient Epitome of Canon I, with Percival's notes annotated edition of conciliar texts Nineteenth-century editorial apparatus and Byzantine canonists. Source record

Tiers are explained in the methodology. No page on this site has been reviewed or approved by any bishop, priest, synod or seminary.