Hermits around the web – Hermitary
news, sites, and pages of interest about hermits and solitude
Brief article (in French) from RCF Radio highlighting the 12th century hermitage of La Cordelle in Vézelay, France. The Franciscan hermitage today consists of three hermits; the guardian or chief caretaker is Eric Moisdon. The friars embrace the rule of St. Francis, which mingles eremitic practice with social contact (the hermits receive pilgrims and visitors). The hermits maintain extensive gardens.
URL: https://www.rcf.fr/articles/vie-spirituelle/questce-quun-ermitage
Old Book Illustrations features “Devil Turned Hermit,” from an early 19th-century book titled Cent Proverbes.
The book describes the illustration:
“The Devil, in the guise of an old man with horns, has a female visitor shown to the door and his worldly paraphernalia swept away while he immerses himself in prayer among symbols of asceticism.” Adds the website editors: “The caption reads in the original French: Quand le Diable devient vieux, il se fait ermite.
This proverb has a loose English equivalent in The Devil was sick, the Devil a monk would be.
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Le Petit Bleu d’Agen reports on a series of lectures and tours of the archaeology of the ancient church remanants associated with the legendary saints, martyrs, and hermits St. Caprasius and the female St. Faith, associated with Agens, a town in France. Nowadays a lycée de l’Ermitage offers tours and lectures.
Jean Guilhot (1878-1959) was the “Hermit of Deer Island” off Biloxi, Mississippi. Born in France, he traveled to Key West, Florida, and then to Deer Island off the Mississippi coast. His life was a series of hard times, as the SunHerald.com notes in an article titled”‘Hermit of Deer Island’ will get his due at Biloxi Cemetery.” Guilhot’s grave site will be rededicated, with a new marker, and a dramatic recreation of his life presented.
URL: http://www.sunherald.com/2013/08/07/4856287/hermit-of-deer-island-will-get.html
A salacious story in The Independent describes “The Alpine Shepherd and the Parisian”: A French Alps hermit, described as simple, owned rundown property that could be used for ski chalets. The property was coveted by a wealthy jet-setting Parisian woman. She duped the hermit into marrying her, though they live in two different worlds; she occasionally visited him. Then the hermit mysteriously dies in a road accident, in a car driven by the woman’s accomplice. But when the hermit’s will is unveiled, it deliberately leaves her nothing.