• Chinese:

  Mandarin: (huíláng)

• German: Kreuzgang
• Greek: περιστύλιο
• Hungarian: kerengő
• Russian: крытая галерея (krýtaja gal'er'éja) , крытая аркада (krýtaja arkáda)

• Bosnian: manastir
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: (xiūdàoyuàn)

• Croatian: manastir, samostan
• Czech: klášter
• German: Kloster
• Greek: μοναστήρι
• Hungarian: kolostor, zárda
• Russian: монастырь
• Serbian:

  Cyrillic: манастир

  Roman: manastir

• ttbc Catalan: claustre
• ttbc Dutch: klooster
• ttbc French: cloître (1)
• ttbc Italian: chiostro
• ttbc Korean: 회랑
• ttbc Spanish: Claustro

Verb

1. To become a Roman Catholic religious.
2. To confine in a cloister, voluntarily or not.
3. To deliberately withdraw from worldly things.
4. To protect or isolate.

Related terms

• claustration

See also

• monastery
• nunnery

A cloister (from Latin claustrum) is a part of cathedral, monastic and abbey architecture. A cloister consists usually of four corridors, with a courtyard or garth in the middle. It is intended to be both covered from the rain, but open to the air. The attachment of a cloister to a Cathedral church usually indicates that it is (or was once) a monastic foundation.

Cloistered (or "Claustral") life is also another name for the life of a monk or nun in the enclosed religious orders; the modern English term enclosure is used in contemporary Catholic church law to mean cloistered, and cloister is sometimes used as a synonym for monastery.

In medieval times, cloisters served the primary function of quiet meditation or study gardens.

The worldwide biggest cloister (12000 m²) is in the Certosa di Padula in southern Italy.

See also

• Peristyle

Notes

External links

• Photos of Cloisters in Spain and England
• The Code of Canon Law, cf canons 667 ff.
• New Advent Encyclopaedia III ff. on "Nuns, properly so called
• "Cloister" in the New Advent encyclopaedia
• New Advent Encyclopaedia on "Religious Life

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