Brief item about a Vietnamese leper who fled to the jungle in shame, ostrasized by his village and frightened family. He spent twenty years eking out a hermit’s existence before being found and rehabilitated by a Red Cross worker and treatment center. The story is a good example of involuntary solitude. URL:
http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=03SOC180906
Canada webmaster becomes hermit
Article about Paul Marquis, employed as a webmaster for the local Catrholic archdiocese, who will live as a wilderness hermit. From the article: “After months of considering various locations, he said he expects this ‘desert’ experience will be in a simple shelter on a remote, forested piece of land, maybe on an island somewhere off the west coast of Canada.” Marquis is not pursuing the priesthood or canonical status as a hermit; his is a personal project. URL:
http://www.catholic.org/hf/faith/story.php?id=21346.
Two more hermit films
Two more films about hermits:
1. The Fort Fisher Hermit: The Life and Death of Robert E. Harrill is a documentary film. The blurb explains that Harrill “spent 17 years under the stars and scrub oaks of Fort Fisher, North Carolina. Surviving off the land and the contributions from thousands of visitors, he became one of the areas largest tourist attractions.” A DVD is available. URL:
http://www.thefortfisherhermit.com..
2. Milarepa tells the story of the 8th-century Tibetan Buddhist hermit Milarepa. The Bhutan-born producer Neten Chokling filmed with monks as his non-professional cast on location in the Indo-Tibetan frontier. Shown at film festivals, the latest being Vancouver, B.C. URL:
http://www.milarepafilm.com.
Thanks to friends of Hermitary for bringing these films to our attention.
Two films about hermits
Two films of interest to anticipate: Into Great Silence (Germany) and The Island (Russian).
Into Great Silence is a documentary film of the Grande Chartreuse and daily life of the silent monks there. Because no one in the film speaks and there is no voice-over narration, Into Great Silence is a visual and aural experience of great depth. URL: http://www.diegrossestille.de.
The Island tells the story of a modern-day guilt-ridden man who sacrifices life by entering a rigorous and isolated monastery and pursuing a life of atonement there, where he challenges the monks and attracts pilgrims who seek him out for advice and healing. URL:
http://www.e.bell.ca/filmfest/2006/films_schedules/films_description.asp?id=161.
Australian hermit’s two years
An autobiographical essay entitled “The Retired Hermit” in the Australian web site New Age. The byline is: “Peter Davis chose the life of a solitary in the high country for two years where he found the space to care for himself.” The first paragraph gives a sense of the quiet mission he set about pursuing for those two years. “I became a hermit gradually. It started in 1987 on a mountain near the small town of Harrietville in north-eastern Victoria. This was soon after my HIV diagnosis, when I was 19.”
Perhaps Peter Davis is better know in Australia; there is no further elaboration on this page, which is part of the book review section of New Age, for non-Australian readers.
URL:
http://www.theage.com.au/news/books/the-retired-hermit/
2006/08/10/1154803029570.html.
Note: URL of complete version submitted by a friend of Hermitary:
http://www.thylazine.org/thyla11/thyla11i.html.