The hermit life from the ancient to the modern - BBC Bitesize (2024)

As winter approaches and the days get shorter and colder, the thought of curling up under a blanket and spending some time by ourselves sounds delightful.

It’s an opportunity to de-stress, be alone with our thoughts and recharge our social batteries.

You might have seen people refer to themselves as being a hermit on social media, usually as a light-hearted way of saying that they're an introvert or someone who enjoys their own company. But historically, being a hermit was something a bit more serious. It was a way of life for some people.

So who were these intriguing individuals? Join BBC Bitesize as we explore the lives of four examples of hermits from different periods of history…

The first English language female writer: Julian of Norwich

Much of the life of Julian of Norwich is shrouded in mystery, with few personal details of her life as a 14th Century hermit having survived down the ages. We don’t even know what her real name was. She spent at least 20 years living as an at the church of St Julian in Norwich, which might be where we get her name from, but Julian was also used as a female name during this period.

We do know one remarkable thing about her: Julian wrote the oldest work in the English language which we know to have been written a woman. That work is entitled Revelations of Divine Love, and survives in both a short and long version.

The short version appears to have been written not long after Julian suffered a serious illness at the age of 30, during which she experienced visions of Christ’s and Mary’s suffering. Julian revisited the experience several decades later, offering reflections on the potential meanings of her visions.

The man who spent 37 years up a pillar: Saint Simeon Stylites the Elder

How are good are you with heights? Clearly they weren’t a problem for Syrian Christian Saint Simeon Stylites the Elder, who spent around 37 years living on top of a pillar.

Born in around AD390, Simeon entered a monastic community as a teenager, devoting himself to a life of abstinence and prayer. His fellow monks, however, concerned about the extremes to which he was willing to go, expelled him. Leaving the monastery, Simeon initially found solitude in a cave, where he is said to have fasted throughout Lent, praying constantly.

But soon crowds of people were visiting the cave to seek his counsel or healing. To regain some seclusion, Simeon climbed atop a pillar around 2 metres (6.5 feet) high, and then later relocated to one 15 metres (49 feet) high. The small platform on which he sat may have had a railing to prevent falls, as well as a ladder for communication and the delivery of small food parcels.

Even this was not enough to deter those who wished to hear his words of wisdom or ask for religious intervention, and after Simeon’s death the pillar became a site of pilgrimage.

His actions inspired other hermits to adopt similar practices. In fact, any Christian hermit who seeks solitude on a pillar is known as a stylite.

The hermit at the end of your garden: Ornamental Hermits

By the 18th Century, religious hermits like Julian of Norwich were few and far between. But the hermit lifestyle made an unusual comeback in the 18th Century, when wealthy landowners decide to take a different approach to their landscape gardening. Very formal geometric gardens went out of fashion, and a more natural and wild appearance was favoured. Whimsical architectural details were often added, including hermitages which looked like treehouses and grottos.

Many of these hermitages were left vacant as an intriguing feature, but some landowners went one step further and actually hired individuals to live as hermits in their gardens. Adverts of the time show that hermits could be required to:

• Be silent
• Wear a goat’s hair robe
• Never cut their hair, nails or beard
• Not wear shoes

In some cases, the hermit became a sort of tourist attraction. Visitors would come to observe and ask questions of Father Francis, a hermit who lived on the Hawkstone estate in Shropshire in the 1780s, in a rustic stone cottage with thatched roof. Whenever Father Francis was indisposed, it is thought that he was replaced by a stuffed automaton. Other estates avoided the expense of having a real hermit by simply positioning a mannequin in their hermitage, or decorating in such a way that it looked like someone had just stepped out for a moment.

The hermits who live in the mountains: Yamabushi Monks

For over 1,400 years, Yamabushi (mountain worshippers) monks have walked the paths of the sacred mountains of Dewa Sanzan, in the north of Japan. The Yamabushi follow the Shugendo religion, which blended together elements of Japanese Shinto, Buddhism and Taoism.

Dressed in white, they immerse themselves as much as possible in the surrounding nature and carry out rituals that test their self-discipline, such as night-walking, fire-walking and meditating under freezing waterfalls. They believe that in doing so, they can achieve a spiritual rebirth.

Historically, Yamabushi monks would live like this full-time, spending much of it in solitude. These days though, they are often fully participating members of society with everyday jobs, who travel to the mountains when they can. Some even help run retreats where people can take time out of their busy lives and spend a few days experiencing the Yamabushi lifestyle and reconnecting with the natural world.

This article was published in November 2023