Anchorite Explained

In Christianity, an anchorite or anchoret (female: anchoress; from Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: ἀναχωρέω | translit = anakhōréō |lit=I withdraw, retire) is someone who, for religious reasons, withdraws from secular society to be able to lead an intensely prayer-oriented, ascetic, or Eucharist-focused life. Anchorites are frequently considered to be a type of hermit,^[1] but unlike hermits, they were required to take a vow of stability of place, opting for permanent enclosure in cells often attached to churches. Also unlike hermits, anchorites were subject to a religious rite of consecration that closely resembled the funeral rite, following which they would be considered dead to the world and a type of living saint. Anchorites had a certain autonomy, as they did not answer to any ecclesiastical authority apart from bishops.^{[2] [3]}

The anchoritic life is one of the earliest forms of Christian monasticism. In the Catholic Church, eremitic life is one of the forms of consecrated life. In medieval England, the earliest recorded anchorites lived in the 11th century. Their highest number—around 200 anchorites—was recorded in the 13th century.^[4]

From the 12th to the 16th centuries, female anchorites consistently outnumbered their male counterparts, sometimes by as many as four to one (in the 13th century); this ratio eventually dropped to two to one (in the 15th century). The sex of a high number of anchorites, however, is not recorded for these periods.^[5]

Between 1536 and 1539, the dissolution of the monasteries ordered by Henry VIII of England effectively brought the anchorite tradition to an end in England.^[6]

Anchoritic life

The anchoritic life became widespread during the early and high Middle Ages. 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. 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.

Most anchoritic strongholds were small, perhaps at most 12to 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. 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.^[7]

Anchorites committed to a life of uncompromising enclosure. Those who considered leaving possibly believed their souls might be damned for spiritual dereliction.^[8] 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. 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.^[9] 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,, for his recluse sister titled De Institutione Inclusarum;^[10] 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.^[11]

In addition to being the physical location wherein the anchorite could embark on a journey toward union with God, the anchorhold 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.^[5]

Influential texts

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.^[12] 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.^[13] 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.^[14] 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.^[15]

Notable anchorites

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".^[16] Hilarion (Gaza, 291 – Cyprus, 371) was known as the founder of anchoritic life in Palestine.^[17]

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,^[18] when the Dissolution of the Monasteries ordered by Henry VIII brought anchoritism in England to an end.^[19] However, the lack of a consistent registration system for anchorites suggests there may have been substantially more.^[20] English anchorholds can still be seen at Chester-le-Street in County Durham and at Hartlip in Kent.^[21]

• 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.^[22]
• 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.
• 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.^[23]
• Christine Carpenter, who submitted a petition in 1329^[24] and was granted permission to become the anchoress of Shere Church^[25] (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.^[26]
• Katherine of Ledbury, anchorite at Ledbury, Herefordshire in the early 14th century.
• Margaret Kirkby (possibly 1322^[27] to), an anchoress at Hampole, for whom Richard Rolle wrote his vernacular guide The Form of Living.^[28]
• In 1346, an unnamed anchorite scribe translated Latin texts into Welsh, producing what is today known as Book of the Anchorite of Llanddewibrefi (Jesus College, Oxford MS 119).
• Walter Hilton (1340/1345 – 1396) composed the first book of his Scale of Perfection for an unnamed enclosed woman.^[29]
• Eve of Wilton an English anchoress of the 12th century.^[30]
• Patrick Begley (or Beglin) an Irish anchorite who lived in a cell at Fore Abbey in the 17th century.^[31]
• Julian of Norwich, whose writings^[32] made a permanent contribution to Christian spirituality.^[33] Her cell, attached to St Julian's Church, Norwich, was destroyed during an air raid during World War II. The church itself was gutted, but the original walls remain, and it was rebuilt. On the site of the cell is a modern shrine to Julian.^[34]
• 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.^[35]

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

General and cited references

• "About Anchorites". Hermits & Anchorites of England, University of Exeter, 2010.
• The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Great Chain of Being". Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 27 May 2015.
• Dixon, Alan. "The 'Great Chain of Being. Inner Civilization, 1 Jan. 1970.
• Book: Licence, Tom. Hermits and Recluses in English Society, 950–1200 . 2013 . OUP Oxford. 978-0-19-967409-1 .
• Book: McAvoy, Liz. Anchoritic Traditions of Medieval Europe. 2010 . . 978-1-84383-520-2 .
• "Richard Rolle's Form of Living: A Medieval Guide for an Anchoress". Hermitary – the hermit, hermits, eremitism, solitude, silence, and simplicity, 2006.

Further reading

• Book: Healy . John . John Healy (bishop) . 1892 . Ascetics and Anchorites. The Ancient Irish Church. en. 1 . London . . 82–88. none .
• Book: Hughes-Edwards, Mari. Reading Medieval Anchoritism: Ideology and Spiritual Practices . 2012. University of Wales Press. 9780708325049 . none.
• Book: Clay, Rotha Mary . 1914 . Chapter VII: Anchorites in Church and Cloister . http://monasticmatrix.usc.edu/commentaria/article.php?textId=1 . The Hermits and Anchorites of England . https://web.archive.org/web/20060902225230/http://monasticmatrix.usc.edu/commentaria/article.php?textId=1 . 2006-09-02 . London . Methuen & Co. . none. .
• Warren, Ann K. (1985). Anchorites and Their Patrons in Medieval England. Berkeley: University of California Press. .

External links

Historical development

• The Anchorhold at All Saints Church, King's Lynn, Norfolk
• Chapter 1 of The Rule of Saint Benedict re: Anchorites
• The Way of an Anchoress
• Anchorite Cell at St Luke's Church in Duston
• Marsha, Anchoritic Spirituality in Medieval England: The Form, the Substance, the Rule
• Rotha Mary Clay, Full Text plus illustrations, The Hermits and Anchorites of England.
• Introduction to the Ancrene Wisse
• anchorite? (anchorite.org, blog)
• Fully digitised copy of a British Library manuscript of the Ancrene Wisse, an influential rule for anchoresses written in the 13th century

Roman Catholic Church links

• English tr. of canon 603 of The Code of Canon Law (1983) re: Anchorites as members of the Consecrated Life in the Catholic Church. Latin text of canon 603.

Notes and References

1. Web site: BBC Radio 4 - Making History, The Dunkirk Spirit . 2024-05-13 . BBC . en-GB.
2. Book: Black . Joseph . 8 September 2011 . Julian of Norwich . The Broadview Anthology of British Literature: Concise Volume A . 1 . 2 . Broadview Press . 348 . 9781770480865 . 22 October 2023 . [...] anchorites and anchoresses did not answer to any ecclesiastical authority other than the bishop..
3. Book: Hevelone-Harper . Jennifer L. . Sogno . Cristiana . Storin . Bradley K. . Watts . Edward J. . 19 November 2019 . 2017 . The Letter Collection of Barsanuphius and John . Late Antique Letter Collections: A Critical Introduction and Reference Guide . reprint . Oakland, California . University of California Press . 428 . 9780520308411 . 22 October 2023 . The correspondence of Barsanuphius and John reveals the anchorites' authority over bishops as well as their submission to bishops..
4. Web site: The Code of Canon Law 1983, canon 603.
5. Book: McAvoy, Liz Herbert . Anchorites, Wombs And Tombs : Intersections Of Gender And Enclosure In The Middle Ages . University of Wales. 2005. 13.
6. Book: The Hermits and Anchorites of England . Rotha, Mary Clay . Methuen . 1914.
7. Book: LePan, Don. The Broadview Anthology of British Literature. Broadview Press. 2011. 348.
8. Book: Warren, A. K. . 1985 . Anchorites and their Patrons in Medieval England . . University of California Press.
9. Web site: Questions comments from the e‑mail . 2008-06-02 . On‑line Q&As . The Anchoress online . 2008-10-01 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080924152835/http://theanchoressonline.com/2008/06/02/questions-comments-from-the-email/ . 2008-09-24.
10. Web site: Wellesley . M. . 13 March 2018 . The Life of the Anchoress . Discovering Literature: Medieval . . Medieval Literature .
11. Book: Adamson, J.W. . John William Adamson . 1919 . A Short History of Education . 75 . Cambridge, UK . . 9781107696440 .
12. [Ancrene Wisse]
13. 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.
14. Roman, C. M. (2017) Queering Richard Rolle: Mystical theology and the hermit in fourteenth-century England. London: Palgrave Macmillan, p. 29.
15. 10.1093/ref:odnb/24024. Rolle, Richard (1305×10–1349). Hughes. Jonathan.
16. Book: O'Malley . John W. . John W. O'Malley . 30 June 2009 . 2004 . Four Cultures of the West . revised . Cambridge, Massachusetts . Harvard University Press . 27 . 9780674041691 . 1 November 2023 . The traditional 'Father of Monasticism,' St. Anthony the Abbot [...]..
17. Catholic Encyclopedia, St. Jerome, Vita Sancti Hilarionis in P.L., III, 29–54.
18. Book: Jones . E. A. . Hermits and anchorites in England, 1200–1550 . 2019 . Manchester University Press . Manchester . 7.
19. [Mary Erler|Erler, M.C.]
20. Book: Jones . E. A. . Hermits and anchorites in England, 1200–1550 . 2019 . Manchester University Press . Manchester . 7.
21. Hughes-Edwards, M., (2010). "Anchoritism: the English Tradition", in McAvoy, L.H. [ed.] Anchoritic Traditions of Medieval Europe. Suffolk: Boydell Press, p. 143.
22. Grimmer, M. (January 2006). "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.
23. Web site: Book of Saints – Ulrick . 17 February 2017.
24. http://courseweb.stthomas.edu/medieval/julian/petition.htm Petition to Become an Anchoress
25. https://sheredelight.com/history.html History of Shere
26. Book: Thomas, Wyndham . Robert Saxton: Caritas . 2012 . Ashgate Publishing . 978-0-7546-6601-1 . 16–20.
27. Hughes . Jonathan . 2004 . Kirkby, Margaret (d. 1391~1394), anchoress . 10.1093/ref:odnb/57764 .
28. Book: Hugh . White . 1993 . Ancrene Wisse

    Guide for Anchoresses

    . xiii . London . Penguin Books.
29. [Walter Hilton| Hilton, W.]
30. Web site: Eve of Wilton: the Anchorite, her Cell, and Medieval Women's Literary Culture in England and the Continent . 2023-07-08 . www.ub.edu.
31. Web site: Past . Ed Hannon-Visions of the . 2017-11-29 . Anchorite's Cell, Westmeath, Ireland . 2023-07-08 . Visions Of The Past . en-US.
32. [Julian of Norwich]
33. Web site: 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 .
34. Milton, R. (2002). Julian's Cell: The earthy story of Julian of Norwich. Kelowna, BC: Northstone Publishing.
35. Chalupsky, Mary. "Glastonbury native led ascetic life in Rome", Catholic Transcript, Archdiocese of Hartford.