Laura
Charles Buck Theological Dictionary [1]
In church history, a name given to a collection of little cells at some distance from each other, in which the hermits of ancient times lived together in a wilderness. These hermits did not live in community, but each monk provided for himself in his distinct cell. the most celebrated lauras mentioned in ecclesiastical history were in Palestine; as the laura of St. Euthymus, St. Saba, the laura of the towers, &c.
Webster's Dictionary [2]
(n.) A number of hermitages or cells in the same neighborhood occupied by anchorites who were under the same superior.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [3]
(collection of anchorites' cells), a name given by Church historians to collections of cells, the habitations of hermits or monastics of the early days of the Church, but incorrectly used as a synonyme of monasterium, from which it greatly differs, inasmuch as the inmates of the latter were coenobites, and held intercourse with each other, while those of the former lived apart, in seclusion. The holy tenants of a laura passed in solitude and silence five days in a week; their food was bread, water, and dates; on Saturday and Sunday they received the sacrament, and messed together on broth and a small allowance of wine. Bingham states that when many of the cells of anchorets were placed together in the same wilderness, at some distance from one another, they were all called by one common name, laura, which, as Evagrius informs us (1:21), differed from a coenobium in this, that a laura was many cells divided from each other, where every monk provided for himself; but a cenobium was but one habitation, where the monks lived in society, and had everything in common. Epiphanius (Hoeres. 69, 1) says Laura, or Labra, was the name of a street or district where a church stood in Alexandria; and it is probable that from this the name was taken to signify a multitude of cells in the willerness, united, as it were, in a certain district, yet so divided as to make up many separate habitations. The most celebrated lauras were established in the East, especially in Palestine, as the laura of St. Euthymus, St. Saba, the laura of the towers, etc. (See Monachism); (See Monastery).
The Nuttall Encyclopedia [4]
A young Avignonese married lady, for whom Petrarch conceived a Platonic affection, and who exercised a lifelong influence over him.
