Category: Spain

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Jewish Contemplatives

The Jewish Contemplatives blog has long been a unique web presence offering insight on the role of solitude in contemplative Jewish practice. For many years, editor Norman R. Davies of the UK lived in Granada, Spain, before moving several years ago to Safed, Israel. Davies was once a Carmelite monk and converted to Judaism, to an Orthodoxy that embraces contemplation and solitude, recovering an obscure but distinctive tradition within Judaism.

The blog includes Davies’ autobiographical essays: “A Hermit’s Tale.” A recent blog entry is titled “Solitude in Jewish Contemplative Practice.”

URL: https://jewishcontemplatives.blogspot.com/

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Fr. Basili in Wikipedia-Spain

Fr. Basili Girbau, the Spanish hermit profiled in two Hermitary articles, is represented in Viquipedia, the Catalan-language version of the English-language Wikipedia. The Catalan source includes a bibliographical reference to the Hermitary article titled “‘Disillusionment is Positive’: Conversation with Basili Girbau, hermit of Montserrat.”

URL (Catalan): https://ca.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basili_Girbau_i_Permanyer; Hermitary article: https://hermitary.com/articles/interview.html.

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500 Days Alone in a Cave

The New Yorker Magazine carries an article about Spanish athlete Beatriz Flamini , who “liked to be alone so much that she decided to live underground—and pursue a world record. ” The title of the article: “The Woman Who Spent Five Hundred Days in a Cave.” The article describes Flamini’s feat as “gruelling and surreal.” Smithsonian Magazine noted that Flamini was “equipped with little more than books and art supplies to keep busy … living in a cave underground with next to no contact with the outside world.” Widely covered by media.

URL: New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2024/01/29/the-woman-who-spent-five-hundred-days-in-a-cave; Smithsonian: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/spanish-athlete-emerges-after-500-days-alone-in-underground-cave-180981998/

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Fr. Carlos, Spanish hermit

The Spanish news site La Coz de Galicia, offers an article titled “El padre Carlos, el hombre al que Dios trajo de Getafe a Pontevedra para ser ermitaño a los 44 años”, which translates as “Father Carlos, the man called by God from Getafe to Pontevedra in order to become a hermit at age 44.” Getafe is a city near Madrid where Fr. Carlos was born and grew up. Pontevedra is within Galicia, the city where, after ordination as a priest and permission to live as a hermit, is the hermit’s home.

Pontevedra is on the Santiago de Compostela route. Fr. Carlos lives in a room of the rectory in Alba, greeting pilgrims, conversing and counseling visitors, but spending most of the day in silence. To the visiting journalist, explaining his daily routine and 18 hours of daily silence he exclaims: “How can I be so lucky!” Includes short video.

URL: https://www.lavozdegalicia.es/noticia/pontevedra/pontevedra/2023/06/25/padre-carlos-hombre-dios-trajo-getafe-pontevedra-ermitano/0003_202306P25C7992.htm