Hermit

Hermit (Gr. eremitēs), a name given in the early ages, and still more in the later church, to a solitary ascetic, who, with a view to more complete freedom from the cares, temptations, and business of the world, took up his abode in a natural cavern or a rudely-formed hut in a desert, forest, mountain, or other solitary place. In the first centuries the names of eremite and anchorite (Gr. anachōrētēs = 'one who retires'—i.e. from the world) were indiscriminately applied to these solitaries; but, the word eremita having been adopted into Latin, 'hermit' is more commonly used in the modern languages which are derived from that tongue. Hermits began to appear in the Christian church in the 3d century. The advocates of Asceticism (q.v.) were the first to set the example of retiring from cities to rural districts and villages. But the hermits went further, and sought to withdraw altogether from mankind, that they might give themselves up to a life of solitary but holy contemplation. The earliest hermit is said to have been Paul of the Thebaid (Egypt), who during the Decian persecution fled for safety to the desert (250); there he lived for the rest of his life, dying, 113 years old, about 342. The fame of his sanctity quickly incited others to imitate his mode of life. The most famous amongst these successors was St Anthony (q.v.). At the time of his death (365) hermit cells existed in considerable numbers in the deserts of Egypt, Syria, and Palestine. But the hermits were not always able to preserve their solitude unbroken. The fame of their sanctity drew many to visit them, partly out of curiosity, partly to enjoy pious converse with them, or to get religious advice from them, partly also in the belief that diseases, particularly mental diseases, were cured by their blessing. Sometimes they returned for a short time to the midst of their fellow-men to deliver warnings, instruction, or encouragement, and were received as if they had been inspired prophets or angels from heaven. The Stylites (q.v.) or pillar-hermits, who spent their lives on the tops of columns, and similar eccentric beings, were a base caricature of the true hermit, men in whom the good spirit of asceticism had become perverted by exaggerated fancy or pride or passion. But the number of hermits gradually diminished as the cenobite life of convents grew into fashion. Indeed the institution at no time secured the same footing in the Western Church that it did in the Eastern; and perhaps the reason may in part be found in the difference of climate, which renders a manner of life impossible in most parts of Europe that could be pursued for many years in Egypt or Syria. Partial revivals of the practice continued to be made, however, during some centuries, St Cuthbert (q.v.) being a case in point. The name hermit was in still later ages applied to those eccentric individuals who separated themselves from their fellow-men to live in caves or solitary huts, not from any religious motives, but from a morbid aversion to human society or an inordinate love of solitude. See MONACHISM, and Charles Kingsley's Hermits (1869).