Monastery (plural: monasteries) denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer (e.g. an oratory) as well as the domestic quarters and workplace(s) of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone (hermits).

The earliest extant use of the term ''monastērion'' is by the 1st century AD Jewish philosopher Philo (''On The Contemplative Life,'' ch. III).

Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only a hermit, or in the case of communities anything from a single building housing only a one senior and two or three junior monks or nuns, to vast complexes and estates housing tens or hundreds.

In English usage, the term "monastery" is generally used to denote the buildings of a community of monks. The name convent tends to be used (inaccurately) for the buildings accommodating female monastics (nuns). (The term "nunnery" for the latter is outmoded and considered offensive). It may also be used to reflect the Latin usage for houses of friars, more commonly called a friary, or for communities of teaching or nursing Religious Sisters. Various religions may use these terms in more specific ways.

In most religions the life inside monasteries is governed by community rules that stipulates the sex of the inhabitants and requires them to remain celibate and own little or no personal property. The degree to which life inside a particular monastery is socially separate from the surrounding populace can also vary widely; some religious traditions mandate isolation for purposes of contemplation removed from the everyday world, in which case members of the monastic community may spend most of their time isolated even from each other. Others focus on interacting with the local communities to provide services, such as teaching, medical care, or evangelism. Some monastic communities are only occupied seasonally, depending both on the traditions involved and the local weather, and people may be part of a monastic community for periods ranging from a few days at a time to almost an entire lifetime.

The life within the walls of a monastery may be supported in several ways: by manufacturing and selling goods, often agricultural products such as cheese, wine, beer, liquor, and jellies; by donations or alms; by rental or investment incomes; and by funds from other organizations within the religion, which in the past formed the traditional support of monasteries. However, today Christian monastics have updated and adapted themselves to modern society by offering computer services, accounting services, and management as well as modern hospital administration in addition to running schools, colleges and universities.

There were many buildings in a monastery, including a: church, chapter house, dormitory, infirmary, cloister, smithy, stable, balneary and pigsties. Another building which might be in a monastery is a school.

For a discussion of the history and development of the life inside hermit cottages see monasticism and abbey.

Etymology

The word ''monastery'' comes from the Greek word ''μοναστήριον'', neut. of ''μοναστήριος'' - ''monasterios'' from ''μονάζειν'' - ''monazein'' "to live alone" from the root ''μόνος'' - ''monos'' "alone" (originally all Christian monks were hermits); the suffix "-terion" denotes a "place for doing something". For early usage, contemporary with the birth of the Christian Church, see Philo, ''On the Contemplative Life'' III.25.

In England the word ''monastery'' was also applied to the habitation of a bishop and the cathedral clergy who lived apart from the lay community. Most cathedrals were not monasteries, and were served by canons secular, which were communal but not monastic. However some were run by monastic orders, such as York Minster. Westminster Abbey was for a short time a cathedral, and was a Benedictine monastery until the Reformation, and its Chapter preserves elements of the Benedictine tradition. See the entry cathedral. They are also to be distinguished from collegiate churches, such as St George's Chapel, Windsor.

Terms

In most of this article, the term ''monastery'' is used generically to refer to any of a number of types of religious community. In the Roman Catholic religion and to some extent in certain other branches of Christianity, there is a somewhat more specific definition of the term and many related terms.

Buddhist monasteries are generally called vihara (Pali language). Viharas may be occupied by males or females, and in keeping with common English usage, a vihara populated by females may often be called a nunnery or a convent. However, vihara can also refer to a temple. In Tibetan Buddhism, monasteries are often called gompa. In Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, a monastery is called a wat.

A monastery may be an abbey (i.e., under the rule of an abbot), or a priory (under the rule of a prior), or conceivably a hermitage (the dwelling of a hermit). It may be a community of men (monks) or of women (nuns). A charterhouse is any monastery belonging to the Carthusian order. In Eastern Christianity a very small monastic community can be called a skete, and a very large or important monastery can be given the dignity of a lavra.

The great communal life of a Christian monastery is called cenobitic, as opposed to the anchoretic (or anchoritic) life of an anchorite and the eremitic life of a hermit. There has also been, mostly under the Osmanli occupation of Greece and Cyprus, an "idiorrhythmic" lifestyle where monks come together but being able to own things individually and not being obliged to work for the common good.

In Hinduism monasteries are called matha, mandir, koil, or most commonly an ashram.

Jains use the Buddhist term vihara.

Buddhism

Buddhist monasteries, known as vihara, emerged sometime around the 4th century BC, from the practice of vassa, the retreat undertaken by Buddhist monks and nuns during the South Asian rainy season. To prevent wandering monks from disturbing new plant growth or becoming stranded in inclement weather, Buddhist monks and nuns were instructed to remain in a fixed location for the roughly three month period typically beginning in mid-July. Outside of the ''vassa'' period, monks and nuns both lived a migratory existence, wandering from town to town begging for food. These early fixed ''vassa'' retreats were held in pavilions and parks that had been donated to the ''sangha'' by wealthy supporters. Over the years, the custom of staying on property held in common by the ''sangha'' as a whole during the ''vassa'' retreat evolved into a more cenobitic lifestyle, in which monks and nuns resided year round in monasteries.

In India, Buddhist monasteries gradually developed into centres of learning where philosophical principles were developed and debated; this tradition is currently preserved by monastic universities of Vajrayana Buddhists, as well as religious schools and universities founded by religious orders across the Buddhist world. In modern times, living a settled life in a monastery setting has become the most common lifestyle for Buddhist monks and nuns across the globe.

Whereas early monasteries are considered to have been held in common by the entire ''sangha'', in later years this tradition diverged in a number of countries. Despite ''vinaya'' prohibitions on possessing wealth, many monasteries became large land owners, much like monasteries in medieval Christian Europe. In China, peasant families worked monastic-owned land in exchange for paying a portion of their yearly crop to the resident monks in the monastery, just as they would to a feudal landlord. In Sri Lanka and Tibet, the ownership of a monastery often became vested in a single monk, who would often keep the property within the family by passing it on to a nephew who ordained as a monk. In Japan, where civil authorities permitted Buddhist monks to marry, being the head of a temple or monastery sometimes became a hereditary position, passed from father to son over many generations.

Forest monasteries – most commonly found in the Theravada traditions of Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka – are monasteries dedicated primarily to the study of Buddhist meditation, rather than scholarship or ceremonial duties. Forest monasteries often function like early Christian monasteries, with small groups of monks living an essentially hermit-like life gathered loosely around a respected elder teacher. While the wandering lifestyle practised by the Buddha and his disciples continues to be the ideal model for forest tradition monks in Thailand and elsewhere, practical concerns- including shrinking wilderness areas, lack of access to lay supporters, dangerous wildlife, and dangerous border conflicts- dictate that more and more 'meditation' monks live in monasteries, rather than wandering.

Tibetan Buddhist monasteries are sometimes known as lamaseries and the monks are sometimes (mistakenly) known as lamas.

Some famous Buddhist monasteries include:

Jetavana, Sravasti

Nalanda, India

Shaolin, China

Donglin Temple, Jiangxi, China

Tengboche, Nepal

A further list of Buddhist monasteries is available at the list of Buddhist temples

Christianity

:''Main article:'' Christian monasticism

According to tradition, Christian monasticism began in Egypt with St. Anthony. Originally, all Christian monks were hermits seldom encountering other people. But because of the extreme difficulty of the solitary life, many monks failed, either returning to their previous lives, or becoming spiritually deluded.

A transitional form of monasticism was later created by Saint Amun in which “solitary” monks lived close enough to one another to offer mutual support as well as gathering together on Sundays for common services.

It was St. Pachomios who developed the idea of having monks live together and worship together under the same roof (Coenobitic Monasticism). Soon the Egyptian desert blossomed with monasteries, especially around Nitria, which was called the "Holy City”. Estimates are the upwards of 50,000 monks lived in this area at any one time.

Hermitism never died out though, but was reserved only for those advanced monks who had worked out their problems within a cenobitic monastery. The idea caught on, and other places followed:

Saint Eugenios founded a monastery on Mt. Izla above Nisibis in Mesopotamia (~350), and from this monastery the cenobitic tradition spread in Mesopotamia, Persia, Armenia, Georgia and even India and China.

Saint Saba organized the monks of the Judean Desert in a monastery close to Bethlehem (483), and this is considered the mother of all monasteries of the Eastern Orthodox churches.

St. Benedict of Nursia founded the monastery of Monte Cassino in Italy (529), which was the seed of Roman Catholic monasticism in general, and of the order of Benedict in particular.

'La Grande Chartreuse' the mother house of the Carthusian Order founded by Saint Bruno of Cologne was established in the 11th century as an eremitic community. The documentary "Into Great Silence" allows viewers a sense of life within the Western Church's most austere religious order.

Kecharis Monastery is a 13th century monastery, located 60 km from Yerevan.

Western Medieval Europe

The life of prayer and communal living was one of rigorous schedules and self sacrifice. Prayer was their work, and the Office prayers took up much of a monk's waking hours - Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, daily Mass, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline. In between prayers, monks were allowed to sit in the cloister and work on their projects of writing, copying, or decorating books. These would have been assigned based on a monk's abilities and interests. The non-scholastic types were assigned to physical labour of varying degrees.

The main meal of the day took place around noon, often taken at a refectory table, and consisted of the most simple and bland foods i.e. poached fish, boiled oats. Anything tastier, which appeared on occasion, was criticized. While they ate, scripture would be read from a pulpit above them. Since no other words were allowed to be spoken, monks developed communicative gestures. Abbots and notable guests were honoured with a seat at the high table, while everyone else sat perpendicular to that in the order of seniority. This practice remained when monasteries became universities after the first millennium, and can still be seen at Oxford University and Cambridge University.

Monasteries were important contributors to the surrounding community. They were centres of intellectual progression and education. They welcomed aspiring priests to come study and learn, allowing them even to challenge doctrine in dialogue with superiors. The earliest forms of musical notation are attributed to a monk named Notker of St Gall, and was spread to musicians throughout Europe by way of the interconnected monasteries. Since monasteries offered respite for weary pilgrim travellers, monks were obligated also to care for their injuries or emotional needs. Over time, lay people started to make pilgrimages ''to'' monasteries instead of just using them as a stop over. By this time, they had sizeable libraries that attracted tourist. Families would donate a son in return for blessings. During the plagues, monks helped to till the fields and provide food for the sick.

A Warming House is a common part of a medieval monastery, where monks went to warm themselves. It was often the only room in the monastery where a fire was lit.

===Orthodox Christianity=== In the Eastern Orthodox Church, both monks and nuns follow a similar ascetic discipline, and even their religious habit is the same (though nuns wear an extra veil, called the ''apostolnik''). Unlike Roman Catholic monasticism, the Orthodox do not have separate religious orders, but a single monastic form throughout the Orthodox Church. Monastics, male or female, live away from the world, in order to pray for the world. They do not normally run hospitals and orphanages, they do not consider teaching or caring for the sick a part of their vocation, though they are obligated by Christian charity to provide help when needed.

Monasteries vary from the very large to the very small. There are three types of monastic houses in the Orthodox Church:

When monks live together, work together, and pray together, following the directions of an abbot and the elder monks, this is called a cenobium. The concept of the cenobitic life is that when many men (or women) live together in a monastic context, like rocks with sharp edges, their “sharpness” becomes worn away and they become smooth and polished. The largest monasteries can hold many thousands of monks and are called ''lavras''. In the cenobium the daily office, work and meals are all done in common.

Sketes are small monastic establishments that usually consist of one elder and 2 or 3 disciples. In the skete most prayer and work are done in private, coming together on Sundays and feast days. Thus, skete life has elements of both solitude and community, and for this reason is called the "middle way".

The highest level of asceticism is practised by monks who do not live in monastic communities, but in solitude, as hermits.

One of the great centres of Orthodox monasticism is Mount Athos in Greece, an isolated, self-governing peninsula approximately long and wide (similar to the Vatican, being a separate government), administered by the heads of the 20 monasteries. Today the population of the Holy Mountain is around 2,200 men only and can only be visited by men with special permission granted by both the Greek government and the government of the Holy Mountain itself.

The leading monasteries of the Holy Mountain are:

Great Lavra

Vatopedi

Iviron (Georgian)

Dionysiou

Koutloumousiou

Cheropotamou

Zograf (Bulgarian)

Dochiariou

Simonos Petra

Stavronikita

Xenophontos

Gregoriou

St. Panteleimon (Russian)

Esphigmenou

Philotheou

Konstamonitou

Chilandariou (Serbian)

Other famous Orthodox monasteries include:

Ayia Napa Monastery, Ayia Napa Cyprus

Meteora, Greece

Sümela Monastery, Turkey

St Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai

The Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Russia

Kiev Monastery of the Caves, Ukraine

Rila Monastery, Bulgaria

Putna Monastery, Romania

Trei Ierarhi Monastery, Romania

Solovetsky Monastery, Russia

Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, Russia

Alexander Nevsky Lavra, St Petersburg, Russia

Serafimo-Diveevsky Monastery, Nizhny Novgorod Region, Russia

Novodevichy Convent, Moscow

Pochayiv Lavra, Ukraine

Valaam Monastery, Russia

Studenica Monastery, Serbia

Sopocani Monastery, Serbia

Visoki Decani Monastery, Serbia

Gračanica Monastery, Serbia

Ostrog Monastery, Montenegro

Kykkos Monastery, Cyprus

Monastery of the Cross, Jerusalem

Monastery of the Temptation, Jericho, Palestinian territories

Mar Saba, Kidron Valley, Palestinian territories

Curtea de Argeş Monastery, Romania

Voroneţ Monastery, Romania

Horezu Monastery, Romania

Neamţ Monastery, Romania

Monastery of Saint John the Theologian and the Cave of the Apocalypse on the Island of Pátmos, Greece

Oriental Orthodox Churches

The Oriental Orthodox Churches, distinguished by their Miaphysite beliefs consist of the Armenian Apostolic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria (whose Patriarch, is considered first among equals for the following churches), as well as the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, the Eritrean Orthodox Church, the Indian Orthodox Church, and the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch. The now extinct Caucasian Albanian Church also fell under this group.

St. Anthony's (''Deir Mar Antonios'') is the oldest monastery in the world and under the patronage of the Patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church.

Latin and Eastern Catholicism

A number of distinct monastic orders developed within Roman Catholicism (Eastern Orthodoxy does not have a system of individual Orders, ''per se'').

Canons Regular ('The Black Canons'), which evolved from the Priests Canon who would normally work with the Bishop: now living together with him like monks under St. Augustine's rule

Benedictine monks ('The Black Monks'), founded by St. Benedict, stresses manual labour in a self-subsistent monastery. See Cluniac Reforms.

Cistercian monks ('The White Monks') / *Trappist

Camaldolese

Bridgettine sisters

Carthusian monks

Gilbertine

Passionist

Poor Clares

Byzantine Discalced Carmelites

Premonstratensian canons ('The White Canons')

Tironensian monks ('The Grey Monks')

Valliscaulian monks

Famous Roman Catholic monasteries include:

Monte Cassino

El Escorial

Melk Abbey

Pannonhalma Archabbey

Buckfast Abbey

Monastery of Santo Domingo de Silos

Taizé Community

Mont Saint-Michel

Abbey of St. Gall

Dissolved Communities and Famous Dissolved Monasteries:

Fountains Abbey

Cluny Abbey

Lindisfarne

Whitby Abbey

Rievaulx Abbey

Glastonbury Abbey

Westminster Abbey

St Michael's Mount

Glendalough

St Andrews Abbey

Cluniac monks

Celestines

Clonmacnoise

Other Christian communities

The last years of the 18th century marked in the Christian Church the beginnings of growth of monasticism among Protestant denominations. The centrus of this movement was in the United States and Canada beginning with the Shaker Church, which was founded in England and then moved to the United States. In the 19th century many of these monastic societies were founded as Utopian communities based on the monastic model in many cases. Aside from the Shakers, there were the Amanna, the Anabaptists et al. Many did allow marriage but most had a policy of celibacy and communal life in which members shared all things communally and disavowed personal ownership.

In the 19th century monasticism was revived in the Church of England, leading to the foundation of such institutions as the House of the Resurrection, Mirfield (Community of the Resurrection), Nashdom Abbey (Benedictine), Cleeve Priory (Community of the Glorious Ascension) and Ewell Monastery (Cistercian), Benedictine orders, Franciscan orders and the Orders of the Holy Cross, Order of St. Helena. Other Protestant Christian denominations also engage in monasticism, particularly Lutherans in Europe and North America. For example, the Benedictine order of the Holy Cross at St Augustine's House in Michigan is a Lutheran order of monks and there are Lutheran religious communities in Sweden and Germany. In the 1960s, experimental monastic groups were formed in which both men and women were members of the same house and also were permitted to be married and have children—these were operated on a communal form. The Jewish Kibutz is a form of monasticism operating on a communal basis.

Hinduism

In Hinduism, monks have existed for a long time, and with them, their respective monasteries, called mathas. Most famous among them are the chatur-amnaya mathas established by Adi Shankara, Ashta matha (Eight monasteries) of Udupi founded by Madhvacharya (Madhwa acharya) a dwaitha philosopher.

Recent trends

The number of dedicated monastics in any religion has waxed and waned due to many factors. There have been Christian monasteries such as "The Cappadocian Caves" that used to shelter upwards of 5,000 monks, or St Pantelaimon's on the "Holy Mountain" in Greece, which had 3,000 in its heyday. Today those numbers have dwindled considerably. Currently the monasteries containing the largest numbers are Buddhist: Drepung Monastery in Tibet housed around 10,000 monks prior to the Chinese invasion. Today its relocated monastery in India houses around 8,000 - nearly four times the current monastic population of the entire Holy Mountain.

On the other hand, there are those among monastic leaders that are critical of monasteries that are too large. Such become institutions and lose that intensity of spiritual training that can better be handled when an elder has only 2 or 3 disciples. There are on the Holy Mountain areas such as the Skete of St Anne, which could be considered one entity but is in fact many small "Sketes" (monastic houses containing one elder and 2 or 3 disciples) who come together in one church for services.

Additionally, there is a growing Christian neo-monasticism, particularly among evangelical Christians. Established upon at least some of the customary monastic principles, they have attracted many who seek to live in relationship with other, or who seek to live in an intentionally focused lifestyle, such as a focus upon simplicity or pacifism. Some include rites, noviciate periods in which a newly interested person can test out living and sharing of resources, while others are more pragmatic, providing a sense of family in addition to a place to live in.

See also

Dissolution of the Monasteries

Religious order

Ecovillage

List of abbeys and priories

List of Buddhist temples

Krishnapura matha

Monasticism

New Monasticism

Pilgrimage

Rota (architecture)

Shivalli

Taoism

Thomas Merton

Vihara

Wudangshan

References

External links

Sumela Monastery

Public Domain photographs and texts, and information regarding medieval monasteries.

Monastery Italy

Category:Greek loanwords

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