The monastic and
eremitical project of the early Middle Ages was, for those who undertook it, to remake the individual completely, producing not merely saints, but holy communities where the doxological character of Christian living, its single-minded liturgical glorification of God, controlled and ordered every element of life.
One might surmise that Henry was struck by the rich potential for literary play in the sparse prose life, with episodes such as Fremund's
eremitical sojourn on 'Fantasy Island' ('Insula Fantastica).
The couple, who reside on a mountain slope near Asheville, N.C., serve as a hub for those seeking guidance and shared experiences about the
eremitical life--an ancient practice that they say, judging by the spurt of recent newsletter readers and website hits, may be gaining new followers.
Teresa who enjoined a return to the
eremitical life) in Echt in the Netherlands, where some years later both were arrested and taken to camps.
(1) The early
eremitical and monastic forms were ways of commitment to God different from those of the typical "faithful." The monastic, ministerial, or secular institute forms of religious life (2) have usually been generated by the inspired response of a significant leader who saw a situation of need, of people suffering on life's margins for one reason or another, and who reached out to them in compassionate response.
For this reason, historians have been tempted to examine the phenomenon of
eremitical monasticism as a function of social change.
Also offshore, Bede records a hermitage on Inner Fame which was home at different times to both Aidan and Cuthbert, as well as other monks following the
eremitical lifestyle (HE 3.16; 4.30; 5.1).
B"lkhova argues that the Kievan Caves Monastery was also unique in that few other monasteries seemed to have followed in establishing the cenobitic rule; one weakness of the article, however, is in its suggestion that most of the other monasteries were "anchoritic." This is problematic, since an
eremitical lifestyle implies both that the monk (or nun) has gone away from populated centers and that they are living more or less in solitude--neither of which applies to these "princely" monasteries.
By the eleventh century, this legend, known later as the Vita eremitica beatae Mariae Magdalenae ('
Eremitical life') had become widespread, and Mary Magdalen's legend became one of the best-known saints' vitae, after the abbey of Vezelay in Burgundy claimed to possess her relics in 1050.
eremitical - characterized by ascetic solitude; "the eremitic element in the life of a religious colony"; "his hermitic existence"