LAURA was the name given to a collection of separate cells in a wilderness, differing from the monastery, or building in which the monks all lived together. In the laura each monk had his own cell provided for himself, and lived alone during five days of the week, his only food being dates and bread and water. On the remaining two days
the inmates of the lauras took the sacrament, and supped on broth in common. The origin of the name is obscure. The most celebrated lauras mentioned in ecclesiastical history were in Palestine; as the laura of St Euthymus, four or five leagues distant from Jerusalem; the laura of St Sabs, near the Brook Kedron; and the laura of the Towers, near the River Jordan.