Scotland Nun

  The commentary on Canon law states, in regard to canon 603, that “A Laura (colony) of hermits can be approved under canon 603 ….. The laura follows the ancient tradition of Egypt and Palestine in which hermits live in separate solitary hermitages around a Chapel and Central House. (The term laura comes from the Greek for the paths connecting the hermits’ cells with the Church, central building and other cells.) In order to live their individual solitude, such hermits commonly gather only once each day for the celebration of Eucharist. Weekly they may gather for solemn First Vespers and on Sunday for Lauds, Eucharist, a meal and sharing. The hermit life is lived by each in an individual and solitary way, yet there is a communion, which builds among them.” The skete form of life is closely connected to that of the laura, and can, in many ways, be considered a place of formation, or a first stage to hermit life, or within context of the hermit life.

   Before looking more closely at the hermit life as it is lived in the Catholic church today, I would like to comment on its wider context. In the Orthodox church, where there is an unbroken tradition of the hermit life, the breaking off of hermit life from the monastic tradition, in whatever varied form that life takes, has never occurred. The advice of Elder Dionysius on Athos, to a young man on the eve of baptism, was ‘you must either marry or become a monk.’ This is because ‘ we Christians are not meant to live alone. We are called to be part of a family, we thus have a choice: we can either make a new family (i.e. marry) or join an existing one (i.e. become a monk).’

   Even if a person experiences the call to be a hermit in Orthodox tradition, it would never be assumed to be both an alienation from the natural family and from the religious family. In the western church, however, we are dealing with a broken tradition, and the call to be a hermit is often assumed to be an individualistic rejection of both. This assumption is based on our western cult of the individual as a lone cranky genius, and is often transferred without question to the hermit. S/he is assumed to be an individualist bent on following his or her own path, who cannot fit into community.

   However, what if the call is genuine? Then, because the hermit is – by definition – a cranky misfit, there are no standard facilities for formation, except in a very few communities By eastern standards our hermits vocations are usually d-i-y: there are very few experienced hermits to whom the newcomer can go for advice.  The Benedictine Rule states that a hermit needs a probationary period in the monastery: while the Orthodox monastery includes ways of life (e.g. a skete attached to a monastery) to which a prospective hermit may go directly, such facilities are not part of the standard western Benedictine monastery. We can say that canon 603 is only necessary because the hermit way of life has been so eroded – nearly to the point of extinction. If we look at the position of the 603 hermit, s/he is incredibly vulnerable to change of circumstances – whether a change of parish priest, bishop, work or accommodation.

   But even more gravely, the 603 person cannot, except in unusual circumstances, fully follow his/her call. There is no communal liturgy, so the hermit cannot live in a really isolated cell because s/he has to get to Mass ( priest hermits can live the life more fully than women, in this respect). There is no way to spend a period in a fully anchoretic enclosure, because this depends on other people fetching and carrying – whether it is the sacrament, food, or taking your goods to market. The hermit has to shop, go to Mass and run a one man business or work outside the hermitage. An individual cannot be part of a community business, nor share a rota for ‘contact with the world.’ Inevitably, the long unbroken hours of prayer in solitude which are the life blood of eremitical life are broken. This problem becomes more acute in old age, when the hermit may have to return to the secular home of relatives, or simply be another isolated old man or woman dependent on their pension and care workers ( if either are available).

   For this reason, projects such as the one envisaged in the pages on this website under the ‘hermitage project’ are desperately needed. Most hermits would jump at the opportunity to have a cell in a laura colony, but first the charity must be developed and the funds raised. Very few hermits have  the money needed to buy a home for themselves. None of us can afford to import a priest or the kind of help needed to develop a proper means of hermit formation. 603 was a beginning, because it recognised that a vocation which had been pushed to virtual extinction existed. However now we need to find ways to build it which will not isolate it from its monastic context and will renew the spiritual tradition. This will not happen so long as each hermit is forced into isolated circumstances which breed cranky singularity.

 The person with the hermit vocation has to find ways of dealing with the depression engendered by ongoing loneliness and isolation. This is so well known that there is even a special name for it – acedia. Just because hermits have to learn to cope with depression, however, does not mean that depressives should start lining up for the hermitage, as if it was a clinic! Au contraire, the hermit needs to be naturally optimistic, and have a good track record of digging themselves out of holes which would defeat less hardy souls. Note the words ‘digging themselves out.’

There has to be an internal mechanism, independent of others, which kicks in in times of depression. If, in times of depression, you regularly need others to push you through, the hermit life will open you up to all the dangers of depression and you will not be able to find a way out. In that case, you need to find your path in more supportive circumstances, whether in religious community or in the world, or you will almost inevitably lose your mental balance.

   So -what is the basis of this internal mechanism for digging oneself out of depression? Quite simply, it is faith  – faith of a particular kind. It is a belief that God wills to create change in the most negative situation and that one’s job as a hermit, is to find that ‘point of change’ – that avenue of hope – which is somewhere, even if it is totally hidden from one’s consciousness for many years. “Keep your heart in hell and despair not” said staretz Silouan.

So the place of a hermit’s inner stability must firstly be a place where no false hopes exist, and the ongoing experience of living without hope – often in the depths of depression – does not affect your core. It is akin to the experience felt by many prisoners in solitary confinement. At the same time, living without hope must not become an excuse for sourness. The main antidote to sourness lies in cultivating the ability to enjoy the small things of life – a robin bowing as you put the birdfeed out (yes! robins do bow!), the amazing  dawn colours of water in puddles on tarmac  and a host of small personal pleasures like washing up!

   A second antidote to sourness lies in fidelity to your regular programme of Divine Office and prayer. Keep the space even if you cannot discharge your duties. If all you can do is stare at the words of the psalm but not say them because they hurt too much, offer the wordless agony to God, and when you have done all your soul can stand, work on a related discipline, such as supplementary reading or go for a walk and look for beauty. You have to use any means you can to orientate your soul into a friendly disposition towards life, the universe, and it!

If you normally sing as part of your office, then sing a section – maybe just one antiphon or do vocalese ( voice training). Concentrate on enjoying the voice for it’s own sake – as a kind of ‘recreation within prayer time’ to re-invigorate your enjoyment of singing the office. Gradually, among good days and bad days, the joy will occasionally return – but you have to keep building the bridges yourself in your own soul.

    More often than not, you just sit, stand, walk or work through the day, trying again and again to pounce on chinks of light which will enable God to enter the vast abyss of depression – and hope that by doing your bit you will somehow find a chink in the armour of collective depression, which enshrouds the human soul, and by pioneering a ‘path out of the dungeon’ help others – on an invisible level ( which after all, is no more unbelievable than the internet) – to also find a ray of hope.

 You have to maintain that inner attitude of belief that ‘conversion’ – change is possible, even when your heart is dead and hopeless, and all outer circumstances entrench that hopelessness. This requires a profound capacity to cope with a seemingly irreconcilable paradox. The whole of the Christian mystery is a training for this. The whole Christian mystery centres on the fact that the eternally perfect and immortal God becomes – over the course of thirty years – a dead corpse and, by an incomprehensible mystery, lives again. The whole secret of the hermit life is encapsulated in that corpse of God.

The mystery of the hermit is to find the rebirth in death. In a sense, the hermit walks into death with open eyes and that is why, when the hermit has undergone his passion, his prayer in solitude – or his teaching to the world ( as in the case of a Seraphim or Merton) – truly changes things for others.