Category: United Kingdom

UK-based filmmaker Susannah Bragg has produced a half-hour short comedy film titled “Hermit,” described as:

a short fiction film about a young prodigy who, for the past 20 years, has woven fantastic stories of worldwide acclaim — from the confines of her room. However, on her 28th birthday, she runs out of ideas. Now, she must re-enter the world.

Welcome to Izzy Blue’s slightly surreal and off-kilter life. Come along with her as she tries to reconnect with her family and share in her fantastic adventures.

Unfortunately, fantasy and reality are not always as distinct — or as comprehensible — as Izzy would wish them to be. In fact, an increasingly widespread phenomenon in Japan, Hikikomori (“Shut-in’s”) soon will number up to a million.

FILM website & trailer: http://www.indiegogo.com/Hermit-3
ADDITIONAL TRAILER site: http://vimeo.com/36743409

In an article in the Catholic Herald of the UK, a British nun describes her year as an anchoress. In the article — titled “How I became a medieval-style anchorite” — the anonymous author explains:

Before 2003 I thought that hermits were extinct — as dead as a Dodo. I had heard of some of the medieval hermit saints, but in the 21st century, in Britain, surely not.

Yet now I am an anchorite, as was Julian of Norwich, and for one precious year the bishop locked me in. I had a bed area, a shower room, an enclosed garden of 10 square feet, and my oratory with the wicket window opening into our chapel. I had stable doors, the top half being under my control, the lower half locked. I was a “prisoner of the Lord”: no radio, phone, or internet. It was a wonderful year, but due to us moving it could not be prolonged after the initial trial year.

The author usefully summarizes the activities of the historical hermit and the distinction between hermits, solitaries, recluses, and anchorites. She places the live of the anchorite in the perspective of her faith, and ends with the famous quote of Simeon the New Theologian:

Let me alone, sheltered in my cell.
Let me be with God, who alone is good.
Why should I move out of my cell?
Back to that which I left?
Let me be.
I want to cry and mourn over the days and nights I have wasted.

URL: http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/features/2012/02/29/how-i-became-a-medieval-style-anchorite/

Wales Online reviews the book Deep County: Five Years in the Welsh Hills (2011) by Neil Ansell. Ansell spent 5 years as a hermit in Wales, and recounts the solitude, nature, and rural life.

URL: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/need-to-read/2011/06/27/writer-relives-his-five-years-living-a-hermit-s-life-in-rural-wales-91466-28944919/

Another source is this Guardian article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/mar/27/neil-ansell-my-life-as-hermit

An article in the Independent (UK) titled “Grail Community: Life inside a (gently crumbling retreat,” offers an inside look at a unique a lay association of celibate women who choose not to be nuns or to work visibly in the world despite their interest in ecclesiastical and social issues.

The women of the Grail Community in north-west London have provided a sanctuary to all-comers for more than 60 years. But, with the sisterhood ageing and dwindling, they are having to seek out a smaller home. Fortunately, these ‘hermits’ are not afraid to step outside…

On their 8+ acre grounds (which they may have to give up due to the time and expense of upkeep) are small cabins or “poustinias” for visitors who may want to spend time alone.

If the Grail Community itself is shrinking, there is, it should be pointed out, plenty of life in its two sister organisations — the Companions of the Grail, made up of celibate Catholic women who have their own homes but try to live out the service-to-the-community ideal as individuals; and even more markedly in the growing number of Grail Partners — married couples, again regular visitors to Waxwell, who draw inspiration from the core community and its work, but apply it more widely in the midst of everyday lives and families.

URL: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/grail-community-life-inside-a-gently-crumbling-retreat-2099614.html