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Bible Dictionaries
Coenobite
Charles Buck Theological Dictionary
or One who lives in a convent, or in community, under a certain rule; in opposition to a hermit, who lives in solitude. Cassian makes this difference between a convent and a monastery, that the latter may be applied to the residence of a single religious or recluse; whereas the convent implies coenobites, or numbers of religious living in common. Fleury speaks of three kinds of monks in Egypt; anachorets, who live in solitude; coenobites, who continue to live in community; and sarabaites, who are a kind of monks-errant, that stroll from place to place. He refers the institution of coenobites to the time of the apostles, and makes it a kind of imitation of the ordinary lives of the faithful at Jerusalem; though St. Pachomius is ordinarily owned to be the institutor of the coenobite life, as being the first who gave a rule to any community.
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Buck, Charles. Entry for 'Coenobite'. Charles Buck Theological Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/cbd/c/coenobite.html. 1802.
