Christian Antiq. [Gr. λαύρα, lane, passage, alley.] An aggregation of detached cells, tenanted by recluse monks under a superior, in Egypt and the desert country near the Jordan.
1727–52. in Chambers, Cycl.
1819. Southey, in Q. Rev., XXII. 66. Like one of the eastern Lauras—an assemblage of separate cells, each inhabited by a recluse.
1845. Petrie, Eccl. Archit. Irel., 425. These [separate cells] formed a Laura, like the habitations of the Egyptian ascetics.
1871. Farrar, Witn. Hist., v. 170. It would have perished in some lonely laura of desert cenobites.
