poustinia means in Christian spirituality, a small sparsely furnished cabin or room where a person goes to fast and pray, but which is less austere than a hermitage. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “poustinia” is a great word
In Christian spirituality, a small, sparsely furnished cabin or room used as a place for fasting and prayer, being less austere than a traditional hermitage. From the Russian *pustýnja*, meaning "desert." Unlike a "hermitage," which denotes a permanent, austere dwelling for a hermit, or a "cell," which refers to a monk's room within a communal monastery, a poustinia is a temporary retreat for intense personal prayer. It is a bare wooden bench, a single candle guttering in a draft, and the palpable silence that follows the closing of a door—a voluntary emptiness where the only task is to attend to what, or who, might fill it.
Etymology
From the Russian пусты́ня (pustýnja, “desert”).
noun
- In Christian spirituality, a small sparsely furnished cabin or room where a person goes to fast and pray, but which is less austere than a hermitage.“Yes, that "doing something more" can be the poustinia: an entry into the desert, a lonely place, a silent place, where one can lift the two arms of prayer and penance to God in atonement, intercession, reparation for one's sins and those of one's brothers.... To go into the poustinia means to listen to God. It means entering into kenosis—the emptying of oneself.”