1) Catholic ecclesiastical title 
In the Anglican Communion and the Roman Catholic Church, a rural dean is a member of clergy who presides over a `rural deanery` (often referred to as a deanery). In some Church of England dioceses rural deans have been formally renamed as area dean. ==Origins== The title `dean` (Latin decanus) may derive from the custom of dividing a hundred i...
a cleric ranking just below an archdeacon, in charge of an archdeaconry.