Monasteria

Monasteria is a term which was sometimes used in the early Church to designate the places of worship belonging to the Egyptian Therapeutse. Thus Eusebius (Hist. Ecclesiastes lib. 2, c. 177) uses it (Μοναστήριον). Afterwards, in the Middle Ages, it became usual to give this name (monasteria) to large parochial and cathedral churches; hence the word minster (q.v.). See Riddle, Christian Antiquities, page 705.