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You are here: Home / Glossary

Glossary

Cloister

This is a covered walkway around the courtyard within a monastery. It was used as a place of ceremony - including processions, foot-washing (to imitate Jesus) and readings in the Collation service. Since the collation readings were not devotional sitting was allowed. The monks sat beneath decorative arches. The reader stood in a pulpit - standing directly opposite the monastery's superior. Study was also carried out in the cloister since it caught most of the light (though study areas and desks were usually made of wood).

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