cenobium

English

Pronunciation

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Noun

cenobium (plural cenobiums or cenobia)

1. Alternative spelling of coenobium
   • 1911, E. C. Butler, “Monasticism”, in H[enry] M[elvill] Gwatkin, J[ames] P[ounder] Whitney, editors, The Cambridge Medieval History, volumes I (The Christian Roman Empire and the Foundation of the Teutonic Kingdoms), Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, →OCLC, page 529:

     There were the cenobia, or monasteries proper, where the life was according to the lines laid down by St Basil; and there were the lauras, wherein a semi-eremitical life was followed, the monks living in separate huts within the enclosure.

   • 2002, Robert Imperato, “Desert Tradition: Cassian and Benedict”, in Early and Medieval Christian Spirituality, Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, →ISBN, page 45:

     Psalmody refers to singing or reciting psalms; in the cenobium this was performed communally seven times a day.

   • 2011, John Michael Talbot, “The Observance of Lent”, in Blessings of St. Benedict, Collegeville, Minn.: Liturgical Press, →ISBN, page 79:

     We are part of a community, a cenobium, and we are under the spiritual direction of an abbot and his delegates.

   • 2012, Mark Sheridan, “John Cassian and the Formation of Authoritative Tradition”, in From the Nile to the Rhone and Beyond: Studies in Early Monastic Literature and Scriptural Interpretation, Rome: Studia Anselmiana, →ISBN, part II (To the Rhone), page 417:

     The cenobium is the proper locus for the acquisition of virtue and in the nineteenth conference he has the Abbot John [Cassian], who had passed thirty years in the cenobium, twenty as an anchorite and then returned to the cenobium, expound the dangers of the desert and the advantages of the cenobium.