A modest but interesting site about a historical puzzle: whether an anchorite lived in the medieval priory of Notz in central France, and whether various images and the possible discovery of a hagioscope or squint (or even two) in the abbey church points to a resident anchorite. The site is in French. Brought to our attention by a friend of Hermitary.
Willard, hermit of Gully Lake (film)
A new film by Canadian producer Amy Goldberg is being screened: “Willard, The Hermit of Gully Lake.” The documentary film is described succinctly on the film website:
In the 1940’s American-born Willard (Kitchener) MacDonald jumped his troop train heading to WWII. Fearing authorities he lived as a hermit deep in the northern wilderness of Nova Scotia, Canada for more than 60 years. This is the true story of “The Hermit of Gully Lake,” a man who lived a life that the rest of us could never endure. He was a soul in exile and yet you will discover that he touched the lives of so many, in ways that no one can really explain.
The film website includes a trailer.
Teaching about solitude
A friend of Hermitary, Dr. Mara Adelman, conducts workshops and presentations about solitude at Seattle University (Washington State), where she is Associate Professor of Communications. Her courses include “Pedagogy of Solitude,” “Solitude for Everyday Life,” and “Restorative Solitude.”
URL: http://fac-staff.seattleu.edu/mara/web/restorativesolitude/
Hermits in Art: California
The Online Archive of California includes a nineteenth-century lithograph entitled “Hermit and the Burnt Tree” by Swiss artist C. C. Kuchel, which depicts the small figure of a man sitting before a great redwood. URL at: http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/tf067nb32k/.
Coptic anchorites
In the eremitic tradition of Coptic Christianity, hermits are known as anchorites. Their obscurity in the Western world is due in part to the irregular status of Copts versus the major Christian denominations, the scarcity of translations, and the exoticism of geography and culture.
A sense of these characteristics can be found in a book by the Coptic prelate Pope Shenouda III entitled “What is an Anchorite?” translated and posted on the Coptic Hymns web site. The page is part of the larger section on Coptic spirituality that includes stories about desert saints and hermits. Brought to our attention by a friend of Hermitary.
URL: http://www.coptichymns.net/index.php?module=library&
tid=1&filter=category:eq:23&pubcnt=100.