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The monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in communities or alone (hermits). The monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which may be a chapel, church or temple, and may also serve as an oratory. Monasteries vary greatly in size, comprising a small dwelling accommodating only a hermit, or in the case of communities anything from a single building housing only one senior and two or three junior monks or nuns, to vast complexes and estates housing tens or hundreds. A monastery complex typically comprises a number of buildings which include a church, dormitory, cloister, refectory, library, balneary and infirmary. Depending on the location, the monastic order and the occupation of its inhabitants, the complex may also include a wide range of buildings that facilitate self-sufficiency and service to the community. These may include a hospice, a school and a range of agricultural and manufacturing buildings such as a barn, a forge or a brewery. In English usage, the term ''monastery'' is generally used to denote the buildings of a community of monks. In modern usage, ''convent'' tends to be applied only to institutions of female monastics (nuns), particularly communities of teaching or nursing religious sisters. Historically, a convent denoted a house of friars (reflecting the Latin), now more commonly called a ''friary''. Various religions may apply these terms in more specific ways. == Etymology == The word ''monastery'' comes from the Greek word ''μοναστήριον'', neut. of ''μοναστήριος'' – ''monasterios'' from ''μονάζειν'' – ''monazein'' "to live alone"〔(Online Etymology Dictionary )〕 from the root ''μόνος'' – ''monos'' "alone" (originally all Christian monks were hermits); the suffix "-terion" denotes a "place for doing something". The earliest extant use of the term ''monastērion'' is by the 1st century AD Jewish philosopher Philo in ''On The Contemplative Life,'' ch. III. In England the word ''monastery'' was also applied to the habitation of a bishop and the cathedral clergy who lived apart from the lay community. Most cathedrals were not monasteries, and were served by canons secular, which were communal but not monastic. However some were run by monasteries orders, such as York Minster. Westminster Abbey was for a short time a cathedral, and was a Benedictine monastery until the Reformation, and its Chapter preserves elements of the Benedictine tradition. See the entry cathedral. They are also to be distinguished from collegiate churches, such as St George's Chapel, Windsor. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Monastery」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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