Congregation

n.
  1. The act of congregating, or bringing together, or of collecting into one aggregate or mass.
  2. A collection or mass of separate things.
  3. An assembly of persons; a gathering; esp. an assembly of persons met for the worship of God, and for religious instruction; a body of people who habitually so meet.
  4. (Anc. Jewish Hist.) The whole body of the Jewish people; -- called also Congregation of the Lord.
  5. (R. C. Ch.) the name assumed by the Protestant party under John Knox. The leaders called themselves (1557) Lords of the Congregation.
    1. A body of cardinals or other ecclesiastics to whom as intrusted some department of the church business; as, the Congregation of the Propaganda, which has charge of the missions of the Roman Catholic Church.
    2. A company of religious persons forming a subdivision of a monastic order.