The monastery's primary purpose was as the living quarters and work place of monks or nuns, living in communities or in smaller hermitages alone - as hermits. There is typically a place of worship, which may be a chapel, church or temple, allowing residents to pray. Monastic complexes also may have provided wider facilities such as a refectory, infirmary or a library, in order to facilitate education or community services, or self sufficiency for the residents.
Monastery is generically used to refer to buildings of any religious community although monastic life is most prominent in Catholic and Orthodox traditions of Christianity as well as in certain branches of Buddhism.
A monastery complex consists of several different buildings and rooms. Dormitories or cells comprise the sleeping quarters, while there is also typically a Church or Chapel for prayer, cloister, refectory, balneary, library and infirmary.
Monasteries are home to communities of monks or nuns who commit their time and life to religious prayer. Strictly, nuns live in a convent with monks residing in Monasteries.
The living quarters for Monks within the Monastery are individual rooms known as monastic cells. A cell often refers to an individual room within a larger community or it may refer to a hermit's solitary live space, isolated from other people and inhabited places.
Both are communities of monastics and historically the term is largely interchangeable. Monasteries are typically housed by male monks, while female nuns live within convents. Technically, a “monastery" is a community of monastics, whereas a "convent" is a community of mendicants, and a "canonry" a community of canons.
Many monasteries and convents provide accommodation to visitors. Monasteries.com allows visitors to book monasteries in locations across Europe. We have put together a guide detailing what it is like staying in a monastery. There are no requirements to be of a religious background. Properties are available to any guests respectful of the surroundings, the lifestyle and the monks. Often the only major restriction will be a curfew - which is typically between 10pm and midnight.
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