hat is a Hermit

As a beggar of souls, the hermit always devotes himself to others and tries to help them. His prayers act as a bulwark between an offended God and guilty men that he may keep back the punishments which they have deserved. He must then be united to God by an ardent love and be dear to the heart of God and then and only then will he have influence with him in God and a great power of intercession. The ardent desire of a hermit is to do great good among souls and to help save many. At the price of heroic sacrifices, the hermit is then sanctified with the hope of doing service for others.

“For them do I sanctify myself that they may also be sanctified.” S. John XVii, XViV

Anyone familiar with the statistics knows that the Church is in decline in Europe and “the West” at large. Some might be tempted to draw parallels between this decline and that of the Roman Empire as it came apart. In that very bleak moment of history, civilization in Europe was facing collapse and it may very well have realized it were it not for the tireless workers in the vineyard of the Church who, following the holy example of men like St. Benedict, sought penance, humility, and isolation from the trappings of the world. They devoted themselves to a strict way of life and, most of all, to prayer. And it was this habit of prayer, that rebuilt civilization from the ashes of the Roman Empire.

Monasteries become a place of refuge for those wanting to devote themselves to the Lord, but also for the poor – both in spirit and in goods. Rome fell and with it, all that cultivated and tamed the land with roads, aqueducts, education, and the rule of law. The garden grew over with weeds. But it was the humble servants of the Lord that tilled it back and rebirthed a new Christian civilization in Europe, not by their own virtue and strength, but by humble submission to the Lord.

Today’s decline in the Church presents a similar challenge and we need, more than ever, men and women who will devote themselves to prayer and to listening to the instruction and prompting of The Lord Jesus. This, as much as anything else we do, will help to rebuild the Catholic Church to a be a place of mercy and refuge for the poor.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes the vocation of a hermit like this:

“From the very beginning of the Church there were men and women who set out to follow Christ with greater liberty, and to imitate him more closely, by practicing the evangelical counsels. They led lives dedicated to God, each in his own way. Many of them, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, became hermits or founded religious families. These the Church, by virtue of her authority, gladly accepted and approved.

Bishops will always strive to discern new gifts of consecrated life granted to the Church by the Holy Spirit; the approval of new forms of consecrated life is reserved to the Apostolic See. (Footnote: Cf. CIC, can. 605). ... Without always professing the three evangelical counsels publicly, hermits "devote their life to the praise of God and salvation of the world through a stricter separation from the world, the silence of solitude and assiduous prayer and penance". (Footnote: CIC, can. 603 §1)

They manifest to everyone the interior aspect of the mystery of the Church, that is, personal intimacy with Christ. Hidden from the eyes of men, the life of the hermit is a silent preaching of the Lord, to whom he has surrendered his life simply because he is everything to him. Here is a particular call to find in the desert, in the thick of spiritual battle, the glory of the Crucified One.”