An abbess, also known as a mother superior, is the female superior of a community of Catholic nuns in an abbey.
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone (hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer which may be a chapel, church, or temple, and may also serve as an oratory, 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, and outlying granges. 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.
Canterbury Cathedral in Canterbury, Kent, is one of the oldest and most famous Christian structures in England. It forms part of a World Heritage Site. It is the cathedral of the Archbishop of Canterbury, currently Justin Welby, leader of the Church of England and symbolic leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion. Its formal title is the Cathedral and Metropolitical Church of Christ at Canterbury.
Plumstead is an area in southeast London, within the Royal Borough of Greenwich, England. It is located east of Woolwich.
The dissolution of the monasteries, occasionally referred to as the suppression of the monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541, by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents, and friaries in England, Wales, and Ireland; expropriated their income; disposed of their assets; and provided for their former personnel and functions.
Thomas Merton was an American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, mystic, poet, social activist and scholar of comparative religion. On May 26, 1949, he was ordained to the Catholic priesthood and given the name "Father Louis". He was a member of the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, near Bardstown, Kentucky, living there from 1941 to his death.
The Hilandar Monastery is one of the twenty Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Mount Athos in Greece and the only Serbian monastery there. It was founded in 1198 by Stefan Nemanja and his son Saint Sava. St. Symeon was the former Grand Prince of Serbia (1166–1196) who upon relinquishing his throne took monastic vows and became an ordinary monk. He joined his son Saint Sava who was already in Mount Athos and who later became the first Archbishop of Serbia. Upon its foundation, the monastery became a focal point of the Serbian religious and cultural life, as well as assumed the role of "the first Serbian university". It is ranked fourth in the Athonite hierarchy of 20 sovereign monasteries. The Mother of God through her Icon of the Three Hands (Trojeručica) is considered the monastery's abbess.
Valac is a demon described in the goetic grimoires The Lesser Key of Solomon, Johann Weyer's Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, the Liber Officiorum Spirituum, and in the Munich Manual of Demonic Magic as an angelically winged boy riding a two-headed dragon, attributed with the power of finding treasures.
The Olivetans, formally known as the Order of Our Lady of Mount Olivet, are a monastic order. They were founded in 1313 and recognised in 1344. They use the Rule of Saint Benedict and are a member of the Benedictine Confederation, where they are also known as the Olivetan Congregation, but are distinguished from the Benedictines in their white habit and centralized organisation. They use the post-nominals 'OSB Oliv'.
Mount Grace Priory is a monastery in the parish of East Harlsey, North Yorkshire, England. Set in woodlands within the North York Moors National Park, it is represented today by the best preserved and most accessible ruins among the nine houses of the Carthusian Order, which existed in England in the Middle Ages and were known as charterhouses.
The Krušedol Monastery is a Serbian Orthodox monastery on the Fruška Gora mountain in the Syrmia region, northern Serbia, in the province of Vojvodina. The monastery is the legacy of the last Serbian despot family of Syrmia - Branković. Dedicated to the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, it has been described as the "spiritual beacon" of Fruška Gora and "Second Studenica".
Blackfriars, Gloucester, England, founded about 1239, is one of the most complete surviving Dominican black friaries in England. Now owned by English Heritage and restored in 1960, it is currently leased to Gloucester City Council and used for weddings, concerts, exhibitions, guided tours, filming, educational events and private hires. The former church, since converted into a house, is a Grade I listed building.
St Ann Blackfriars was a church in the City of London, in what is now Ireland Yard in the ward of Farringdon Within. The church began as a medieval parish chapel, dedicated to St Ann, within the church of the Dominicans. The new parish church was established in the 16th century to serve the inhabitants of the precincts of the former Dominican monastery, following its dissolution under King Henry VIII. It was near the Blackfriars Theatre, a fact which displeased its congregation. It was destroyed in the Great Fire of London of 1666.
Alexios Stoudites or Alexius Studites, an ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, was a member of the Monastery of Stoudios, succeeded Eusthathius as patriarch in 1025, the last of the patriarchs appointed by Emperor Basil II.
Makenyats Vank is a 9th–13th century Armenian monastery located 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) south of Lake Sevan in the village of Makenis in the Gegharkunik Province of Armenia. The monastery was founded in 851 with the construction of the central S. Astvatsatsin Church by Prince Grigor Supan II, the son of Princess Mariam, who was also the founder of Kotavank in Nerkin Getashen, Armenia. Makenyats Vank served as a major cultural and educational center for the medieval province of Gegharkunik.
Tawang Monastery, located in Tawang city of Tawang district in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, is the largest monastery in India. It is situated in the valley of the Tawang Chu, near the small town of the same name in the northwestern part of Arunachal Pradesh, in close proximity to the Chinese and Bhutanese border.
The Gomionica Monastery is a Serbian Orthodox monastery dedicated to the Presentation of Mary and located at the village of Kmećani, 42 kilometres west of Banja Luka, in the Republika Srpska entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The monastery is the spiritual centre of the region known as Zmijanje.
Polychron Monastery was a medieval Byzantine monastery in Bithynia founded in the 5th century. It is located on the slope of the Asia Minor Olympus.
Saint Thomas of Villanova Giving Alms is an oil on canvas painting by Murillo, created c. 1668, originally produced for the Capuchin monastery in Seville and now in the Museum of Fine Arts of Seville.
