Also -ion, -eum. Pl. -a. [Late L. xenodochīum, -ēum, ad. late Gr. ξενοδοχεῖον, f. ξέυος stranger + δέχεσθαι to receive.] A house of reception for strangers and pilgrims; a hostel, guest-house, esp. in a monastery.
1612. Coryat, in Purchas, Pilgrims (1625), II. 1829. In Constantinople, Peru, and Galata, there are … Karabassaries or Xenodochia foure hundred and eighteen.
1736. Drake, Eboracum, I. vii. 246. [A] spital … was an house of entertainment for poor travellers or pilgrims … this [sc. spital of St. Catherine] was a Xenodochium of that kind.
1832. Gell, Pompeiana, II. xiii. 18. Many have supposed that the xenodochium, or hospitium, for the reception of strangers was placed in this division of the mansion.
1844. Lingard, Anglo-Saxon Ch. (1858), I. vi. 246. Within the precincts of the monastery stood an edifice, distinguished by the Greek name of Xenodochium, in which a certain number of paupers received their daily support, and which was gratuitously opened to every traveller who solicited relief.
1865. Lecky, Ration., II. vi. 263. Long before the era of persecution had closed, the hospital and the Xenodochion, or refuge for strangers, was known among the Christians.
