Ornamental Hermit

Shugborough, an 18th-century estate of 900 acres in Staffordshire, England, advertised for an ornamental hermit in the summer of 2002 and received over 200 applications from around the world. The winner, Ansuman Biswas of London, spent a weekend in the cave of the premises, and was on display as an ornamental hermit at select times for visitors. The press release contains details. The custom of maintaining a hermit to amuse or frighten guests of estates was not uncommon in the eighteenth century England, and presumably it garnered a little tourist traffic for the shire and the Museum which sponsored the Hermit Project as part of its Heritage Week events. Press release at: http://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/live/welcome.asp?id=1673. Enter “hermit” in the search box to get to the specific page.

Hermit Feature on NPR

The audio of an NPR All Things Considered interview from October 31, 2001 is still available on the NPR Web site. Linda Wertheimer talks with Sister Marion Madden, the Vicar for Religious in the Diocese of Wheeling, West Virginia, about the role of hermits in modern life and the Catholic Church. There are eight hermits in her diocese; their life revolves around prayer and the interior life. The interview is about four and a half minutes long. The Web link is: http://discover.npr.org/features/feature.jhtml?wfId=1132429

Maronite Hermits page

The Maronite Hermits: From The Fourth To The Twentieth Century is an attractive introduction to the Syriac Lebanese tradition of Christian eremiticism. The page is from the Web version of the Maronite Research Institute’s Journal of Maronite Studies, October, 1999, and includes brief summaries of St. Maron, the first male and female Maronite hermits, quotations from original sources, some geographical context, consideration of the hermits under monastic rule, and several photographs. The Web page is: http://www.mari.org/JMS/october99/The_Maronite_Hermits.htm