as 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 laura 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 Euthymius, four or five leagues distant from Jerusalem; the laura of St Sabas, near the Brook Kedron; and the laura of the Towers, near the River Jordan.