Hermits

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(Eremites, "inhabitants of adesert", from the Greekeremos), also calledanchorites, weremen who fled thesociety of their fellow-men to dwell alone in retirement. Not all of them, however, sought so complete a solitude as to avoid absolutely any intercourse with their fellow-men. Some took a companion with them, generally a disciple; others remained close to inhabited places, from which they procured their food. This kind ofreligious life preceded the community life of the cenobites.Elias is considered the precursor of the hermits in theOld Testament.St. John the Baptist lived like them in thedesert.Christ, too, led this kind of life when he retired into the mountains. But the eremitic life proper really begins only in the time of thepersecutions. The first known example is that ofSt. Paul, whose biography was written bySt. Jerome. He began about the year 250. There were others inEgypt;St. Athanasius, who speaks of them in his life of St. Anthony, does not mention their names. Nor were they the only ones. These first solitaries, few in number, selected this mode of living on their own initiative. It was St. Anthony who brought this kind of life into vogue at the beginning of the fourth century. After the persecutions the number of hermits increased greatly inEgypt, then in Palestine, then in the Sinaitic peninsula, Mesopotamia,Syria, andAsia Minor. Cenobitic communities sprang up among them, but did not become so important as to extinguish the eremitic life. They continued to flourish in theEgyptiandeserts, not to speak of other localities. Discussions arose inEgypt as to the respective merits of the cenobitic and the eremitic style of life. Which was the better? Cassian, who voices the common opinion, believed that the cenobitic life offered more advantages and less inconveniences than the eremitic life. The Syrian hermits, in addition to their solitude, were accustomed to subject themselves to great bodily austerities. Some passed years on the top of a pillar (stylites); others condemned themselves to remain standing, in open air (stationaries); others shut themselves up in a cell so that they could not come out (recluses).

Not all these hermits were models ofpiety. History points out many abuses among them; but, considering everything, they remain one of the noblest examples of heroicasceticism the world has ever seen. Very many of them weresaints.Doctors of the Church, likeSt. Basil,St. Gregory of Nazianzus,St. John Chrysostom,St. Jerome, belonged to their number; and we might also mention Sts. Epiphanius,Ephraem,Hilarion,Nilus,Isidore of Pelusium. We have no rule giving an account of their mode of life, though we may form anidea of it from their biographies, which are to be found inPalladius, "Historia Lausiaca", P.L., XXXIV, 901-1262; Rufinus, "Historia Monachorum", P.L., XXI, 387-461; Cassian, "Collationes Patrum; De Institutis coenobitarum", P.L., IV; Theodoret, "Historia religiosa", P.G., LXXXII, 1279-1497; and also in the "Verba Seniorum", P.L., LXXIV, 381-843, and the "Apophthegmata Patrum", P.G., LXV, 71-442.

The eremitic life spread to the West in the fourth century, and flourished especially in the next two centuries, that is to say, till experience had shown by its results the advantages of the cenobitic organization.St. Gregory the Great, in his "Dialogues", gives an account of the best-known solitaries of centralItaly (P.L., LXXVII, 149-430).St. Gregory of Tours does the same for a part ofFrance (Vitae Patrum), P.L. LXXI, 1009-97). Oftentimes those who helped most to spread the cenobitic ideal were originally solitaries themselves, for instance, St. Severinus of Norica andSt. Benedict of Nursia. Monasteries frequently, though by no means always, sprang from the cell of a hermit, who drew a band of disciples around him. From the beginning of the seventh century, we meet with instances ofmonks who at intervals led an eremitic life. As an example we may cite St. Columbanus, St. Riquier, and St. Germer. Somemonasteries had isolated cells close by, where those religious who were judged capable of living in solitude might retire. Such was especially the case at themonastery ofCassiodorus, atViviers in Calabria, and the Abbey of Fontenelles, in theDiocese of Rouen. Those who felt the want of solitude were advised to reside near an oratory or a monastic church. The councils and the monastic rules did not encourage those who were desirous of leading an eremitic life.

The widespread relaxation of monastic discipline drove St. Odo, the great apostle of reform in the sixth century, into the solitude of the forest. Thereligious fervour of the succeeding age produced many hermits. But to guard against the serious dangers of this kind of life, monastic institutes were founded that combined the advantages of solitude with the guidance of a superior and the protection of a rule. Thus, for example, we had theCarthusians and theCamaldolese at Vallombrosa andMonte Vergine. Nevertheless there still continued to be a large number of isolated hermits, and an attempt was made to form them into congregations having a fixed rule and a responsible superior.Italy especially was the home of these congregations at the beginning of the thirteenth century. Some drew up an entirely new rule for themselves; others adapted theRule of St. Benedict to meet their wants; while others again preferred to base their rule onthat of St. Augustine.Pope Alexander IV united the last into one order, under the name of theHermits of St. Augustine (1256). Three congregations of hermits were called afterSt. Paul, one formed in 1250 inHungary, another inPortugal, founded by Mendo Gomez de Simbria, who died in 1481, and the third inFrance, established by Guillaume Callier (1620); these last hermits were known also by the name of the Brothers of Death.Eugene IV formed into a congregation, to be called afterSt. Ambrose, the hermits who dwelt in a forest nearMilan (1441). We may mention also the Brothers of the Apostle (1484), the Colorites (1530), the Hermits of Monte Senario (1593), and those of Monte Luco, who were inItaly; those of Mont-Voiron, whose constitutions were drawn up bySt. Francis de Sales; those of St-Sever, inNormandy, founded by Guillaume, who had previously been aCamaldolese; those of St. John the Baptist, inNavarre, approved byGregory XIII; the hermits of the same name, founded inFrance by Michel by Michel de Sainte-Sabine (1630); those of Mont-Valérien, nearParis (seventeenth century); those ofBavaria, established in theDiocese of Ratisbon (1769). The Venerable Joseph Cottolengo founded a congregation of hermits inLombardy in the middle of the nineteenth century. SomeBenedictinemonasteries had hermitages depending on them. Thus we have the case of St. William of the Desert (1330) and the hermits of Our Lady of Montserrat, inSpain. The latter were well known from the sixteenth century, from their connexion with García de Cisneris. They disappeared in the eighteenth century. At the present time there exists a body of hermits on a mountain near Cordova.

We see, therefore, that theChurch has always been anxious to form the hermits into communities. Nevertheless, many preferred their independence and their solitude. They were numerous inItaly,Spain,France, andFlanders in the seventeenth century.Benedict XIII andUrban VIII took measures to prevent the abuses likely to arise from too great independence. Since then the eremitic life has been gradually abandoned, and the attempts made to revive it in the last century have had no success. (SeeRULE OF SAINT AUGUSTINE;CAMALDOLESE;CARMELITE ORDER;CARTHUSIAN ORDER;HIERONYMITES; also underGREEK CHURCH, Vol. VI, p. 761.)

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