Lavra

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Lavra (Gk., laura, ‘street’ or ‘alley’). In the early Christian Church, a gathering of anchorites who lived in separate dwellings or cells, and assembled only on Saturdays and Sundays. The term has also become the name of important coenobitic monasteries and especially to the ‘Great Lavra’ or simply ‘Lavra’ on Mount Athos founded by St Athanasios the Athonite in 962.

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