LAURA (or λαυρα). — A 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, it is necessary to bear in mind the development of Eastern monasticism, where three forms of monastic life flourished contemporaneously, each in its own way: the eremitic, the lavrite, and the cenobitic (v. MONACHISMO).
St. Hilarion, a disciple of St. Anthony, brought the eremitic life to Palestine, where it spread widely, giving rise to true “colonies” of monks, which took the name of l. The first of these was that of Pharan, in the desert of Judah, founded in 323–30 by St. Chariton.
The l. therefore differs from the “cenobium” of Pachomius, designed for communal life, in which the cells are enclosed by a single wall (claustrum); it consists of many autonomous cells, distant from one another, although they share a common church, where a priest or spiritual director administers the Sacraments to the others and incorporates them into 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, as the saying