The continuously played diaconate was restored at Vatican II. Its emergency states and gives visibility to the threefold ministry of ordained bishops, priests and deacons. For a long time, however, the sacrament of Holy Order was designed from the priest s figure. The most sensitive consequence of this perception is the diaconate as temping and the deacon as a moved or not necessary clergy person. The objective of this study is therefore to point out some refl ection paths on the diaconate in its historical formation and identity construction. I will analyze the discursive matrices that crafted the early Church and will identify the areas of its work space and individualized basis. As a hypothesis of its disappearance I identify the spirit of priesthoodness which spread with the end of persecution in the Roman Empire and that produced, in the short and medium terms, the absorption of the diaconate by the priesthood. A complex and multifaceted story is woven from the pastoral power relations.