Category: United States

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

A brief item in the Londonderry News (New Hampshire, US) about 19th-century hermit Charles Alan Lambert:
“Charles Alan Lambert arrived in Manchester in the 1840s from Lincolnshire, England to live the life of a hermit. He bought 40 acres on Mosquito Pond, as it was known then, and built a hut. He was a local celebrity, and was sought out by tourists for his home grown herbs. He lived in his hut for 60 years, and died at the Sisters of Mercy House of St. John for Aged Men in 1914. He was buried at St. Joseph’s Cemetery with a gravestone marked ‘The Hermit.’ … ”
URL: http://www.londonderrynh.net/?tag=hermits