Category: Canada

Brief newspaper item from The Gazette (Montreal) about Cynthia Bourgeault, “author, lecturer, workshop leader, Episcopal (Anglican) priest, grandmother … and a hermit.” Bourgeault lives on an island off the coast of Maine. The article notes her home, surroundings, and the role of solitude and silence in her teaching and books.

URL: http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=f642ec80-5331-4c59-8ec1-cae387c7b349

Other websites about Cynthia Bourgeault:
Biography and audio: http://www.contemplative.org/cynthia.html
Sample article “Silence is God’s First Language”: http://www.beliefnet.com/Faiths/Faith-Tools/Meditation/2004/11/Silence-Is-Gods-First-Language.aspx

“Famous Hermits in Canadian History” is a recent blog maintained by Chris McKinnon.  URL:  http://canadianhermits.blogspot.com/

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.

A Globe and Mail story (Oct. 11, 2005) about Wendell Beckwith, an amateur scientist who lived a reclusive life on Best Island, Ontario (Canada). American-born Beckwith hand-built an elaborate home in the woods, conducted scientific observations, and entertained a stream of visitors before his death at 65 in 1980. The Ministry of Natural Resources is mulling over whether to refurbish the isolated place or let it take its course in the wild. Concludes the article:

Ernie Nichols is a float pilot who lives in Armstrong and is one of the few locals to remember Mr. Beckwith. “He was a very intelligent man, but he was, at heart, a recluse,” he said. “He would have wanted it all just to go back to nature.”

URL: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/
TPStory/LAC/20051011/RECLUSE11/TPNational/TopStories.

Bob Kull chronicles “A Year in Wilderness Solitude” on a remote island of southern Chile at his web site http://www.bobkull.org. The site is rich in resources: description, a half-hour video, photographs, his published article in Canadian Geographic (May/June 2004), and his own short stories and essays. Brought to our attention by a friend of Hermitary.

See also these articles on Kull:
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?
pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1110582612192
&call_pageid=970599119419 and http://www.thetyee.ca/Life/current/As+Lonesome+As+Can+Be.htm.