Category: United States

Brother Paul Quenon is interviewed for the PBS “Religion and Ethics” program. He was inspired by the example of Thomas Merton to become a monk, and has since published several books of poetry.

The lumber shed at the Abbey of Gethsemani in northern Kentucky. It’s late February. Each night at 8:00, Brother Paul Quenon walks to the shed, as he has every night for 20 years. He goes around back, where he finds his mattress. This is where he will sleep—outdoors, no matter the weather.

BROTHER PAUL QUENON (The Abbey of Gethsemani): I can’t be a full-time hermit, but I can be a night-time hermit, and there’s something about waking up in the middle of the night, and there’s nobody around. There’s a kind of an edge of solitude that you cannot experience in any other way.

Both a video and a transcript of the program are available on the website.

URL: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/may-6-2011/brother-paul/8764/

An article titled “A Modern-Day Hermit” profiles Mary Zimmerer, now Sister Maria Veronica, described as

a bubbly widow who discerned a call to the contemplative life after her husband passed away five years ago. Having made a public profession of vows last fall, she is now one of only two canonical (or diocesan) hermits in the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

The interviewer touches directly on what it means to be a canonical Catholic hermit: how she discerned her calling, what her typical day consists of, how she deals with existing family, and what she thinks of the charge that hermits live only for themselves.

URL: http://www.insidecatholic.com/feature/a-modern-day-hermit.html

The Boise Weekly-funded project, “Searching for Quartzburg, which describes its purpose as “investigating the identities of dreamers, visionaries, eccentrics, hermits” of Idaho, offers a 6+ minute audio podcast titled “Hermit Nun.” The profile features Sister Rebecca and Sister Beverly, who live in the Mesa, Idaho Marymount Hermitage.

URLs:
“Hermit Nun” page of Searching for Quartzburg: http://searchingforquartzburg.com/2011/03/16/hermit-nun/
Marymount Hermitage website: http://www.marymount-hermitage.org

“Adirondack Attic,” a feature of public radio station NCPR (Canton, New York), relates local history of New York State’s “North Country.” One recent segment describes Adirondack hermit Noah John Rondeau and presents audio from a 1959 radio interview with the “Hermit of Cold River.”

URL: http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/17231/adirondack-attic-vintage-radio-chat-with-the-hermit-of-cold-river

A local northeast Tennessee newspaper called “The Tomahawk” offers a brief note about a local hermit named Nick (1851-1923). Brought to our attention by a friend of Hermitary. (Disappointingly, the photo in the article is of the writer, not Nick.)

URL: http://www.thetomahawk.com/Detail.php?Cat=THISTHAT&ID=58821