A cell is a small room used by a
hermit,
monk,
nun or
anchorite to live and as a devotional space. Cells are often part of larger
cenobitic monastic communities such as
Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
,
Lutheran
Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...
, Anglican and Orthodox Christian
monasteries, as well as
Buddhist vihara, but may also form stand-alone structures in remote locations. The word ''cell'' comes from the
Old French
Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th [2-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...
''celle'' meaning a monastic cell, itself from the Latin meaning "room", "store room" or "chamber".
Usually, a cell is small and contains a minimum of furnishings. It may be an individual living space in a building or a hermit's primitive solitary living space, possibly a
cave
Caves or caverns are natural voids under the Earth's Planetary surface, surface. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. Exogene caves are smaller openings that extend a relatively short distance undergrou ...
or
hut in a remote location. A small dependent or daughter house of a major monastery, sometimes housing just one or two monks or nuns, may also be termed a cell.
The first cells were in the
Nitrian Desert in
Egypt
Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...
following the ministry of
Paul of Thebes,
Serapion, and
Anthony the Great. in the mid 3rd century.
In some orders, such as the Trappists, the monks or nuns do not have cells but sleep in a large room called a dormitory. In eremitic orders like the
Carthusians, the room called ''cell'' usually has the size and look of a small house with a separate garden.
Buddhism
In
Buddhism
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...
, a
vihara was a living arrangement similar to a Christian monastery. The term "kuti" is also used.
See also
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References
External links
{{Authority control
Asceticism
Religious places
Rooms
Monasticism