Hermits, Blogs, Publicity, and the Dynamic of the Camaldolese "Triplex Bonum"

[[Dear Sister, it still seems to me to be a conflict for a hermit to have a blog. I appreciate that you have reconciled this in your own mind and I understand your diocese is comfortable with it, but isn't this 21st C development out of sync with the history of eremitical life in the Church? Now you are featured in an article in the Saturday Evening Post and it is clear from that article that others have the same questions I do. Not all of them are asking these because they are victims of [believing] stereotypes, are they?]]

Many thanks for these questions. They are significant and point directly at the tension or dynamic that is at the heart of my own life, the life of Camaldolese monks, nuns, and oblates, and I suspect, the life of any truly healthy hermit with a strong sense of the Gospel and their own place in the heart of the Church. I am going to answer all of your questions by referring to the Camaldolese charism and also to the history of Camaldolese life in the Church with special reference to both SS Romuald and Peter Damian. My own sense, and something I have written here and spoken about before on A Nun's Life (In Good Faith podcast), is that this specific charism is profoundly ancient and equally contemporary. It reprises the dynamic which is present for anyone exploring the nature of  --- much less justifying --- a life of "the silence of solitude," and which I personally find especially appropriate and empowering for the life of the diocesan hermit.

First, is this dynamic of an eremitical solitude which also reaches out to others to proclaim the Gospel of God in Christ and the redemptive nature of solitude (because that is what I am concerned with in this blog) out of sync with the history of eremitical life? My answer is no. I can point to three significant historical instances or paradigms of eremitical life here to justify that response: 1) the desert Fathers and Mothers, 2) the anchorites and especially the "urbani" of the medieval period, and 3) the Camaldolese (in particular the Benedictine Camaldolese) and their founders, especially SS Romuald, Peter Damian, and Paul Giustiniani (a Saint at least to the "Order"!). Each of these had a significant degree of interaction with the world around them and for each of them the notion of witness (sometimes called evangelization or martyrdom) was central.

Sister Donald Corcoran, OSB and Dom Robert Hale, OSB Cam

The desert Fathers and Mothers left a too-worldly expression of Church to live Gospel lives in nearby deserts. They were committed to a form of witness now called "white martyrdom" to replace the red martyrdom associated with the persecutions of early Christians. They lived lives of solitude rooted in Gospel values but did so on the margins of society. They modeled agrarian practices for their neighbors, bought and sold (mainly sold!) goods in local markets and are famous for the hospitality they embraced as a central value.  Anyone showing up on their doorstep was welcomed as Christ. They were fed, questions were answered, what we would today call spiritual direction was given, so that in example, word, and deed the Gospel was thus proclaimed and Church was lived out. Did they also live a significant solitude? Of course, but at the heart of their lives was their own negotiation of the very dynamic or tension my own life, for instance, attempts to negotiate and embody.


The medieval anchorites, also called "urbani" because they lived eremitical lives in the midst of towns, villages, and cities, mirror the same dynamic in a different way. Anchorites practice a stricter physical stability because they remained in a single small dwelling and were sometimes even walled into or locked within an anchorhold. However, such anchorholds which were adjacent to a church generally had a window opening onto the altar, another opening onto the main square of the village or city, and a third entrance or window through which food and other necessities could be passed back and forth by those who served the anchorite. Townspeople often stopped to talk with the anchorite; it was the medieval equivalent of a counselling or spiritual direction center. There was danger of abuse and distortion of the life in this, of course, and some Camaldolese writers and others wrote scathing pieces on those who abused the practice of converse with others. Still, the dynamic and the tension were present as an integral part of the life.

Finally there is the Benedictine Camaldolese model of eremitical life and the example of its founders. The Camaldolese live the charism referred to as "triplex bonum" or "the triple good", namely, solitude, communion, and evangelization or martyrdom (witness!). Thus, their lives include each of these in a dynamic tension and they have both monasteries and hermitages as a result. Further, there is a strong component of hospitality involved here while monks will travel and sometimes live apart from the monastery/hermitage in order to accomplish a particular ministry. It is not only that some monks live in monasteries and some live in hermitages. Rather what is true in the Camaldolese life is that, again, each monk or nun lives the dynamic of a solitude rooted in community and issuing in ministry or witness in various ways. (The Monte Corona Camaldolese differ in that they only have hermitages, but I would suggest the same dynamic is present.)

Dom Robert Hale, OSB Cam, assuming role as Prior

Saint Romuald is known for his extensive travels in order to reform monasticism, extend the Rule of Benedict to free-lance hermits, and proclaim the Gospel. His own eremitical identity is sometimes questioned as a result, but the Church does NOT question it, nor do the centuries of monks, nuns, and hermits who followed him as Camaldolese. It is significant that the single piece of writing we have from him is his "Brief Rule" which is probably the most paradigmatic Rule ever written for the eremitical life. In it two elements are especially prevalent: 1) the need to sit silently and patiently in one's cell waiting only on the Lord, and 2) the place of Scripture, especially as source of and impetus for the assiduous prayer of the solitary life. Again, the combination is a form of witness to the Gospel because the life (and ANY Christian life) demands it.

St Peter Damian's life was also not stereotypically or even typically eremitical. He was engaged throughout his life with the reform of the Church and religious life. He was a Cardinal, papal legate, theologian, spiritual director, hermit, writer, etc. He carried on an extensive correspondence with many people to address the needs of his day and there is hardly a pressing topic he did not address with astuteness and flexibility. (His view of the laity, by the way, is also startlingly contemporary for he believed profoundly in the spiritual equality of all, eschewed notions of a spiritual elite, and would have rejoiced at Vatican II's proclamation of "the universal call to holiness" or the council's affirmation of the laity's right and even obligation to criticize the hierarchy [cf Letter 10 to Emperor Henry III].) He struggled with the question of vocation: "Should I be a hermit or a preacher?" His "starting point" regarding either vocation was the Scriptural imperative of extending Christ's salvation to others. Damian was particularly critical of a solitude focused only on saving oneself.

This led directly to the dynamic tension every Christian and certainly every Camaldolese and every diocesan hermit knows well: how do I honor my call to solitude and also carry out my Baptismal commission to proclaim the Gospel of Christ? As a symptom of this tension and much as Thomas Merton anguished nine centuries later, Peter Damian struggled with his vocation as a writer which, because it was so profoundly engaged with the Church and  World on so many issues and levels seemed to threaten his life as hermit-monk; he once said (in a letter to the current Pope), "I would rather weep than write," and he was well aware that his own hermit and monastic life was not the norm. Even so, in the end we regard Peter Damian profoundly and sincerely as a hermit-monk for whom all else was an extension of that call.


So, to return more directly to your own questions, no I do not believe it is a conflict for me to also have a blog. I believe it reflects a well-established dynamic and imperative in the history of eremitical life, namely the dynamic of solitude-community-witness, and the imperative that one proclaims the Gospel so that others might be saved by God in Christ. I do try to make sure that I maintain what is called "custody of the cell" (where cell is both my hermitage, a life of essential solitude, and my own hermit heart). There would be no witness, indeed, no capacity for witness without this; further, it itself IS a witness to the Gospel!! But to be very honest, like Peter Damian, I believe that if eremitical life is not generally constituted or profoundly informed by this dynamic in some substantial way (and this is true even for the complete recluse!), it ceases to be Christian. Remember that before I  had read much about eremitical life, much less before I ever considered becoming a hermit, I thought that at best it was a selfish and wasteful way of life. I certainly could not regard it as truly Christian. It took some reading by hermits (not least, Thomas Merton) and of work on Camaldolese life to convince me otherwise. My reading (and living!!) has continued and I am more convinced than ever that authentic eremitical life involves the dynamic/tension mentioned above and embodied by the Camadolese as the charism or gift-quality defining their lives.

New Web Site: Transfiguration Monastery (Camaldolese Nuns)

Well, the long-awaited website for Transfiguration Monastery is up and running, and though it needs some tweaking according to Sr Donald, it is great to see!! I have added the link above as well as in the lower sidebar, but just in case the above link does not show up, the URL is: www.transfigurationmonastery.org. Please check out the pictures, read over the inspiration for the Community, and plan to return when the store is up and running especially. Or plan a retreat at this genuinely Camaldolese house. They are known for their hospitality which is generous and intimate (it is a small house and nuns and retreatants share the same refectory, etc)! (The monastery includes a guesthouse with six rooms, hermitages for those seeking this kind of experience, and spiritual direction as desired.) For those interested in Camaldolese life, especially mature vocations, be sure and contact Sister M Donald at the included address, etc. (Link is included in lower sidebar.)

Final Oblature with Camaldolese Benedictines

Well, last Friday (July 6th) I celebrated my final Oblature with Transfiguration Monastery in Windsor, NY. Transfiguration is a Camaldolese Benedictine monastery of nuns, the only monastery of Camaldolese nuns in the United States. Sister Donald Corcoran OSB Cam (Prioress), received my oblature, and there were several other Oblates present, both from Transfiguration, as well as from New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur, CA, and Incarnation Monastery in Berkeley, CA. The brief ceremony was held in the former convent chapel of my parish Church between the homily and offertory which allowed my parish community (my MAIN community really) to celebrate and support me in this step. Afterward, a few of us including most of the Oblates, Sister Donald, some parishioners and my pastor went out for breakfast. It was a great celebration and I was glad to have a chance for people to meet one another!

One of the reasons I decided to affiliate with the Camaldolese was their triple charism of eremitism, cenobitism, and evangelization. (More about that in a bit.) The fact that they live under the Rule of Benedict was also important. While I wrote my first plan of life for the Diocese back in 1985 or so, over the years it became clear to me that this was simply not sufficient for a diocesan hermit, despite it being all the Canon calls for. I thought at the time that a personal Plan or Rule of Life needed to be subsumed under a larger, more vital and challenging Rule, and one that has a history of successful monastic formation and inspiration. By the time I rewrote my Rule/Plan two years ago, it had become clear to me that the Rule of Benedict was the way to go here, and I added to that along with the Constitutions and Statutes of the Camaldolese Benedictines. When I finished my own Rule, it seemed clear that my own living had been formed by these influences and my own Plan of Life needed to continue to be informed by these sources. Otherwise, the personal Plan of Life may become a description of what one is doing, and can lack the scope necessary to ensure growth and sufficient challenge.

And of course, hermits need community. The stereotype of misanthropic recluses hardly fits any healthy hermit today (though healthy recluses there are!), and especially does not fit any Diocesan hermits who represent this form of consecrated life in the Church (such a person would never be admitted to vows I don't think, and likely would never even make it beyond the first appointment with the Vicar of Consecrated Life or Religious). The Camaldolese have @10 centuries of balancing eremitic and cenobitic life under their cowls, all while maintaining a simultaneous third emphasis on evangelization. Their triple charism is inspiring to me, and clearly what Christians of all sorts need modelled for them today. For Diocesan hermits, the Camaldolese story of Saint Romuald is apt to strike a chord as it did in me. Romuald, after all, went about bringing hermits under the Rule of Benedict and also brought them to live in lauras quite often. The lone hermit with neither Rule, superior, nor tradition, was anathema to him, and I suspect Diocesan hermits today would often find Romuald has anticipated their needs. This is even truer of non-canonical hermits living in today's world ---- hermits who have even less meaningful contexts for their lives than do Canon 603 hermits.

Chapel at St Perpetua Parish

Sister Donald made an interesting observation during her comments introducing the ceremony. She noted that I had told her how important my parish community was to me, what a blessing really, and then she suggested that this is probably the way consecrated (vowed) life will look for the most part in the future: solitary Sisters, or Sisters living in twos at most, living in parish communities and looking to the parish to be their primary community as they give their lives for (or at least live them integrally in) that parish. I think she is right in this, and more than I could ever have imagined, I know how it is that having a hermit in the parish who is really dependent upon the parish as her primary community changes the way we see one another (and ourselves as well)!! The Oblature ceremony brought our interdependence out strongly as it included a promise to support my commitment in prayer, etc over the years. I am hoping that the parish community is beginning to know how important they are to my own fulfillment of my vocation. I think that is a perspective that is new for them and one which can only help the parish grow in prayer and vigor (not that they are lacking in either --- they are not, and that is one of the reasons I am so very fortunate).