Monastic cell

{{Short description|Small room used by a hermit, monk, anchorite or nun to live and as a devotional space}}

File:Avila - Convento de San Jose o de las Madres 23 (reproduccion de la celda de la Santa).jpg in the Convent of Saint Joseph]]

A cell is a small room used by a hermit, monk, nun or anchorite to live and as a devotional space. Cells are often part of larger cenobitic monastic communities such as Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican and Orthodox Christian monasteries, as well as Buddhist vihara,[http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/monastery Cell] at Merriam Websters Dictionary.com. but may also form stand-alone structures in remote locations. The word cell comes from the Old French celle meaning a monastic cell, itself from the Latin meaning "room",[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/cell Cell] at dictionary.reference.com. "store room" or "chamber".[https://web.archive.org/web/20120812110538/http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/cell cell] at Oxford Dictionaries.

Usually, a cell is small and contains a minimum of furnishings. It may be an individual living space in a building or a hermit's primitive solitary living space, possibly a cave or hut in a remote location. A small dependent or daughter house of a major monastery, sometimes housing just one or two monks or nuns, may also be termed a cell.

The first cells were in the Nitrian Desert in Egypt following the ministry of Paul of Thebes,[http://www.arce.org/conservation/archive/u25 St Pauls Monastery Egypt]. Serapion, and Anthony the Great.Chryssavgis, John; Ware, Kallistos; Ward, Benedicta, In the Heart of the Desert: Revised Edition [https://books.google.com/books?id=goeFHFiL2h0C The Spirituality of the Desert Fathers and Mothers] (World Wisdom Bloomington, Ind., 2008) p15. in the mid 3rd century.

In some orders, such as the Trappists, the monks or nuns do not have cells but sleep in a large room called a dormitory. In eremitic orders like the Carthusians, the room called cell usually has the size and look of a small house with a separate garden.