Lavra

   Monastery that allowed monks to practice semi-independent asceticism (q.v.). Monks lived in individual dwellings (cells [q.v.]), leading solitary lives of work and prayer. However, they remained under the supervision of an archimandrite (q.v.). He gathered them together on weekends for prayer and fellowship within a group of buildings that included a common church, refectory, kitchen, bakery, stables, storerooms, and sickbay. Thus, the lavra was a form of monasticism (q.v.) somewhere in-between that of the isolated anchorite (q.v.) and the koinobion (q.v.). Nevertheless, the term lavra came to refer to important koinobitic monasteries on Mount Athos (q.v.), most notably the Great Lavra (q.v.).