“A Hermit’s Refuge Is Now a Writer’s Muse” is a New York Times article about an eccentric in Mobile Bay, Alabama, named Henry Stuart. Stuart was called the “Hermit of Montrose,” and built a concrete hut in the 1920’s where he wove rugs for a living. Local resident Sonny Brewer has published a novel about Stuart entitled The Poet of Tolstoy Park, so named because Stuart had an interest in Tolstoy. Brewer is trying to have the unusual hut declared a national landmark in order to preserve it. Meanwhile, Brewer uses the hut for meditation. His guestbook shows over two thousand visitors to the hut, many interested in communicating with the spirit of Stuart.
URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/07/fashion/sundaystyles/07AUTHOR.html?_r=1&oref=slogin.
High school student’s aspiration
A short op-ed in the Mercury News (Bay area, California) by a high school student who wants to be a hermit. URL: http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/entertainment/14094296.htm.
Ordination of a hermit
Of special interest to Catholics is this report by a Catholic bishop in Oregon which discusses the unique ordination of a canonically-recongnized hermit to the diaconate. URL: http://www.sentinel.org/articles/2006-9/14518.html.
“The Burial of Atala”
An evocative painting in the romantic style of the French painter Anne-Louis Girodet de Roucy Trioson, “The Burial of Atala” depicts a scene from novelistRené Chateaubriand 1801 “Atala.” The setting of the novel is North America and the southern Natchez people, but the painting is infused with medievalism and exoticism. The hooded figure burying the young heroine is a French missionary, but the painter presents him as a hermit. Among web sites are: http://cgfa.sunsite.dk/g/p-girodet5.htm and http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=836.
India tree hermit
“Man lives in tree after domestic spat” is a quirky story on why one man has become a hermit living in a tree near Orissa, India. URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4643678.stm. Brought to our attention by a friend of Hermitary.