Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state of being a cenobite; the principles or practices of cenobites.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The state of being a cenobite; the belief or practice of a cenobite.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The state of being a cenobite; the belief or practice of a cenobite.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

cenobite +‎ -ism

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Examples

  • Basil of Caesarea (330–79), a leading Greek theologian, attacked the eremitic life, because of the impossibility of material self-sufficiency, the excessive concern with the self, and the lack of opportunity for the exercise of charity; he espoused cenobitism, which eventually became the common form of monasticism in the West.

    b. The Early Church 2001

  • Asceticism of the solitary life was apart from the organization of the Church; when this form of life had developed in cenobitism it still remained for a time, at least, outside the ecclesiastical organization.

    A Source Book for Ancient Church History Joseph Cullen Ayer 1905

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