Laura (Ἡ Λαύρα)

LAURA (ἡ λαύρα). - Byzantine monastic organization. The term, which in lexical value corresponds to the Latin vicus (cf. Arnobius, Adv. gent., 3, 41: PL 5, 998), was used, in the 4th century, especially in Palestine, to designate a "quarter" or village of monks.

To understand its nature, one must bear in mind the development of Eastern monasticism, in which three forms of monastic life are noted that flourished there simultaneously, each on its own account, namely the eremitic, the anchoritic and the cenobitic (v. MONACHISM).

St. Hilarion, a disciple of St. Anthony, brought the anchoritic life to Palestine, where it spread widely, giving rise to veritable "colonies" of monks, which took the name of l. The first of these was that of Faran, in the desert of Judah, founded in 323-30 by St. Chariton.

The l. therefore differs from the Pachomian "cenobium," made for associated life, in which the cells are enclosed by a single wall (claustrum); it is composed of many autonomous cells, distant from one another, although they have a church in common, in which a priest or master of the spirit administers the Sacraments to the others and makes them participants in the ecclesiastical life. In the "cenobium," also called "monastery," the monks live together; in the l., on the other hand, they are semi-hermits, or "anchorites," and each one, in the words of St. Sabas, is "hegumen in his own cell." St. Euthymius and St. Sabas, in the 5th century, gave great impetus to this kind of monastic life; the monks, however, who were admitted to live in the cells of the l. had first to undergo a period of formation and probation in a kind of cenobium, which was located in the same place. But the system of the l. was not free from drawbacks and made supervision difficult; hence the tendency to transform the anchoritic life into the cenobitic. The fundamental distinction of the two systems recurs often in the lives of St. Euthymius and St. Sabas, written by Cyril of Scythopolis, and the different manner of living is described in vivid colors by Evagrius Scholasticus (Hist. eccl., II, 21: PG 86, 2477-84).

Customary in Palestine, the name and the institution of the l. spread to the various parts of the Byzantine Empire. In time, however, the term l. became synonymous with monastery, whether the foundation was transformed from a l. into a cenobium, or whether it arose as such from the beginning (cenobitic l.). Indeed, in more recent times, l. (ἡ λαύρα pron. and transl. lavra) becomes an honorary title, to qualify a famous, large and populous cenobium; for which reason in Russia only four great monasteries are called l.: the l. of St. Sergius near Moscow, the Pechersk l. of Kiev, the l. of St. Alexander Nevsky near Petrograd (all three residences of the Metropolitan), and the l. of the Assumption at Pochayiv in Volhynia.

The most famous l. of Palestine, which still exists, is that of St. Sabas in Jerusalem, near the Kidron torrent, called the "Great l.," today "Mar Saba," occupied by dissident monks. The great l. of Mount Athos and of Mount Sinai have also had particular historical importance.

With the Palestinian l. the "Scete" or Skiti (ἡ σκήτη) has a close affinity, which recalls the manner of life practiced in ancient times in Egypt, especially in the deserts of Nitria and of Scetis (Σκήτη or Σκήτης), and then imitated elsewhere, above all on Mount Athos (v.): therefore "scete" and "l." were considered almost synonymous words (De Meester [v. bibl.], p. 299). But while originally the "scete" was sui iuris, in more recent times, assuming a juridical physiognomy somewhat different, it became, as on Mount Athos, a "dependency" of the great monastery, its hermitage. The small cells (τὰ κελλία), also called "huts" (καλύβαι), are placed in solitary and steep places; at their center, a common church. Hence the various names given to the "anchorites" of the l.: "laurites" (λαυρίται) or "lauriotes" (λαυριῶται); "celliotes" (κελλιῶται), "calybites" (καλυβίται), and "scetiotes" (σκητιῶται).

Igino Cecchetti