Almoner

An almoner is a chaplain or church officer who originally was in charge of distributing money to the deserving poor. The first deacons mentioned in Acts 6:1–4 dealt with the distribution of the charity of the early Christian churches to needy members. The title almoner has fallen out of use in English, but its equivalents in other languages are often used for many pastoral functions exercised by chaplains or pastors. The word derives from the Ancient Greek ἐλεημοσύνη, eleēmosynē (see Eleemosynary), via the Vulgar Latin almosinarius.