On Time Frames and Stages: Coenobitical vs Solitary Eremitical Life

[[ Hi Sister Laurel, you wrote that the reason for the time frames and stages in formation in coenobitic life are not the same as in eremitical life or something like that. I have a bunch of questions. What is coenobitical life? Is it the same as life in community? Are you talking about candidacy, novitiate and things like that? I wondered why eremitical life doesn't share these same reasons, they have the same stages don't they?]]

Hi there yourself! Thanks for the questions!! I appreciate your calling attention to words I use that may not be clear to readers, so thanks especially for that. Yes, you have it exactly right; coenobitical or cenobitical life refers to life in community, especially monastic life. It is the complement of the term eremitical which means a solitary desert dweller and refers to hermit life. 

Stages of Religious Life (Coenobitical context):

Now, for the time frames and stages. I'll start with the stages. You have it essentially right. The stages of religious life are candidacy (postulancy: the word is rooted in the idea the person is seeking or asking to be received into the community and comes from the Latin postulare), novitiate, juniorate, and perpetually (or solemnly) professed -- depending upon the community or congregation. These stages refer to the gradual initiation of a person into life in an institute of consecrated life and especially to the various rights and obligations thereof -- including passive and active voice in determining the way the congregation will continue to live its charism and mission. So, for instance, a candidate is not yet a member of the community and has no rights in its regard, neither passive nor active. A novice has been received formally into the community but is a complete beginner or novice in her understanding of the congregation's charism, etc; she, therefore, has quite limited rights and obligations in regard to the life of the community. 

The next stage is the juniorate, the stage of those who are temporary professed (they are identified as Junior Sisters or Juniors); in this stage Sisters (or Brothers, of course) have passive voice in congregational matters and may attend general chapters, but they may not hold office or submit or vote on proposals, etc. The final stage in formation is entered with perpetual profession (and consecration). These religious (the "Perpetually Professed") also have what is referred to as "active voice" and contribute to and vote on the decisions facing the community; these Sisters are allowed to hold office in the Leadership Council. What I have stressed here and want you to see is the fact that these stages gradually initiate a person into the life, charism, and mission of the community and ready them for responsible places in the mission, governance, and continuation (or completion) of the congregation.

The time frames which are usual today are: postulancy (6 mos to 1 year); the postulancy (or candidacy) may be extended but not by more than six mos. Novitiate; 1-2 years. One of these years is considered a "canonical year" and is lived according to canon law's strictures. There will ordinarily be no participation in ministry, but time to learn about the vows, study re the congregation and the church, and introduction to prayer and all the forms of prayer necessary in the life being embraced. The novice may take graduate level classes in theology and church history, and there will be regular spiritual direction --- usually with an outside director. If there is a second novitiate year (i.e., a year besides the canonical year), there is usually some participation in the ministry of the congregation and education continues. Often the canonical year is the second year. It is called canonical because canon law requires one year given over to what I described above. Novitiate may also be extended by (I think) not more than six months. The juniorate (time of temporary profession) can extend to six years, but (at least in contemplative monasteries) cannot be less than five years from first profession to the day when one makes perpetual profession or leaves the community.

Time Frames and Stages in Eremitical Life:

As you can see, a solitary hermit is not being initiated into common life or prepared for governance (leadership) and other active roles in a given congregation. Neither are they going to graduate school or (generally speaking) otherwise preparing for professional roles in ministry. (Some may take part in a program of formation for spiritual directors, for instance.) The stages outlined above simply don't fit as well or make the same kind of sense in the formation of solitary eremitical life. This is especially true of novitiate, I think. One may be finding ways to support oneself as a hermit, but in that case, it could be argued the person may not be a hermit living c 603 life yet and a mutual discernment process should be postponed until that arrangement is established. 

The point is that in terms of canon 603, one is either living and living more deeply into this form of eremitical life or one is not; there is really no other option. Time frames are far less meaningful here and distinct stages like candidacy and novitiate are artificially established, externally imposed and relatively meaningless. Especially unhelpful and even destructive is the arbitrary application of the time frames appropriate for coenobitical life to solitary eremitical life. Remember that c 603 is written and meant to be used for solitary eremitical life, not semi-eremitical life or life in a laura/lavra using a single Rule and forming new members --- situations where externally imposed time frames may make more sense.

With solitary eremitical life there are no easily distinguishable stages, no. When one turns up at the local chancery seeking to discern a canon 603 vocation, one must already be a hermit in some essential sense. If one is not already a hermit in some very real or essential sense and already lives the elements of the canon, approaching the diocese with such a petition is entirely premature. The period of mutual discernment with a diocese is meant to determine if a person is called to live an ecclesial vocation as a hermit, that is, is she called to live eremitical life in the consecrated state and in the name of the Church under c 603? Dioceses do not form hermits; neither do they oversee a hermit's formation although they may accompany her in her ongoing formation during the period of mutual discernment and assist her in meeting the requirements that she be ready for vows of the Evangelical Counsels, as well as that she write her own Rule of Life. 

Time frames in such cases are entirely individual and, in the process I have outlined, are better keyed to the hermit's various attempts at writing as liveable Rule which can and will eventually bind her in law. The diocesan discernment team adopting such a process would be able to use the various versions of Rule the hermit writes to assist her in understanding where her own eremitical formation needs attention and perhaps where or how the diocese can connect her with various resources she can benefit from. Additionally, the team can use the various versions of the Rule the hermit writes along with conversations with the hermit to gauge readiness for temporary and perpetual professions under c 603. Since there are other forms of eremitical life open to the hermit including lay (that is, non-canonical) hermit life as a solitary hermit, eremitical life lived in a lavra or laura, and semi-eremitical life, only a calling to solitary eremitical life under c 603 is the focus of the diocesan discernment team.

(I should point out that early on chancery personnel were sometimes reported to tell a person that they should "just go live in solitude, that this was all they needed". I disagreed with this advice fairly emphatically 15 or 16 years ago. However, my position may have changed somewhat or become more nuanced at this point. It depends on whether these dioceses asked the persons to return after some time lived this way for another conversation if the person felt the need. If the dioceses meant, "Please go live in solitude until you are made a hermit in that way with the assistance of the Holy Spirit and return to us if you believe you have an eremitical vocation as a solitary consecrated hermit under c 603; at that point we will discuss undertaking a mutual discernment process together", I believe those dioceses were on the right track. 

Remember that the Episcopal Church has c.14 which establishes individuals as solitary religious. I was once told that fewer than 10% of those professed under this canon were actually hermits. It is important that c 603 professions be used for solitary hermits with ecclesial vocations, not lone individuals, who are not and may never become hermits. The latter situation would empty c 603 of meaning and render the solitary consecrated eremitical life in the Roman Catholic Church incredible or void.) This last parenthetical section underscores the rest of the discussion regarding time frames and stages in c 603 vocations. To summarize: Only once one is a solitary hermit formed by the Holy Spirit in the silence of solitude, a process that may take years, is one really ready to petition for canonical standing under c 603, and at that point the mutual discernment and formation process one enters into with a small team representing the diocese is individualized without discrete stages like candidacy, and novitiate becomes meaningful. I hope this is helpful.

**Please note, the laura/lavra referred to above envisions something like the Hermits of Bethlehem which has become more community than a colony of solitary hermits, each with their own self-written Rule. C 603 is meant for solitary hermits who must be able to support themselves and live their professions should a laura/lavra dissolve.

More on the Process of Discernment and Formation of c 603 Hermits

 [[Hi Sister Laurel, I have read some of the things you have written about the discernment and formation of eremitical vocations. You seem to disagree with dioceses that establish time schemata associated with the canonical stages of religious life. Is that accurate and if it is, why do you disagree with it? You stress an approach which depends upon a candidate or hermit writing several different versions of their Rule of Life over time. How does this differ from a set period of candidacy, novitiate, and juniorate? What happens if someone using your approach decides they want to keep on writing new Rules and never come to the place where they need to leave the idea of eremitical life behind?]]

Happy New Year to you, and thanks for your questions. To clarify one point for accuracy, what I disagree with is not dioceses but canonists who write about approaches to implementing c 603 which are strong on canonical time frames, and formal stages, even as they are woefully short on an understanding of eremitical life or the central elements of canon 603 and the ways a person grows in these. As a corollary, I also disagree with the application of time frames which work well in a communal context but are insensitive to how fluid time can and often needs to be in a solitary eremitical context. Finally, I am amazed at canonists who write in ways meant to codify time frames for growth in solitude but show no sense at all that there are different kinds of solitude --- some transitional, some geared toward growth, others fostering a kind of personal decompensation, some escapist, others individualistic, some assisting life in community, and so forth. 

Eremitical solitude is not transitional, nor is it escapist or individualistic. One may need a period of transitional solitude when one leaves a given context or situation (like active ministry or religious life) just as one will need some times of transitional solitude during bereavement, for instance, but whether these will ever grow into eremitical solitude is unlikely or at least uncertain given the rarity of eremitical life itself. One needs to take care with the type of solitude one is dealing with in a candidate and since types or forms can and do overlap and confuse, it can take time to determine what one is dealing with --- more than it takes in community, for example. 

A Process NOT a Program:

What I have written about on this blog is not a program of discernment and formation (which, I think, is what time frames are meant to define) but a process. In the process I have tried to describe, the diocese provides sufficient support for the person discerning a c 603 vocation --- a small discernment and formation team, for instance, composed of the Vicar for Religious, and someone with expertise in formation in contemplative and/or eremitical life along with input from the person's spiritual director, and/or delegate. The process is driven by the "candidate's" own growth and needs. 

These will be reflected by the Rule she writes for herself at any given stage of discernment and formation, and the Rule will serve as a guide for discussions re the presence of an eremitical vocation, readiness for profession, resources required (extended time in monastic silence, lessons in praying the Divine Office or other forms of prayer, assistance with establishing cottage industries, classes in theology, Scripture, instruction in the vows,  etc). There should be a clear difference in the first Rule a would-be-hermit writes and the second, or third, or seventh, or tenth!! The formation team should be able to see progress in the person's lived experience and understanding of canon 603 and its constitutive elements. More, they should see signs that the person is growing in personal wholeness and holiness, that she is thriving in (and toward!) the silence of solitude even in the midst of the struggles it will also bring or involve.

In such a process the canonical stages appropriate to cenobitic life (life in community) simply have less meaning and are less quantifiable or even distinguishable. In any case such "stages" would need to be applied not according to a specific timetable, but according to one's readiness for the responsibilities associated with each stage of the life per se --- and these are not the same as those in coenobitical life. (A hermit is not being prepared to take on varying degrees of canonical responsibility within a congregation, but instead is being prepared to take a representative place in a living eremitical tradition.) It seems to me that the marker of such readiness is the capacity to write a liveable Rule of life after having written several experimental and less adequate Rules reflecting the would-be-hermit's growth in the life. 

On mistaking the inability to write a liveable Rule as a sign of no vocation: 

I have known people desiring to be c 603 hermits who spent several years trying and failing to put together a Rule. This did NOT necessarily mean they were not called to the life, but rather that they had a good deal to learn and especially, a lot to become consciously aware of before they could articulate it in the way a liveable Rule requires. For instance, to write a liveable Rule which concretely reflects a commitment to be open and responsive to God at work in one's life, one needs to cultivate all of those skills which are part and parcel of truly listening to/for God. One needs to know something of Who God is and who they themselves are, how God has been at work in their lives and the ways they have responded most fruitfully or refused to do so and why. Until one reaches some real degree of this level of awareness, they may be a lone individual, but they have not entered into eremitical solitude --- even as a novice hermit --- and they are certainly not ready to write a liveable Rule of Life.

This means the first several years of beginning to live as a hermit may be full of learning entirely new things, developing new skills, becoming aware in ways one was not aware before, and essentially undergoing a unique kind of conversion of mind and heart which is necessary to being a hermit in some "essential way". The process cannot be rushed, nor should it be shoehorned into the canonical time frame that works for religious living in community. And yet, this shoehorn approach is the one most canonists take, and so too, most dioceses that decide to implement c 603. If a person has not written a liveable Rule in the first couple of years after approaching a diocese with a petition for profession under c 603, dioceses are apt to dismiss them as unsuitable candidates for such a profession. 

Partly, I believe this occurs because the diocesan personnel don't have the first clue about how to accompany a budding solitary hermit on their own journey of discernment and formation, and partly it is due to the more fundamental failure to understand the distinction between lone individual and hermit in the first place. Equally foundationally problematical is the fact that diocesan staff, never having tried to do this themselves, often seem to believe writing a liveable Rule is a simple task that anyone should be able to do without assistance or significant preparation. Nothing could be further from the truth. Sometimes candidates are dismissed as unsuitable because the diocese doesn't actually believe in the hermit vocation at all --- though this lack of belief is rarely explicitly admitted; in such instances dioceses will not be able to accompany a candidate in the way needed. After all, if one does not esteem the vocation, one will hardly take the time needed to appropriately regard the process it requires for a candidate to embrace and be able to represent such a vocation! The process I have outlined on this blog serves to assist both the candidate and the diocese in taking solitary eremitical vocations seriously in a way which is organic to the vocation, to canon 603 itself, and therefore, is not unnecessarily onerous to either the candidate or the diocese.

Necessary Time Limits:

Your question about what is equivalent to the "perpetual doctoral student" problem where someone keeps writing and writing on their dissertation but never concludes it is well taken. There must be some time limits --- or at least there must be signs the hermit candidate is moving towards perpetual profession and the wholeness/holiness of an authentic vocation --- if the formation team is to continue working with them effectively. Otherwise, the process breaks down and everyone's time and energy are wasted. On the other end of the scale, there must be minimum time limits as well. A diocese must be clear that formation in religious life, while helpful, is not identical to that of the solitary hermit, nor in the Roman Catholic Church is canon 603 meant to define a "solitary religious" as the Episcopal Church allows in their canon law, but rather a true and solitary hermit (who is also, therefore, a religious). 

For someone leaving religious life in community (especially in active ministry), time for transition from life in community and active ministry, to adult life in a parish environment  (presuming they entered relatively soon after college), to contemplative life (if one really feels called to this), then to contemplative life in solitude (again, if one continues to feel called to this), and then to eremitical life per se must be given and required. This is so because each of these steps (especially in the beginning) can take various vocational forms, and these too must be discerned and established. Again, asking the candidate to write a Rule of Life which reflects her growing (or shifting) sense of these realities in her life can serve as a focus for ongoing discussion, direction, formation, and discernment of readiness to move in a somewhat more formal way from step to step toward profession as a canon 603 hermit. Time frames can serve as guidelines in all of this and for a lot of it, one needs only a good spiritual director. 

It is only once one is transitioning from contemplative life to even greater solitude that one begins discerning eremitical life per se and may reasonably consider and discern consecrated eremitical life under c 603. At this point approaching a diocese is meaningful, but not truly before this. When one approaches a diocese prematurely (especially before one is a hermit in the essential sense I mentioned above) one may merely ensure that one's true vocation is not realized, much less recognized.

On the Problem of Shoehorning "Vocations" into more usual Canonical Timeframes:

While there are a number of benefits to the process I have outlined, one of its real strengths is the fact that it does not ask a person to approach a diocese prematurely but allows a person to work carefully with her director until it is relatively clear that she really has an eremitical calling. At that point the person has already undertaken a significant personal discernment process which she can then share with the diocese and should be relatively ready to discern with her diocese whether or not she is ultimately called to a canon 603 (a solitary diocesan hermit) vocation. If a person approaches the diocese before this (before, that is, the various transitional forms of solitude, etc., have been worked through, for instance), everyone involved may mistake being a lone pious individual, for being a person with a vocation to eremitical solitude. Professing a lone individual who then calls herself a hermit is destructive to the vocation per se and will make canon 603 itself apparently incredible. On the other hand, if one approaches a diocese prematurely, a diocese can err in the opposite direction, and may decide the process is taking too long and simply dismiss the person as unsuitable for c 603 profession. 

The tendency to shoehorn c 603 vocations into the canonical time frames associated with canonical religious life in community makes either of these mistakes likely. In the first instance, the eremitical vocation is demeaned or trivialized, and the diocese may decide not to risk professing anyone under c 603 in the future. In the latter instance, a specific public (canonical) eremitical vocation which is a unique gift of the Holy Spirit, may be lost to the Church even though the individual can continue to live fruitfully as a privately dedicated (non-canonical) hermit. Remember that canon 603 was originally written because a number of vocations to eremitism with long preparation in monastic life had no way to be recognized canonically or lived according to the monastic house's proper law. 

As a result, years lived in solemn vows had to be relinquished, the monastics secularized, and ways to live as hermits explored apart from publicly vowed religious life. The long preparation for such a call was not accidental to discovering a vocation to eremitical solitude, but essential to it. For this reason, canon 603 also requires long preparation even though the diocese is not directly involved in most of it. This cannot and must not be forgotten; it is part of the canon's own history and nature.