Cell
cell
Small monastery or nunnery dependent on a larger house. Cells originated with the Benedictine Order and were commonly built on property belonging to the mother-house. Originally they were under the jurisdiction of provosts or deans, subject to removal by the superior of the main house. The inhabitants of these cells were obliged to contribute annually a definite amount of their incomes to the monastery to which they belonged and to appear personally on certain occasions. Cell also signifies the individual chamber or hut of a nun, monk, or hermit .
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Cell
(Lat. cella).
1. In classical archseology cella is applied to a cave or cellar to preserve wine, oil, or other provision. It also was applied to the enclosed space of a temple, to bath-rooms, to the sleeping apartments of slaves.
2. From this last use of the word it was transferred in the fourth century to the sleeping apartments of monks and nuns in cloisters (q.v.). These at first held three or four occupants, but later they usually received but one person. These cells are small, have one door and window, and are generally plainly furnished.
3. The word was also applied to a monastic dwelling, either for a single monk or for a community, subordinate to some great abbey. The former was mostly the abode of hermits, and erected in solitary places. SEE HERMITAGE. In the Quirinal Palace at Rome are the cells of the conclave (q.v.).
Cell (ADDENDUM)
in ecclesiastical usage denotes
(1) a small apartment;
(2) the small dwelling of a hermit or a Carthusian; that of the latter contained a bedroom, dayroom, and study;
(3) a cubiculum, or partitioned sleeping room in a dormitory.
Cell,
i.e. OBEDIENCE, or ABBATIAL; was a dependent religious house founded on an abbey estate, under the jurisdiction of the abbot of the mother Church. About the middle of the 11th century, owing to the creation of a new dignitary, the prior, in the Abbey of Clugni, these establishments received the designation of priories.
Fuente: Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
Cell
lit., “a habitation” (akin to oikeo, “to dwell”), is euphemistically put for “a prison,” in Act 12:7, RV, “cell.” See PRISON.