Catholic Hermit: St. Paul, the First Hermit

Paul of Thebes, considered the Church's first-known hermit, is a prime example of how Christian, Catholic hermits have hearkened to the Lord's call as well as their accepting and living the eremitic vocation for centuries.  

For every St. Paul the First Hermit or also known as Paul the Anchorite, there are hundreds if not into the thousands of Roman Catholic and Orthodox Catholic hermits over the centuries past and present, who lived and are living the eremitic vocation in the quiet, hidden ways of which the Church now describes in §920, §921 of The Catechism of the Catholic Church.

These holy hermits did not require approval by a Bishop or even a priest, for that matter.  They were not connected with any particular diocese, nor were their profession and avowals made publicly nor were they required to be trained by, approved of, or allowed to be eremites by other more experienced hermits.  

However, often they did look to hermits who had lived the eremitic vocation for years in order to benefit from wisdom and experience of others--much the way we consecrated Catholic hermits today (privately or publicly professed) turn to the writings and lives of these hermits of the past centuries.  We also consider the lives of the Old Testament prophets and such as St. John the Baptist, who were in essence hermits in the way they lived their lives.  

And, we contemporary hermits in the consecrated life of the Church, turn to a wise and holy priest, monk, or learned and holy spiritual advisor--someone who has lived the eremitic life or has in retirement years, perhaps, lived in greater solitude, reflection, and prayer in addition to benefit from lectio divina (reading, absorbing, pondering Scripture and other works of Christian, spiritual illumination and wisdom).

For the most part if not in some cases could be exclusively--as did many of the early desert hermits, male and female--turning to God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit as our guide, teacher, mentor, inspiration, and source of spiritual ascent in ultimate, eventual union.  We learn to pray in the way the Lord taught, and we learn to love in the way God desires us to love, as He loves.  Through the Living Word, we find Truth, Beauty, Goodness; we are taught how it is to follow Christ fully.

Through the appropriate Sacraments of the Church, we consecrated Catholic hermits today proceed in all that will help us transcend ourselves and cleave unto the Trinity; we are subsumed into Christ through His Body and Blood.  In being one in the Body of Christ, we unite with all our fellow Christians in worship as well as in daily living, albeit we hermits are hidden from their recognition and exist in stricter separation from the world in the silence of solitude.  We devote our lives to the praise of God and in prayer for the salvation of the world.

We learn spiritual combat through lived experience and with the help of what the hermits of times past and other spiritual masters, and Scripture, have written and passed down through the ages on spiritual combat and how to avoid the pitfalls and snares of the devil.  We benefit, also, in the battle against forces of evil and our own propensity to sin (mostly, but not all, sins of thought and word since we hermits are not living the active life and have little interactions) by the counsel of our confessors and spiritual directors.

So it is that consecrated Catholic hermits have existed and exist today, without fanfare, and for the good of our vocation to be in anonymity and relative hiddenness.  For any actual name or proven example of hermits who have caused lasting scandal (of course, there will be hermits--and have been even in the earliest days of the desert abbas and ammas--who sin and repent even if might take awhile to recognize the sins), I know of none.  But if anyone could cite an actual example of such a one, there are all the others who, while not perfect, lived their eremitic lives as souls loving Christ and seeking God in the various facets of spiritual life and within the tradition of the hermit path, that of a religious solitary.

For any specific hermit over the centuries who needed or sought approval of someone other--bishop, older, experienced hermit--in order to live the vocation, there are vastly more who did not need or seek that approbation.  They may (and yet today) have sought counsel and guidance from, or received a blessing of an experienced, older hermit or cleric; they may have been blessed in their vocation additionally in a religious ceremony or service (or today might seek approval of their bishop and participate in a Mass as part of that approbation), but there will be always those in history and ongoing who are living their consecrated eremitic vocations without ado but by the call and will of God Himself.

That is the way of St. Paul of Thebes, or St. Paul the First Hermit, or St. Paul the Anchorite, or Anba Bola in Egyptian Arabic (all one and the same man) whose Feast Day is today:  January 15 (in the Roman and Eastern Orthodox Churches, and February 9 in the Oriental Orthodox Church. 

St. Jerome wrote a biography of St. Paul, the First Hermit--partly as he wanted historical truth and fact be known that it is this man, Paul, and not Anthony, who followed after Paul, who is the first Christian hermit known in the Church.

St. Paul, the First Hermit, lived from 226 or 7 until 341.  He was born and reared in Thebes, but he was orphaned at an early age.  To avoid in his youth being persecuted and killed for his Christian faith, Paul went out into the desert to live, anticipating he would return to the world, to Thebes, when the times had calmed and Christians would be more tolerated.  

It is said that the young Paul found a cave to live in, and a palm tree from which to gather palm fronds to make a covering as a type of clothing and also to survive on the fruit of the palm tree. It is said that a raven brought him a piece of bread, daily.  He spent his days and nights in solitude and in devoting himself to God--yes, praise of God and prayer for the world, as we consecrated Catholic hermits of our times are to be devoting our lives!

When Paul would have been able to safely return to civilization and leave his desert hermit cave, he had come to find such joy and purpose in his life of silence of solitude, hidden from the eyes of men, communing with God, that he decided to remain for the rest of his life.  He was able to secure his solitary existence, not having intrusions by others, other than rare occasion--and of that he usually was able to avoid, or to send away the curious or those who had heard of a hermit and sought to find him.

That is, until in his 113th year, Anthony--then a young man who had decided to leave the world and seek God in the solitude of the desert after having settled his young sister in a convent and dispensed of what money and possessions not needed for her care--sought to find this hermit, the man named Paul, he'd heard was hidden out in the desert.

When Anthony did finally locate Paul's cave, he found Paul ill and quite old, nearing death.  As the story unfolds, we learn that Paul sends Anthony off to get a holy cloth or such, that Anthony would bring back for the elderly Paul--with whom Anthony had hoped he could be a companion to Paul and a student of sorts.

Paul had no such intention, recognized that the Lord had sent Anthony to find him as a loving gift so that Paul would not have died totally without human knowledge or burial. When Anthony did return with the sacred cloth, Paul had passed on. It is said that Paul's lifeless body was yet on his knees in prayerful position, arms outstretched.

Anthony went on to find his own hermit cell and lived with God in solitude, praising and praying, and in penitential humility.  He also did not want to have his solitude infiltrated, but of course we know from history that Anthony was not without people, even so, locating him and wanting wise, spiritual counsel, advice, and insights.  Yet, it was not Anthony's position nor did he take upon himself a role of deigning some type of legitimacy or approbation upon others seeking to live the eremitic vocation.  (In two days we celebrate the January 17 feast of St. Anthony of the Desert, so may examine his life further then.)

Let us pray for the intercessions of St. Paul the First Hermit!  May we learn from his life the reality of what it is to live the eremitic vocation in the way in which God desires of us as well as in the ways in which the Church as set forth some parameters and guidances for us consecrated Catholic hermits today.  

God bless His Real Presence in us!  Little children, let us love one another as God loves us each and all!

Catholic Hermit: Loneliness, Solitude

The other day, came across a small piece of old holy card or such.  Had pasted it on a postcard, thinking would send it to someone, sometime.  It was in a box stored in attic garret, amidst some stationery.  The citation cut off, the quote seems to be a private message from His Real Presence to someone.

"I shall lead you through the loneliness,
the solitude you will not understand;
but it is My shortcut in your soul."

How appropriate for a hermit, or anyone, really.

The definition of "loneliness" has with it the suggestion of sadness and of a state in which a person does not want to be--left to oneself, without company, sadly alone, or even desolate.  The definition of solitude is similar but also includes the essence of peace and tranquility in being left to oneself or alone, as if more a choice to be so.

Last week a friend from far away visited with an adult son.  They brought their lunch, and with the hermit ate our simple fare on the back deck among the cut wood ends, sawdust, compound miter saw and bench, and garden supplies.  The friend mentioned how we are made to be with others, to have community, and that perhaps the hermit needed more to be around people.  The comment was relative to a discussion of the area and the past two years, and the irony of neighbors here staying to themselves and the difficulty with hired help returning to finish what are tail ends of jobs and instead go off to larger, more lucrative work.

It all seemed fine with the hermit, once it understood that more than the finishing of a hermitage and above any temporal affect, the Lord wishes the hermit to learn various virtues, particularly that of total and complete faith, patience, and perseverance in hardship.  So it seemed humorous, when viewed with God's plans and goals for this one here, at this time of life, to see the irony in God's providing for the greater good of an exile experience.

At other times, the solitude can veer more to a feeling of the sorrowful aspect of "loneliness", or of a sense of desolation--IF the hermit loses the view of goodness in being graced with and cooperating with, striving with, some great virtues, particularly faith.  And it is not just faith, but total and complete faith--a high degree of faith, a degree nearing perfection of faith as an ultimate desire.

The friend commented that it does not seem "right" that the hermit have this much solitude, which seems rather extreme to some, for sure.  Yet there really are no options.  It is not as if the hermit can pick up and move back into civilization, for the hermitage remains unsalable, and the finances do not allow chucking it.  In our time period, money is needed for a hermit to live elsewhere, to rent a room or live in a campsite!  We don't have the option of finding some cave to move into.  The caves are on private property or on government park property; it all takes money and an approval of the land owner, and then there are such realities as health codes governing living with running water and having heat, trash disposal, paying taxes, and so forth.

When the friend emphasized that it does not seem right for a person to live in such solitude, and that God made us to be with others in a community--the hermit said it had recently pondered that, as well.  Jesus did not exemplify or advocate a hermit way of life, as his going off for 40 days was a suggestion of such, or spending nights alone in prayer, but he was not a hermit by vocation.  But then, the hermit commented to the friend that He did not live a married vocation, nor was he a temple priest.

The friend smiled and said had not thought of that.  The friend had been in the married vocation, and Jesus had not.  But Jesus knew of those who were essentially hermits:  many of the prophets, including John the Baptist.  They lived lives of solitude to varying degrees and for varying lengths of time. Some returned more to people, or people sought them out, or they came upon people like Elijah had, or Jeremiah--sent to deliver messages--or John the Baptist to prepare the way for people to recognize and turn to the Messiah.

They were called prophets, not hermits, back then.  Many were called other words, as well, by those who did not understand how God would utilize such rather extreme-type humans, their sights set on God above all things, with a stricter separation from the world, more hidden from the eyes of men and some very hidden so much so that there are no doubt many who did not find mention in Scriptures.  The names of the Essenes (John the Baptist's and Jesus' forbearers) are for the most part buried with their bones in the desert or mountains.

The friend and son left after meaningful conversation and some manual labor help (so grateful!).  The hermit then uncovered this bit of post card upon which years ago it had glued the little quote and image with it; and God spoke to the hermit this reminder and reason for the seeming enforced solitude and nuances of loneliness.  Again: "I shall lead you through the loneliness,
                               the solitude you will not understand;
                               but it is My shortcut in your soul."

Yet the hermit does understand the solitude to a point--in that it has become obvious through circumstances these past couple or more years of exile.  (And, the hermit's friend and friend's son visited; and the hermit's adult daughter and her family visit once every month or two.)  God has ordained and set forth the circumstances and allowed that there is really no way out of this degree of solitude in exile, until such time as the hermit dies or loses ability to function, or is slowly able to have the place livable to most human's desires...and salable by current, real estate market standards. 

What the hermit had forgotten, in part, is the reason for God's choosing and allowing this time of exile, of a greater degree of solitude, silence--and at times seemingly to the nuance of current defined loneliness as desolation.  Rather, "The solitude is His Real Presence's shortcut to the hermit's soul."  It is in the solitude that He will teach, hone, convert, conform, and unite the hermit's soul to His Real Presence.

Thus, the solitude, the loneliness, are most welcome guests here.  The loneliness loses that aspect of definition as desolate and forlorn as if not acceptable to others or shunned.  No, the solitude and loneliness of a hermit is not even so much of its own efforts or choosing and in fact ought not be other than its total surrender to God's will.  The solitude and loneliness of a hermit, in genuine aspects as result of going with God's flow, is that of God's choosing and orchestrating the silent sounds of His Real Presence in the soul.

God bless His Real Presence in us!  Little children, let us love one another and remain together in His Love.  In His Love is our conjoint spiritual communion and community mystically lived.