Lavra

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Lavra , also Lavra , Laura or Laure ( Cyrillic Лавра , from ancient Greek Λαύρα , street, alley, corridor ' ) is a place inhabited by a hermit colony in early Christian and later Orthodox monasticism in the form of cells or grottoes in which the monks are isolated apart than Eremiten life, but the liturgy party together, and a common Abt (Abbas) are subject to.

origin

The origins of this hermit form of life lie in early Christian Egypt and Palestine of the 4th century; there the hermit settlements in the Sketian desert are considered to be their nucleus: the first lavra was founded in 328 or 335 by Chariton the confessor in Pharan ; a second he built in Duka near the Jordan . His example was followed later by Euthymius the Great , Gerasimos and Sabas . Gerasimos gave his Laure a rule: the monks first had to lead a life together. When they were found suitable, they were assigned a cell where they spent five days a week without fire or cooked food, going about their work in complete silence and devoting themselves to prayer. On Saturdays and Sundays they would come together for the common church services and have a cooked meal with some wine. Of the more than 130 Palestinian monasteries of the fourth through seventh centuries, at least twenty were Lauren. In addition to Laura von Pharan and especially the so-called Great Laura Mar Saba founded by Sabas, those of St. Euthymios ( Chirbet el-Merd ) with its 38 rock paintings , the Firminos -Laura, a center of Origenism - the rock church and the baptistery were discovered in Chirbet Duwer in 1928 - and also the former Laura von Koziba, who is still inhabited by Greek Orthodox monks today .

When the monastic monasticism finally prevailed, the name Lavra or Lavra was adopted by other Orthodox monasteries , such as the Great Lavra Monastery on Mount Athos : Megisti Lavra Monastery . Based on this, the designation was transferred as an honorary title to important monasteries of the Russian Orthodox Church .

Monastery with honorary title

Only a few monasteries in present-day Russia and Ukraine bear the honorary title of a Lavra:

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Entry: Origenism. In: New Theological Dictionary . Academic, 2000-2013, accessed August 8, 2014.