foundation · 428 · Judaean Desert
Euthymius came from Melitene in Armenia and settled in the desert east of Jerusalem in 405, and by 428 the men who had gathered round him were numerous enough to need a shape. What he built is the middle term the eastern tradition kept: a lavra, where each monk lives alone in his own cell through the week and all come together on Saturday and Sunday for the liturgy and a common meal. It suits a desert where water is scattered and it lets a beginner be trained in a coenobium first and graduate to solitude — which is exactly how Euthymius ran it, sending the untried to the house at the foot of the hill. Palestinian monasticism took this shape and kept it, and through Sabbas, who was formed in it, handed it on to the Byzantine world entire. He also brought in Bedouin converts by the tribe and had a bishop consecrated for them, which is a stranger and less-told part of the record.
Anchorites are alone and coenobites are in community. Is there anything between?
The lavra: separate cells, a common church, and a rule for the week.