Catholic Christian Mystic Hermit: The First Hermit

Well, he is considered to be the first hermit, or called thus.  

St. Paul is his name.  Born in upper Egypt around 230, he became an orphan when fifteen.  Very rich and well educated, Paul was concerned his riches and education along with Christian beliefs might bring tortures and persecution, endangering his faith, he moved to a remote village. However, his pagan brother-in-law denounced Paul; he next went into the desert trusting God for all his needs.

Paul's faith and confidence in God's providence was rewarded with finding a cavern with a palm tree which provided food, leaves he could weave into clothing of sorts, and a spring with water safe for drinking.  His plan was to return to the world when persecution was over, but already the joys found in prayer and a simple and penitential life caused him to remain of his own choice for 90 years.

 Anthony became aware of Paul due to God's revelation.  Anthony was himself then in the desert living a hermit life (years after Paul had done so), and Anthony spent the next three days seeking Paul.  When Anthony saw a female wolf slip through some rocks, he followed figuring the wolf was going to a water source. That was how Anthony found and met Paul, much his elder.  However, they recognized one another such as souls do who God desires each to know the other's mind, heart, and soul as if friends already.  The two praised God in the joy of meeting.

Along with Anthony finding Paul, a raven brought a loaf of bread.  Paul, it is written, exclaimed, "See how good God is!   For sixty years this bird has brought me half a loaf every day; now thou art come.  Christ has doubled the provision for His servants."  The men then spent the night in prayer; at dawn, Paul told Anthony that he, Paul was soon to die and asked if Anthony would bury him in a cloak given Anthony by St. Athanasius.  Antony left to retrieve the cloak, but on the way back to Paul's cavern, hidden all those decades, Anthony saw Paul rise to heave in glory.  He found Paul's body kneeling as if in prayer, with two lions digging his grave.

We have no idea if a raven truly brought the half loaf of bread all those years or if two lions were digging his grave; but all things are possible in God.  I tend to trust that the account is possible and likely; more unusual phenomenon are known, as God performs miracles of His choosing.  I do find it fascinating that so many people think Anthony is the first hermit known, and I also marvel that people yet do not grasp the simple way of the hermit vocation, and that human-made laws, rituals, and regulations are required for one to be a hermit consecrated by God. 

And, as we see from the various hermits such as Paul and Anthony, the Church is quite accepting of and pleased with these and all hermits for it is not a vocation taken lightly and is not easy to live out over time, perhaps especially in our times with the responsibilities that are required of us as citizens and no deserts in which we can live without paying for the land and property taxes, and meeting the civil laws which govern us today.  

No squatters allowed now, in other words, so our hermit existences must be creatively undertaken in order to have the solitude and silence to pray and listen to God, to praise Him and strive to follow Jesus' life and teachings through immersing ourselves in His Living Word, and to be host or hostess to His Real Presence in a manner deep within while being mostly a hermit within and hidden from others interiorly--not showing ourselves as different or stereotypically "hermit." 

I realize there had been a woman writing repeatedly for years that to live the hermit life one must be approved by a bishop and be called a canonical or diocese hermit, and follow the increasing amount of humankind fairly recently, made up rules and regulations.  I noticed today that a year or two have passed since seeing that blog.  Her writing and thoughts are yet consumed with the created canon law and of the temporal created rules, of who can and who cannot be a hermit, and excludes those such as the first hermit in doing so, as well as hermits throughout Christendom.  I used to waste time countering, explaining the logic and truth of what the Church states, but also and more importantly what God deems and has allowed throughout history from the times of the prophets through John the Baptist on on including our times.

A true hermit over time evolves and grows spiritually.  The relationship with God and the adherence and maturation in God's law --the Law of Love--and the immersion in His Living Word would begin to show fruit of a prayerful, spiritual, loving, mystical nature.  One would not continue to be self-promoting as an authority of a man-made canon law nor adding to it, nit-picking at dioceses who take it further or not far enough per that person's opinions.  Rather, any such so-called hermit would have found work farther from the temporal, not surrounded by people, ceased the socializing and worldy hobbies lovely though they be.  There would be a maturation in His Real Presence that exudes love of others and not love of canon laws and self-promotion as some authority on various temporal Catholic world topics.

So we may have canonically approved hermits in our times, and we also have a host of atrocious wrongs in a church not readily recognizable as Christ's simple yet profound teachings and call to God's law of Love--love of God and love of others as God loves.  Christ's call to follow Him, to abide in Him and His promise of abiding in us--to seek and find Him in His Word and in our minds, hearts, and souls and to find Him in our fellow man, as well, those who are His Children and with a loving recognition such as Paul and Anthony experienced, 

Those few who are given a call to hermit life and vocation--are they a hermit in the fabric and pith of Paul and Anthony?  Time will tell, and only God knows for sure, as only God can be trusted to judge bodies, minds, hearts, and souls.  The fruit in past hermits gives us guidelines by noticing their lives lived--not any canon law for there were none, not any years of repetitive obsessing over who is and who is not a hermit based on some created church law centuries after Jesus instituted His church, never Himself speaking of laws positively except the Law of God which is the Law of Love.  All other church laws Jesus pointed out as hypocrisies and missing the point of God Himself, thus Jesus' teachings and purpose to live on this earth to help us see more clearly as live our lives more dearly in His Real Presence, as His children, in imitation of Christ's life and love.

To be a hermit of God, and in so doing also a Catholic hermit, a Christian hermit, follow the greatest hermits of all time, such as St. Paul, the First Hermit. Live your hermit life consecrated by God above all, and follow the wise words written by humankind in the Catechism of the Catholic Church if you feel you need more than what God will provide and unfold through getting to know these holy hermits of Christian history.  Pray, remain in His Real Presence, live by His Word, the Holy Scriptures.  Go into your cell--the desert and yea the desert of your mind and heart.  Let His Real Presence teach you in your soul.  Plan on decades, not months or years.  The Holy Trinity will teach you and sanctify you.  In Him you are consecrated a hermit of God Is Love, forever, and on this temporal plane.

I place myself in the crucible, to review my life and my hermit vocation.  Am I merging slowly into that of John the Baptist's hermit life, or Paul the First Hermit's life in it's meaning and depth, it's prayer and penitential existence, its focus on His Living Word and God's Law of Love?  Is my life increasingly removed physically from the temporal world yet increasingly praying for that world?  Am I seeking and embracing humility, dying to self, not self-promoting or giving myself made up ecclesial titles of which Jesus would find silly and prideful?  Am I noisy within myself?  

Do I trick myself into thinking I need social contacts in order to have "balance," or do I trust in God's providence to provide whatever human interactions needed--which ironically have become medical appointments now and then errands and their in-passing interactions.  Is the pet a gift from God to learn some needed virtues or a signal of some weakness?  Am I learning to be receptive, not reaching out but waiting for those who have a need or desire to make contact?  If so, am I being a good listener and not over-talking? These are questions to ask of Jesus, and to make adjustments accordingly.

Do I love His Real Presence--Father, Son, and Holy Ghost--more than self and anything other--love God with all my heart, mind, strength and soul and others as God loves?

Am I a Paul or an Anthony hermit, or one of the growing number of canon law type hermits who seem to want to be noticed in habits and as authorities or to create their own orders or guest houses from donations and not by the work of their hands?

St.Paul is a marvelous, holy, humble and deeply spiritual exemplar of Christ abiding in a human and of a human always and ever in His Real Presence.  Paul, please pray for me that I can learn from you, a holy, humble, simple, and simply: hermit--body, mind, heart, and soul of Christ!

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: Be Humble, Hermit!

There is much to be written about the topic: on being a hermit.

And in this aspect of being a hermit, I naturally mean being a Catholic hermit, either privately or publicly professed and thereby in the consecrated life of the Church.  While a good many of my blog readers continue to inquire or read about how to become a Catholic hermit, the most challenging aspect for a consecrated Catholic hermit is the living out of the vocation:  how to be a Catholic hermit.

Being humble remains a seminal, necessary, and threshold virtue for the hermit.  (Humility remains thus for every soul, of course, but in a hermit, humility is crucial due to the solitary nature of this vocation.)  When one lives increasingly in the silence of solitude, temptations to pride and various other vices and distractions, all the more can threaten the hermit's self-perception and thoughts.  This is so because there are not other religious or consecrated, or the ordained, or people in general who can serve as checks to a hermit's temptation to and falling to pride.

The hermit must rely on God alone, for the most part.  God in His Living Word, God the Holy Spirit, God in His Real Presence, God in the spiritual reading, God in the hermit's praying and praising--God's All to the hermit's nothing are checks against the devil's devious and numerous ways of bringing a hermit to insidious but also sometimes quite obvious pride.  

And the hermit must also rely on God alone, for the most part, in all aspects of God's All to the hermit's nothing, for the virtue of humility to remain foremost of the cardinal virtues in a hermit's daily and nightly existence.  Humility grows commensurate with pride's demise.  The more outer and external in the temporal world is the hermit, the more difficulty in ridding pride; yet there are the subtle aspects of pride which can take root within a hermit's interior life--even when the hermit has progressed to fewer relationships and rare excursions out into the world.  (And excursions into the world can very much include, in our contemporary times, the internet.)

Truly, God will form the hermit increasingly in His will when the hermit gives over increasingly, to great faith in trusting in God's providence in all matters, external and interior, temporal and spiritual.  Thus pride, which will always be poking it's undesirable and deceptively vicious tentacles into a hermit's temporal existence and spiritual life, the hermit's on-going awareness of this serious and deadening vice will bring the hermit to call upon the Holy Spirit and the hermit's guardian angel to unmask and pluck out all and any such tentacles of pride.

But a most effective antidote and prevention of pride is for the hermit to pray for and actively seek the virtue of humility.  Just as a hermit begins to be fine-tuned by the Lord in the hermit vocation, and the silence of solitude grows, the increase in hiddenness from the eyes of others increases, the praise of God encompasses and the hermit's prayer for the salvation of the world and souls strengthens, there will be less external and interior "space" for pride to enter in.

When the hermit gives over to the Lord in accepting the less of the world and the more of the interior life, when the excuses or rationalizing of going and doing, of enabling and encouraging particular friendships, the hermit will settle into the rubrics, and essences exemplified by the saint hermits of history and tradition, the hermit will be in their mystical company, also increasingly so.  And the humility of these hermit saints who befriend us when we ask and desire, will inspire and share the wealth of facets in the jewel of humility.

Above all, the more the hermit delves into the mystery of Christ and His Church, and becomes a hidden, silent preaching of the Lord to Whom the hermit has fully given his life and of which the Lord comes to be and mean everything to the hermit, Christ's perfect humility will enter into the hermit, just as the hermit will enter into the Lord's preeminent, supernally humble, Sacred Heart.

The hermit's temporal and spiritual combat against the vice of pride, as well as the hermit's desire and attainment of humility, are progressive and concomitant, both.  Willingness to give up that which impedes humility and the closeness with the Lord that ensures His humility in us, must be a willingness that each hermit must in abject honesty of self:  desire with focused, strength of mind and heart.

And in humility, the hermit must accept that the reception of such a spectacularly humbling virtue can be a slow and unfolding process of letting go of temporal distractions be whatever these distractions in all their often shrouded appearances or considerations truly are.  The Lord will be immensely patient with the hermit, for many of our hindrances to a hermit's evolving as authentic is in part can seem a one-step forward, two-step back process of coming to reality of our own deception to even the smallest particles of pride in us. 

A consecrated Catholic hermit need critically examine what the Church states and desires of Her hermits, as well as to imitate the lived examples of the holy hermit saints--with obvious requisites adjusted per the hermit's culture, era, societal legalities.  Abject self-honesty on the part of the hermit and heeding the circumstances God unfolds, is a hermit must.  Pride can so easily convince the hermit to rationalize other than the truth of the means and ideal which progress the Catholic hermit in holiness as opposed to pretense and hubris.

Authentically living the hermit vocation can be at times breathtaking in the deeper degrees of solitude and silence, stillness and simplicity.  The interjection of suffering will come to any and all consecrated Catholic hermits, at some time or many times, whether in spiritual combat or physical pain and debilitation.  Selflessness will always be a point of contention, for dying to self is a challenge for hermits as it is for anyone; but death of self for a hermit is necessity in living the ideal of the eremitic vocation.

Pride will tempt against the needed stability in humility (as well in stability of mind, heart, and soul).  The hermit will be tempted against increasing simplicity--not only of tangibles, but as much, that of simplicity in the hermit's inner thoughts, feelings, and desires.  Humility for the hermit will bring serenity temporally and spiritually.

And whereas the devil who despises humility as well as despises Catholic hermits. ever-striving to protect humility's virtue from pride, will do all to discourage the hermit in the acceptance of slowness.  Rather the hermit will consider the slowness inherent in such a deeply, richly spiritual vocation as being too tedious, thus tempting the hermit to impatience--or to ease off or even dispense of the hidden, humble hermit vocation altogether.

These are but some thoughts on how a hermit ought be humble, from this nothing consecrated Catholic hermit on a late and darkling Advent afternoon, while in bed on icy pad, Bach's Mass in D Minor and the low hum of the ice pump the only sound in the otherwise silence of solitude here in Solus Deus Hermitage.

The Living Word of Jesus further emphasizes for all souls, the blessedness of humility and of our being drawn into HIs Being.  Whether already a consecrated Catholic hermit in process of living the eremitic vocation, or someone discerning the hermit vocation, or anyone in whatever stage, status, and vocation in life, the Lord beckons us today as He did when living on this earth.  Truth, beauty, goodness--He lovingly wants us for Himself for now and forever.

"Jesus said to the crowds:  'Come to Me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves.  For My yoke is easy and My burden light.'"  

                                                                                                                 ~ Matthew 11: 28-30

God bless His Real Presence in us!