monastery
monastery [MC].A monastery (from the Greek ‘to live alone’) is a more or less self-contained settlement constructed to house a community of monks or canons. The idea of a monastic lifestyle based around a religious community may have originated in prehistoric times, but finds its first expression in the Christian context in the eastern roman empire during the 4th century ad. Two types emerged, the cenobitic monastery where a groups of monks lived a communal life, presided over by an abbot, with a shared routine of worship, work, and meals, and the eremitic monastery where monks lived in isolation in separate cells but assembled each Saturday and Sunday for common worship and to obtain supplies for the following week. The eastern monastic tradition, centred on BYZANTIUM, was diverse, with no formal orders. As the influence of the church and the practice of monasticism moved westwards and northwards, however, specific orders...
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