skete
A skete is a group of hermits following a monastic rule, allowing them to worship in comparative solitude, although with a level of support present not available for a lone hermit.
A Skete usually has a common area of worship (a church or a chapel), with individual hermitages, or small houses for a small number of monks or nuns.
In the early tradition of Christianity, the Skete was one form of monastic life, forming a bridge between the cenobium (community of monks or nuns living together) and the isolated hermitage (solo monks and nuns). In the early church, men and women aspiring to be hermits or anchorites, would first be sent to the Skete in preparation - the Skete acted as almost a 'halfway house' between the cenobium and total solitude.
The term "skete" has fallen out of use in Western Christianity, however the eremitic communal life of the Carthusian, Camaldolese, and Carmelite hermits is similar to that in the Eastern Christian tradition.
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