. The first monks lived either as solitaries or under the direct supervision of an abba (‘father’). This seems to have been the case with the first known European monastic house, Marmoutier, established in 361 by Martin of Tours. As...

The Middle Ages (500-1400), especially the years between 500 and 1000 (known as the Dark Ages), was a stormy period in European history. Peace and order were in short supply after the fall of the Roman Empire in 486, as tribes of invaders from the east...

MONASTERY. [This entry discusses the architecture of Christian monasteries. For discussion of monasteries in Asian religions, see Temple, articles on Buddhist Temple Compounds, Daoist Temple Compounds, and Confucian Temple Compounds. For further...

Monastery (plural: Monasteries), a term derived from the Greek language word μοναστήριον (monastērion), denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer (e.g. an oratory) as well as the domestic quarters...

Enter the cloistered world of the 29 sisters of the Visitation of Holy Mary in Georgetown and you will find few hallmarks of the season. An Advent wreath takes pride of place in the temporary chapel, but it will not be until week's...

It seems like only yesterday that Lotus Development Corp. founder and de facto information highway commissioner Mitch Kapor plunked down $6.2 million to buy up a nine-acre Roman Catholic monastery abutting his mansion on the tonier side of Brookline. In 1989, Kapor said he...

Myanmar's military government on Monday put monasteries under close watch and cut off the cell phone service of known dissidents to clamp down on the most sustained anti-government protests in a decade.Demonstrations against the government raising fuel prices and the high cost of consumer goods...

Samuel A. Greene Jr., the founder of a monastery that closed amid scandal over the alleged sexual abuse of novice monks and a fraudulent weeping Virgin Mary painting, has died. He was 63.Greene's death was being investigated as a suicide, but officials were waiting for...