Monasteria

Monasteria

is a term which was sometimes used in the early Church to designate the places of worship belonging to the Egyptian Therapeutse. Thus Eusebius (Hist. Ecclesiastes lib. 2, c. 177) uses it ( Μοναστήριον ). Afterwards, in the Middle Ages, it became usual to give this name (monasteria) to large parochial and cathedral churches; hence the word Minster (q.v.). See Riddle, Christian Antiquities, page 705.