anchorite

The anchoritic life became widespread during the early and high Middle Ages.{{sfn|McAvoy|2010|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=ceU1Wa_2VZIC&pg=PA96&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false 96]}} Examples of the dwellings of anchorites and anchoresses survive, a large number of which are in England. They tended to be a simple cell (also called anchorhold) built against one of the walls of the local village church.{{sfn|Licence|2013|pp=87–89}}

In Germanic-speaking areas, from at least the tenth century it was customary for the bishop to say the Office of the Dead as the anchorite entered their cell, to signify the anchorite's death to the world and rebirth to a spiritual life of solitary communion with God and the angels. Sometimes, if the anchorite was walled up inside the cell, the bishop would put his seal upon the wall to stamp it with his authority. Some anchorites, however, freely moved between their cells and the adjoining churches.{{sfn|Licence|2013|pp=123, 120}}

Most anchoritic anchorholds were small, perhaps at most {{convert|12|to|15|ft|m|abbr=on|order=flip}} square, with three windows. Viewing the altar, hearing Mass, and receiving the Eucharist were possible through one small, shuttered window in the common wall facing the sanctuary, called a "hagioscope" or "squint". Anchorites provided spiritual advice and counsel to visitors through these windows, gaining a reputation for wisdom.{{sfn|Licence|2013|pp=158–172}} Another small window allowed access to those who saw to the anchorite's physical needs. A third window, often facing the street but covered with translucent cloth, allowed light into the cell.{{cite book|title=The Broadview Anthology of British Literature|editor1-last=Black|editor1-first=J.|editor2-last=Conolly|editor2-first=L.|editor3-last=Flint|editor3-first=K.|editor4-last=Grundy|editor4-first=I.|editor5-last=LePan|editor5-first=D.|editor6-last=Liuzza|editor6-first=R.|publisher=Broadview Press|year = 2011|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=1t7Hik0KoxgC&newbks=1&pg=PT348&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false 348]}}{{rp|348}}

Anchorites committed to a life of uncompromising enclosure. Those who considered leaving possibly believed their souls might be damned for spiritual dereliction.{{cite book |first=A. K. |last=Warren |year=1985 |title=Anchorites and their Patrons in Medieval England |place=Oakland, CA |publisher=University of California Press}}{{rp|page=93}}{{efn|"The cell of enclosure, however, was equated with a prison, into which the anchorite propelled himself for fear of hell and for love of Christ. The eternal punishment of hell might be escaped by the lifetime refusal of escape from the anchorhold. At the same time, union with Christ might be achieved even in this life." {{nowrap| — A. K. Warren (1985)}} }} Some refused to leave their cells even when pirates or looters were pillaging their towns and consequently burned to death when the church was torched.{{sfn|Licence|2013|pp=77–79}} They ate frugal meals, spending their days both in contemplative prayer and interceding on behalf of others. Their body waste was managed using a chamber pot.{{cite web |title=Questions comments from the e‑mail |date=2008-06-02 |series=On‑line Q&As |website=The Anchoress online |url=http://theanchoressonline.com/2008/06/02/questions-comments-from-the-email/ |access-date=2008-10-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080924152835/http://theanchoressonline.com/2008/06/02/questions-comments-from-the-email/ |archive-date=2008-09-24}}{{Better source needed|date=March 2023}}

Some anchorholds had a few small rooms or attached gardens. Servants tended to the basic needs of anchorites, providing food and water and removing waste. Julian of Norwich, for example, is known to have had several maidservants, among them Sara and Alice. Aelred of Rievaulx wrote an anchorite rule book, {{circa|1161}}, for his recluse sister titled De Institutione Inclusarum.{{cite web|last=Wellesley|first=M.|authorlink=Lady Mary Wellesley|date=13 March 2018|title=The Life of the Anchoress|series=Discovering Literature: Medieval|website=British Library|department=Medieval Literature|url=https://padlet.com/discovering_literature/the-life-of-the-anchoress-a66jqru7xj5x3jfo}} In it, he suggested keeping no housemates other than an older woman, to act as companion and doorkeeper, and a young maid as domestic servant.{{cite book |author-link=John William Adamson|last=Adamson|first=J. W.|year=1919|title=A Short History of Education|page=75|place=Cambridge, UK |publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781107696440|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QY0oAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA75&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false}}

The anchorhold was the physical location wherein the anchorite could embark on a journey toward union with God. It also provided a spiritual and geographic focus for people from the wider society seeking spiritual advice and guidance. Though set apart from the community by stone walls and specific spiritual precepts, the anchorite lay at the very centre of the community. The anchorhold has been called a communal "womb" from which would emerge an idealised sense of a community's reborn potential as Christians and as human subjects.

An idea of their daily routine can be gleaned from an anchoritic rule. The most widely known today is the early 13th-century text known as Ancrene Wisse.Ancrene Wisse{{full citation needed|date=March 2021}} Another, less widely known, example is the rule known as De Institutione Inclusarum written in the 12th century, around 1160–1162, by Aelred of Rievaulx for his sister.A translation of De Institutione Inclusarum by Mary Paul MacPherson is included in Treatises and the Pastoral Prayer, Cistercian Fathers Series 2, (Kalamazoo, 1971). In English the work is variously titled The Eremitical Life, The Rule of Life for a Recluse, or The Training of Anchoresses. It is estimated that the daily set devotions detailed in Ancrene Wisse would take some four hours, on top of which anchoresses would listen to services in the church and engage in their own private prayers and devotional reading.

Richard Rolle, an English hermit and mystic, wrote one of the most influential guide books regarding the life of an anchoress. His book The Form of Living was addressed to a young anchoress named Margaret Kirkby who was responsible for preserving his texts.Roman, C. M. (2017) Queering Richard Rolle: Mystical Theology and the Hermit in Fourteenth-Century England. London: Palgrave Macmillan, [https://books.google.com/books?id=abLzDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA29&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false p. 29].{{rp|29}} Her connection to the town of Hampole has been commonly associated with Rolle. He is sometimes referred to as 'Richard Rolle of Hampole' despite a lack of conclusive evidence that Rolle was ever in the small village.{{Cite ODNB|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/24024|title=Rolle, Richard (1305×10–1349)|last=Hughes|first=Jonathan}}

File:StAnthony.jpg, father of Christian Monasticism and early anchorite. The Coptic inscription reads ' Ⲡⲓⲛⲓϣϯ Ⲁⲃⲃⲁ Ⲁⲛⲧⲱⲛⲓ' or 'The Great Father Anthony'.]]

The earliest recorded anchorites lived in the third century AD. Saint Anthony the Anchorite (251–356), also known as "Anthony of the Desert", has a traditional reputation as Christianity's "Father of Monasticism".

{{cite book

|last1 = O'Malley

|first1 = John W.

|author-link1 = John W. O'Malley

|date = 30 June 2009

|orig-date = 2004

|title = Four Cultures of the West

|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=VnWNftGRTHgC

|edition = revised

|location = Cambridge, Massachusetts

|publisher = Harvard University Press

|page = 27

|isbn = 9780674041691

|access-date = 1 November 2023

|quote = The traditional 'Father of Monasticism,' St. Anthony the Abbot [...].

}}

Hilarion (Gaza, 291 – Cyprus, 371) was known as the founder of anchoritic life in Palestine.Catholic Encyclopedia, St. Jerome, Vita Sancti Hilarionis in P.L., III, 29–54.

The anchoritic life proved popular in England, where women outnumbered men in the ranks of the anchorites, especially in the 13th century. Written evidence supports the existence of 780 anchorites on 600 sites between 1100 and 1539,{{cite book |last1= Jones |first1= E. A. |title= Hermits and anchorites in England, 1200–1550 |date= 2019 |publisher= Manchester University Press |location= Manchester |page= 7}} when the Dissolution of the Monasteries ordered by Henry VIII brought anchoritism in England to an end.Erler, M.C. (2013). Reading and Writing during the Dissolution: Monks, Friars, and Nuns 1530–1558. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, [https://books.google.com/books?id=CXBGAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA32 pp. 32–37]. However, the lack of a consistent registration system for anchorites suggests there may have been substantially more.{{cite book |last1=Jones |first1=E. A. |title= Hermits and anchorites in England, 1200–1550 |date=2019 |publisher=Manchester University Press |location= Manchester |page=7}} English anchorholds can still be seen at Chester-le-Street in County Durham and at Hartlip in Kent.Hughes-Edwards, M., (2010). "Anchoritism: the English Tradition", in McAvoy, L.H. [ed.] Anchoritic Traditions of Medieval Europe. Suffolk: Boydell Press, [https://books.google.com/books?id=ceU1Wa_2VZIC&pg=PA143 p. 143].

• Bede records that prior to a conference in 602 with Augustine of Canterbury, British churchmen consulted an anchorite about whether to abandon their Celtic Christian traditions for the Roman practices which Augustine was seeking to introduce.Grimmer, M. (January 2006). [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289918931_Bede_and_the_Augustine's_Oak_conferences_Implications_for_Anglo-British_ecclesiastical_interaction_in_early_Anglo-Saxon_England "Bede and the Augustine's Oak conferences: Implications for Anglo-British ecclesiastical interaction in early Anglo-Saxon England"], Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association, Nr. 2, pp. 103–119.
• Toward the end of the seventh century, Guthlac of Crowland, related to the royal family of Mercia, withdrew from the monastery at Repton to an island in the Lincolnshire Fens where he lived for some 15–20 years.
• Eve of Wilton (died c.1125) was an English anchoress.{{Cite web |title=Eve of Wilton: the Anchorite, her Cell, and Medieval Women's Literary Culture in England and the Continent |url=http://www.ub.edu/proyectopaisajes/index.php/ca/espais/blog-ca/146-eve-of-wilton-the-anchorite |access-date=2023-07-08 |website=www.ub.edu}}
• Wulfric of Haselbury (died 1154) was enclosed as an anchorite in a cell built against the church in his village of Haselbury Plucknett in Somerset.{{cite web |url= https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-ulrick/ |title= Book of Saints – Ulrick |date=17 February 2017}}
• Christine Carpenter, who submitted a petition in 1329[http://courseweb.stthomas.edu/medieval/julian/petition.htm Petition to Become an Anchoress] University of Saint Thomas–Saint Paul, MN, http://courseweb.stthomas.edu, 2003, 2012-04-22 and was granted permission to become the anchoress of Shere Church,[https://sheredelight.com/history.html History of Shere], sheredelight.com, 2011, 2012-04-22 also known as the Church of St. James, in the Borough of Guildford, received her food and drink through a metal grating on the outside wall. In the interior of the church, a quatrefoil through which she could receive the Eucharist and a hagioscope for her use for prayer and reflection were cut out of the wall. Although she left her cell, in 1332 she applied for—and was granted—permission to be re-enclosed.{{cite book |first= Wyndham |last= Thomas |title= Robert Saxton: Caritas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OtHDa15XkTcC&pg=PA16&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false |year= 2012 |publisher=Ashgate Publishing |isbn=978-0-7546-6601-1 |pages=16–20}}
• Katherine of Ledbury, anchorite at Ledbury, Herefordshire, in the early 14th century.
• Margaret Kirkby (possibly 1322{{cite ODNB |last= Hughes |first= Jonathan |year= 2004 |title= Kirkby, Margaret (d. 1391~1394), anchoress |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/57764 |url= https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-57764}} to {{circa|1391–1394}}), an anchoress at Hampole, for whom Richard Rolle wrote his vernacular guide The Form of Living.{{cite book |translator-first= Hugh |translator-last= White |year= 1993 |title= Ancrene Wisse: Guide for Anchoresses |page=xiii |place=London |publisher=Penguin Books}}
• In 1346, an unnamed anchorite scribe translated Latin texts into Welsh, producing what is today known as Book of the Anchorite of Llanddewibrefi.
• Walter Hilton ({{circa}} 1340/1345 – 1396) composed the first book of his Scale of Perfection for an unnamed enclosed woman. Hilton, W., tr. J.P. Clark & R. Dorward. (1991). The Scale of Perfection, p. 19. New York City: Paulist Press.
• Julian of Norwich (died after 1416) wrote the mystic text Revelations of Divine Love, which made a permanent contribution to Christian spirituality.Julian of Norwich, Revelations of Divine Love{{full citation needed|date=March 2021}}{{cite web | url=https://www.psupress.org/books/titles/0-271-02547-6.html | title=The Writings of Julian of Norwich: A Vision Showed to a Devout Woman and a Revelation of Love Edited by Nicholas Watson and Jacqueline Jenkins }} Her cell, attached to St Julian's Church, Norwich, was destroyed during the Dissolution, and the church itself was gutted by bombing in the Second World War, but afterwards rebuilt. On the site of the cell is a modern shrine to Julian.Milton, R. (2002). [https://books.google.com/books?id=6IZmAwAAQBAJ Julian's Cell: The earthy story of Julian of Norwich]. Kelowna, BC: Northstone Publishing.
• Patrick Begley (or Beglin) was an Irish anchorite who lived in a cell at Fore Abbey in the 17th century.{{Cite web |last=Past |first=Ed Hannon-Visions of the |date=2017-11-29 |title=Anchorite's Cell, Westmeath, Ireland |url=https://visionsofthepastblog.com/2017/11/29/anchorites-cell-westmeath-ireland/ |access-date=2023-07-08 |website=Visions Of The Past |language=en-US}}
• Nazarena of Jesus was an American who felt called to become an anchorite and entered the Camaldolese Abbey of Sant'Antimo in Rome in 1945, remaining there until her death in 1990.Chalupsky, Mary. [https://www.catholictranscript.org/hidden-news/3324-glastonbury-native-led-ascetic-life-in-rome.html "Glastonbury native led ascetic life in Rome"], Catholic Transcript, Archdiocese of Hartford.

Other anchorites included Calogerus the Anchorite (c. 466 – 561), Cyriacus the Anchorite (448–557) and Suster Bertken (1426–1514).

{{Div col|colwidth=30em|content=* Ancrene Wisse

• Book of the First Monks
• Cenobitic monasticism
• Christian monasticism
• Christian mysticism
• Enclosed religious orders
• Immured anchorite
• Mystical theology
• Shugendō
• Sadhu
• Stylite}}

{{notelist}}

{{reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20210505222308/http://hermits.ex.ac.uk/index/anchorites "About Anchorites"]. Hermits & Anchorites of England, University of Exeter, 2010.
• The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. [https://www.britannica.com/topic/Great-Chain-of-Being "Great Chain of Being"]. Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 27 May 2015.
• Dixon, Alan. [http://www.innercivilization.com/2010/03/great-chain-of-being.html "The 'Great Chain of Being{{'"}}]. Inner Civilization, 1 Jan. 1970.
• {{cite book|last=Licence|first=Tom|title=Hermits and Recluses in English Society, 950–1200 |year=2013 |publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-967409-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NINIMQEACAAJ}}
• {{cite book|last=McAvoy|first=Liz|title=Anchoritic Traditions of Medieval Europe|year=2010 |publisher=Boydell & Brewer |isbn=978-1-84383-520-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ceU1Wa_2VZIC}}
• [https://www.hermitary.com/articles/rolle.html "Richard Rolle's Form of Living: A Medieval Guide for an Anchoress"]. Hermitary – the hermit, hermits, eremitism, solitude, silence, and simplicity, 2006.

• {{cite book |last1= Healy |first1=John |author-link1=John Healy (bishop) |year=1892 |chapter= Ascetics and Anchorites|title= The Ancient Irish Church|language= en|edition=1 |location=London |publisher=Religious Tract Society |pages=82–88|ref=none }}
• {{cite book|last=Hughes-Edwards|first=Mari|title=Reading Medieval Anchoritism: Ideology and Spiritual Practices |year=2012|publisher=University of Wales Press|isbn= 9780708325049 |url=https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/R/bo14292927.html|ref=none}}
• {{Cite book |last=Clay |first=Rotha Mary |year=1914 |chapter=Chapter VII: Anchorites in Church and Cloister |chapter-url=http://monasticmatrix.usc.edu/commentaria/article.php?textId=1 |title=The Hermits and Anchorites of England |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060902225230/http://monasticmatrix.usc.edu/commentaria/article.php?textId=1 |archive-date=2006-09-02 |url=http://monasticmatrix.usc.edu/commentaria/article.php?textId=1 |location=London |publisher=Methuen & Co. |ref=none}} {{Google books |title=The Hermits and Anchorites of England|uXJCAAAAIAAJ}}.
• Warren, Ann K. (1985). Anchorites and Their Patrons in Medieval England. Berkeley: University of California Press. {{ISBN|0520052781}}.

{{Commons category|Anchorites}}

{{Wikiquote}}

• [http://www.allsaintskingslynn.org.uk/history/history-7140.php The Anchorhold at All Saints Church, King's Lynn, Norfolk]
• [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/rul-benedict.html Chapter 1 of The Rule of Saint Benedict re: Anchorites]
• [http://courseweb.stthomas.edu/medieval/julian/anchoress.htm The Way of an Anchoress]
• [http://www.duston.org.uk/index.php/local-history/anchorite-cell-at-st-luke-s-church Anchorite Cell at St Luke's Church in Duston]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20090805142319/http://geocities.com/Wellesley/Garden/3741/papers/awtext.htm Marsha, Anchoritic Spirituality in Medieval England: The Form, the Substance, the Rule]
• [http://www.historyfish.net/anchorites/clay_anchorites.html Rotha Mary Clay, Full Text plus illustrations, The Hermits and Anchorites of England.]
• [http://www.lib.rochester.edu/Camelot/teams/awintro.htm Introduction] to the Ancrene Wisse
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20060821195246/http://www.anchorite.org/blog/anchorite/ anchorite?] (anchorite.org, blog)
• [http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/FullDisplay.aspx?index=0&ref=Cotton_MS_Cleopatra_C_VI/ Fully digitised copy of a British Library manuscript] of the Ancrene Wisse, an influential rule for anchoresses written in the 13th century

• [https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG1104/__P1Y.HTM English tr. of canon 603] of The Code of Canon Law (1983) re: Anchorites as members of the Consecrated Life in the Catholic Church. [http://www.intratext.com/IXT/LAT0010/_P1X.HTM Latin text of canon 603].

Category:Christian monasticism

Category:Christianity in the Middle Ages

cs:Poustevník

sv:Anakoret