93-year old hermit-priest Charles Brandt, who lives on Vancouver Island, Canada, seeks lessons of nature in his avocation as avid photographer. Writes the Globe and Mail:
Father Brandt describes being a hermit priest as “a life of prayer, of meditation, of simple contemplation,” spent in search of a deeper connection with God through solitude.
“It’s actually trying to experience the ultimate reality, not just to think about it abstractly, or to read about it,” he said.
Operating out of the hermitage he built on a 15-hectare grove of old-growth forest situated on the banks of the Oyster River, Father Brandt lives alone, but not in isolation. Until he developed peripheral neuropathy recently, a nerve condition that causes numbness in his feet and hands, he regularly came out of his hermitage to help relieve local pastors. In the 1970s and 80s, he was engaged in environmental campaigns to protect the Oyster and Tsolum Rivers.
Twice a month, he plays host to meditations in his small cabin where he talks about inner peace and leads contemplative walks through the woods.