Citydesert

The Book of the Dove (Ktobo d-Yawno) by Gregory Bar Hebraeus is a short work in four chapters which describes the various forms of the ascetic life. Chapter four contains material from his own experiences. It is a classic work of Syrian asceticism.

“From my first youth ‘) burning with love of teachings, I was taught the holy scriptures with the necessary explanation, and from an exquisite teacher I heard the mysteries contained in the writings of the holy doctors. When I had reached the age of twenty, the then living patriarch compelled me to receive the dignity of a bishop. Then it was inevitable for me to engage myself in disquisitions and disputations with the heads of other confessions, interior and exterior. And when I had given my thoughts and meditations to this business during some time, I became convinced, that these quarrels of Christians among themselves are not a matter of facts but of words and denominations. For all of them confess Christ, our Lord, to be wholly God and wholly man, without mixture, nivellation or mutation of natures. This bilateral likeness is called by some nature, by others person, by others hypostasis. So I saw all Christian peoples, notwithstanding these differences, possessing one unvarying equality. And I wholly eradicated the root of hatred from the depth of my heart and I absolutely forsook disputation with anyone concerning confession. So I zealously turned to attain the power of Greek wisdom, viz. logic, physics and metaphysics, algebra and geometry, science of the spheres and of the stars. And because life is short and teachings long and broad, I read concerning every branch of science what was the most necessary.

During my studies in these teachings, I resembled a man who is immersed in the ocean and stretches forth his hands towards all sides in order to be saved. And because in all teachings, interior and exterior, I found not that which I sought, I almost fell into complete destruction.

I feel not justified to describe the snares and nets in which I was entangled, because hearing this might do harm unto many feeble ones. In short, if the Lord had not sustained my little faith in those dangerous times, and if He had not led me to look in the writings of the Initiated, as Aba Euagrius and others, occidental and oriental, and if He had not picked me up from the gulf of destruction and ruin, I would ere long have despaired of psychical, if not of bodily life.

I meditated on these works for seven years, during which I hated other sorts of knowledge, though I had to occupy my thoughts superficially with some of them, not for my own sake, but for the sake of others who wished to profit by me. During this space of time, many offences made me miserable and caused me to stumble. Sometimes I fell into unbelief, saying: How loud is the sound of the bells of these solitaries, and how is their mill devoid of meal, viz. their words contain simple thoughts, remaining without effect. But sometimes my
mind reprehended me, saying: Do not speak idle words and think not that all what you know not, does not exist. What you know is much less than what you know not.”

The Book of the Dove (Ktobo d-Yawno) by Gregory Bar Hebraeus, translated by A.J. Wensinck, Leiden: Brill, 1919: 60-61

“Kthobo d-Yawno (The Book of the Dove). A compendium in the training of ascetics. He wrote it at the suggestion of some lovers of asceticism after he had written the Ethikon. It consists of four parts, the first one on the bodily service in the monastery, the second one on the psychic service which is accomplished in the cell, the third on the spiritual quest of the perfect and the fourth on the author’s progress in knowledge. Some terms communicated to him in revelation (which are about eighty in number). The whole book consists of eighty pages. The author states that he called it The Dove as a symbol of the Holy Spirit. This book was translated into Arabic about 1299 under the title Kitab al-Warqa fi Ilm al-Irtiqa. I saw its well-written introduction in the handwriting of Abu al-Hasan ibn Mahruma of Mardin. There is an old copy of it at the University of Chicago, written in 1290, and another copy at Oxford. To it was appended a chapter on the Youthfulness of the Mind, which is the beginning of a story the author was writing on his way to Maragha, but death precluded its completion. The book was published by Bedjan and then by the monk Yuhanna Dulabani in 1916.”
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“Gregory Bar Hebraeus (1226 – 30 July 1286) was a catholicos (bishop) of the Syriac Orthodox Church in the 13th century. He is noted for his works addressing philosophy, poetry, language, history, and theology; he has been called “one of the most learned and versatile men from the Syriac Orthodox Church” (Dr. William Wright).

Bar Hebraeus was born in the village of ʿEbra (Izoli, Turk.: Kuşsarayı) near Malatya, Sultanate of Rûm (modern Turkey, today province Elazig). It appears that he took the Christian name Gregory (Syriac: ܓܪܝܓܘܪܝܘܣ Grigorios, Ġrīġūriyūs) at his consecration as a bishop Throughout his life, he was often referred to by the Syriac nickname Bar ʿEbrāyā (Syriac: ܒܪ ܥܒܪܝܐ, which is pronounced and often transliterated as Bar ʿEbroyo in the West Syriac dialect of the Syriac Orthodox Church), giving rise to the Latinised name Bar Hebraeus. This nickname is often thought to imply a Jewish background (taken to mean ‘Son of the Hebrew’). However, the evidence for this once popular view is slim. It is more likely that the name refers to the place of his birth, ʿEbrā, where the old road east of Malatya towards Kharput (modern Elazığ) and Amida (Mesopotamia) (modern Diyarbakır) crossed the Euphrates. He collected in his numerous and elaborate treatises the results of such research in theology, philosophy, science and history as was in his time possible in Syria. Most of his works were written in Syriac. However he also wrote some in Arabic, which had become the common language in his day.”
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See also http://www.roger-pearse.com/wiki/index.php?title=Gregory_Barhebraeus
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For a summary of Bar Hebraeus’ writings, see
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The Book of the Dove is available for download on-line at https://archive.org/details/barhebraeussbook00barh and http://archive.org/stream/barhebraeussbook00barh/barhebraeussbook00barh_djvu.txt

A modern edition is available: http://www.gorgiaspress.com/bookshop/p-55919-the-book-of-the-dovebrby-gregory-abulfaraj-bar-hebraeus.aspx

“Bar-Hebraeus was a prolific writer for his age. Among the many treasures he produced was his ascetical training guide known as The Book of the Dove. Written especially for those in Eastern Christianity who aspired to be hermits, this treatise offers practical spiritual advice for those in his charge in the Syriac church. The study is divided into four parts, treating the training of the body, training the soul, the spiritual rest of the perfect, and a section including Bar-Hebraeus’ spiritual autobiography. A classic of monastic literature, The Book of the Dove retains valuable insights into spiritual exercises, including prayer, fasting, repentance, humility, and alienation from the world. Presented here in the original Syriac, this text will be of interest to the historian as well as readers interested in the Medieval Eastern Church. In a world frantically seeking a spiritual center, the wisdom of one of Orthodoxy’s most erudite writers on spiritual development is always welcome.”

A reprint of is the 1919 translation by A. J. Wensinck is available at: http://oldsouthbooks.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/bar-hebraeuss-book-of-dove-together.html

An excellent paper challenging the traditional model of the origins of eremiticism and monasticism is “Μοναχοὶ Ἀποτακτικοί: Village Ascetics and the Origins of Early Egyptian Monasticism” by H. Carl Moerschbacher University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, Classical and Near Eastern Studies. It is available on-line at:
http://www.academia.edu/503766/_Village_Ascetics_and_the_Origins_of_Early_Egyptian_Monasticism The following is a brief extract from the paper:

These men live together in twos and threes, seldom in larger numbers, and live according to their own will and ruling… In most cases they live in cities or in villages, and anything they sell is very dear, the idea being that their workmanship, not their life, is sanctified.—Jerome, Epistle 24.34

The traditional notion that Egyptian monasticism began as a desert phenomenon through the innovations of Saints Antony (c . 251?–356)and Pachomius (c . 290–346) is unsupported by late antique literature and documentation. For example, Athanasius’ Life of Antony relates that before Antony’s withdrawal (ἀναχώρησις) into the desert, “There were not yet many monasteries in Egypt, and no one knew at all the great desert, but each of those wishing to give attention to his life disciplined himself in isolation, not far from his own village.” Antony’s own asceticism was catalyzed by seeing an old man “who had practiced from his youth the solitary life.”

Similarly, Pachomius began his apprenticeship under Palamon, a local holy man from the village of Šeneset (Chenoboskion) in Upper Egypt who had settled a little way from his village and had become a model and father for many in his vicinity.

Recent scholarship has shown that monasticism in Egypt predates both Antony’s removal to the Outer Mountain at Pispar (c .285) and Pachomius’ founding of his famous monastery at Tabennese in the Thebaid (c . 323). Scholars now recognize a variety of Egyptian monasticism called apotactic, an urban-based movement in which monks still lived in houses within city limits, still engaged in business, and still owned personal property and held regular contact with society. Who were these urban ascetics, and what role did they play in the development of Egyptian monasticism? Why are mainstream Greek and Latin sources nearly devoid of information concerning these ascetics? This essay will seek to answer these questions by examining pertinent documentary and literary sources in order to present a more accurate history of this critical period. It will also posit that the apotactic movement developed—at least in part—out of the much-earlier forms of female asceticism that were manifested through institutionalized virginity and widowhood.”

“Ascetics, Society, and the Desert: Studies in Early Egyptian Monasticism” by James E. Goehring [Trinity Press International, 1999: Studies in Christianity and Antiquity]

“Basing his work on papyrological documentary sources, archaeology, and traditional literary sources, James Goehring gradually forces a new direction in understanding the evolution of monasticism. He rigorously examines these multiple sources, transforming them into a clear narrative and infusing the history of Egyptian monasticism with renewed energy. “This is a fine collection of essays. It reads well as a complete unit, displays the complexity of writing the history of Egyptian monasticism, and incorporates new kinds of documentary and archaeological evidence. It is first-rate scholarship impeccably argued and written. This book is a must for historians of monasticism and late antiquity, Egyptologists, religious studies teachers interested in spirituality, papyrologists, and anyone in the general public fascinated by the growth and development of religious communities.” Richard Valantasis, St. Louis University “In these twelve essays, Goehring convincingly dismantles much previous scholarship regarding early Egyptian monasticism. Appealing to archaeological and papyrological evidence as well as to literary texts, he situates Pachomian monasticism in the midst of the economic and social life of its time. The diversity of Egyptian monasticism, in theology and in lifestyle, is here demonstrated. Highly readable and clearly argued. Goehring’s books is a must for all scholars of early Christianity.” Elizabeth A. Clark, Duke University James E. Goehring is Professor of Religion and Chair of the Department of Classics, Philosophy, and Religion at Mary Washington College, Fredericksburg, VA.”

“A concise version of the received history of monastic origins would run something like this: Antony is the first monk ever; influenced by his anchoritism, Pachomius initiates the cenobitic life; from these two men and in these two distinct forms, all Christian monasticism spreads throughout Egypt, the East, and the e West . In this collection of twelve essays written within the past twenty years, James Goehring, Professor of Religion and Chair of the Department of Classics , Philosophy, and Religion at Mary Washington College, Fredericksburg, Virginia, seeks to prove that such a notion is “oversimplified ” and in fact “erroneous ” (13) .

Contemporary scholars are now beginning to see that monasticism appeared more or less simultaneously in the various Christian areas as a development of the Church’ s premonastic asceticism (largely inaccessible to historians), from which a diverse tradition of apotactic [‘renunciative’] monasticism , or ascetic renunciation, developed. In Egypt , these ascetic renunciants practiced various forms of “ethical withdrawal” (anachoresis) from family ties , ranging from the solitary to the fully communal, while remaining physically , socially, and economically bound to their villages . Goehring relates that Antony and Pachomius were really part of early Egyptian monasticism’ s evolving apotactic tradition and that both became preeminent innovators within it . Antony seems to be one of the first to withdraw not only ethically but also physically from the village, and Pachomius the first to organize an affiliated system of cenobitic monasteries into a koinonia (although one of the essays tentatively questions Pachomius’s originality).

Cassian DelCogliano, OCS O / St . Joseph’s Abbey, Spencer, MA 01562-123 3
“Cistercian Studies Quarterly” 36. J (2001) https://www.academia.edu/3993643/Ascetics_Society_and_the_Desert_Studies_in_Early_Egyptian_Monasticism_by_James_Goehring_Harrisburg_Trinity_Press_International_1999_in_Cistercian_Studies_Quarterly_36.1_2001_121-122

Part of this book is available to read on-line at: http://books.google.com.au/books?id=zcSEkYprImoC&pg=PA34&lpg=PA34&dq=Egyptian+and+Syrian+Asceticism&source=bl&ots=R0hlFxKCLH&sig=kYn7RwXzXjofb5bvUnYWDbz3csk&hl=en&sa=X&ei=LT_CUurwGYXHkQWyroH4BA&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=Egyptian%20and%20Syrian%20Asceticism&f=false

For further reviews: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3170588?uid=3737536&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21103182489831
http://www.questia.com/library/journal/1P3-64901574/ascetics-society-and-the-desert-studies-in-early

An excellent paper on “Egyptian and Syrian Asceticism in Late Antiquity: A Comparative Study of the Ascetic Idea in the Late Roman Empire during the Fourth and Fifth Centuries” by Jeffrey Conrad is available on-line at

Click to access conrad_j.pdf

The following is an extract from the paper.

The Roman Empire between the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. experienced the development of a new form of Christian piety–the rise of asceticism. Two models or disciplines of the ascetic life arose during this time period, coenobitic and anchoritic asceticism. While both were manifestations of withdrawing from society, these two disciplines differed in the way in which the ascetics lived: coenobites lived communally whereas anchorites lived in solitude.1 Anchorites practiced the ascetic discipline of fasting, prayer and meditation while living in solitude, scattered throughout the deserts of Egypt and in the steppe-lands and mountains of Syria. This expression of the monastic ideal rapidly spread from the homeland of its founder, St. Antony, to many Roman provinces, such as Palestine, Asia Minor, and Syria. There were men living as anchorites in Western Europe, but the dominant expression of withdrawing from society in that region of the Empire was coenobitic. Both Egyptian and Syrian asceticism in the fourth century developed out of earlier ascetic traditions in their respective locations. While the anchoritic life was equally as common in both provinces, the expression of the ascetic discipline, the “askesis “, differed between the two: Egyptian asceticism was considerably more mild than the discipline practiced by the anchorites in Syria. This was due to Egypt’s severe deserts and harsh climatic conditions, forcing the ascetic to remain in his cell, where he practiced the central tenets of the ” askesis “: fasting, prayer and meditation.2 Syrian asceticism, in contrast, was less hindered by that province’s geography and climate, which was milder and more varied. The Syrians also developed a much more rigorous body renouncing tendency than in Egypt. While many differences existed between Egyptian and Syrian asceticism, there is one fascinating similarity between the two: asceticism in both provinces was an out-growth of martyrdom, filling the vacuum created by the adoption of Christianity by the Emperors of the Late Roman Empire.

The ascetic ideal that made Egyptian Christianity renowned throughout the Roman Empire by the end of the fourth century, and served as the prototype of Christian asceticism in the West, developed out of earlier ascetic traditions within the Roman province of Egypt. In fact, hermits could be found in Egypt prior to the anchoritic life of St. Antony. Upon hearing the gospel of Matthew, “if you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven,” Antony was convinced to sell his parents’ estate, recently bequeathed to him upon their death, place his sister into a convent, and settle among the hermits already living on the outskirts of his village.3 These hermits, many of whom had been living in isolation for dozens of years, provided the training which Antony was to master, and further add to, eventually becoming one of the most venerated and renowned ascetics empire-wide, both in his lifetime and in the centuries to follow. It is difficult to ascertain exactly when the ascetic “askesis”, or discipline, first took root in Egypt. In some respects, the prototype of Christian asceticism reached back to the dawn of Christianity, to John the Baptist and to Christ’s example of seeking out a solitary place for prayer in the mountains and wilderness. Furthermore, some of the pre-Antonian ascetics undoubtedly came to the desert as refugees, fleeing the great persecutions of the third century, and ended up staying, providing examples of ascetic life which others were to follow.4

Although a prior ascetic tradition existed in Christianity, Egypt was a region prone to asceticism. Men in Egypt were driven to the desert by a crisis in human relations, where tensions of living in the “world” had proved unbearable, as ascetic literature such as the Apophthegmata Patrum overwhelmingly demonstrates. For example, when Abba Matoes was asked by a brother for advice on how to control his tongue and condemnations towards others in his community, he was advised accordingly:
If you cannot contain yourself, flee into solitude. . . . It is not through virtue that I live in solitude, but through weakness; those who live in the midst of men are the strong ones.5

The overwhelming popularity among Egyptians to take up the “askesis”, based on this “crisis in human relations,” is explained by the tense and uneasy relationships between members of Egyptian villages. These villages were made up of peasants who were selfsufficient in mind, possessing an air of total disengagement from their neighbors: however, neither of these ideals were possible for them to carry out. Instead, villagers were forced, out of necessity, to cooperate; life in the desert village was difficult, and survival required cooperation among its members as a whole, not only conforming with the annual demands of Imperial taxation, but also cooperation in order to control the precious water of the Nile: to withdraw was a natural reflex reaction.6 The idea of escape was very real to the Egyptians, based on their autarkic way of thinking. Therefore, Egypt was a predisposed hot-bed for asceticism, built into the minds of the men who lived along the Nile.7

By the fourth century, what once was an obscure and rare tradition among Christians in Egypt, the ascetic life suddenly became extremely characteristic of that province; its reputation quickly spread throughout the empire, rapidly changing the face of the Christian church as well as the province of Egypt, so that “by A.D. 400, Egypt was a land of hermits and monks.”8 It was in this atmosphere that Athanasius’ Vita Antonii became a fourth century “best seller,” not only in Egypt but as far away as Rome, Asia Minor, and Syria: “Antony was the first great manifesto of the ascetic ideal–a classic of the spiritual life which was exerting its influence over the Christian world within a very few years of its writing.”9 St. Antony’s long periods of solitude, withdrawing “to the tombs, situated some distance from the village,” followed by twenty years inside a deserted Roman fortress, set the supreme example of the anchorite; he was so revered by contemporaries and future ascetics alike that “even his death had become something imitable.”10

Antony lived out his hermitic life in the deserts of Lower Egypt, while another contemporary ascetic named Pachomius was establishing his interpretation of the “askesis ” known as coenobitic, or communal monasticism, in Upper Egypt. Both forms of asceticism were to have very long futures in their respective areas. But in Egypt at least, in contrast to Syria asceticism, both anchorites and coenobites were dependent, relying on other humans in one way or another. Surviving in the harsh Egyptian desert conditions, Egyptian ascetics lived out their existence in a cell, whether in solitude, far removed from others, or alone within a community, as in coenobitic monasteries modeled after Pachomius in Upper Egypt.11 It is the locus and significance of the cell that needs clarification.

The cell of the Egyptian ascetic defined him both in space and time, and was common to both communal and solitary ascetics. As mentioned earlier, two manifestations of asceticism arose in Egypt in the course of the third and fourth centuries, divided roughly between Upper and Lower Egypt: in the former, the coenobitic tradition founded by Pachomius (A.D. 290 – 347) at Tabennisi in the Thebaid was most common, and in the latter, the anchoritic custom of Antony.12 The region around Nitria and Scetis, about forty miles to the south, could be classified as a subset of Lower Egyptian anchoritic asceticism.13 This region is more or less characteristic of groups of ascetics, where several hermits lived together, often as disciples of an older and experienced ascetic known as an Abba. The cell in all three regions provided shelter and protection, not only from the elements, but from wild animals roaming the desert. It took many forms, ranging from ancient tombs lying deserted in the middle of the desert, to caves, in which the ascetic often competed with the animal kingdom for solitude.14 But a cell need not have been a pre-existing or natural structure; often a hermit would construct his cell out of materials available in the desert, such as lean-tos made of local Nile thrushes and wood from small desert trees, as well as recycling stone from ancient structures lying vacant in the desert. Furthermore, there is evidence that ascetics sometimes pooled their efforts, hastily constructing a cell in a matter of a single day, using mud-brick, the quintessential building material for the coenobitic monasteries founded by Pachomius in the Thebaid.15 But regardless of how they were built, or from what medium the cells took their shape, the cell was first and foremost the primary locus of the ascetic, defining the ascetic’s utter rejection of the human world–the world defined by civilization and, subsequently, a world characterized by sin; the Egyptian ascetic, whether anchoritic, coenobitic or living with a few hermits harmoniously, (as in the region around Nitria and Scetis), was committed to his cell.

“I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time. To be in company, even with the best, is soon wearisome and dissipating. I love to be alone. I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will. Solitude is not measured by the miles of space that intervene between a man and his fellows. The really diligent student in one of the crowded hives of Cambridge College is as solitary as a dervish in the desert. The farmer can work alone in the field or the woods all day, hoeing or chopping, and not feel lonesome, because he is employed; but when he comes home at night he cannot sit down in a room alone, at the mercy of his thoughts, but must be where he can “see the folks,” and recreate, and as he thinks remunerate himself for his day’s solitude; and hence he wonders how the student can sit alone in the house all night and most of the day without ennui and “the blues”; but he does not realize that the student, though in the house, is still at work in his field, and chopping in his woods, as the farmer in his, and in turn seeks the same recreation and society that the latter does, though it may be a more condensed form of it.”
Henry David Thoreau – http://thoreau.eserver.org/walden05.html

Henry David Thoreau (July 12, 1817 – May 6, 1862) was an American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, development critic, surveyor, historian, and leading transcendentalist. He is best known for his book “Walden”, a reflection upon simple living in natural surroundings, and his essay “Resistance to Civil Government “ (also known as Civil Disobedience), an argument for disobedience to an unjust state… He was also deeply interested in the idea of survival in the face of hostile elements, historical change, and natural decay; at the same time he advocated abandoning waste and illusion in order to discover life’s true essential needs.
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“The Value Of Solitude: The Ethics And Spirituality Of Aloneness In Autobiography” by John D. Barbour [University of Virginia Press, 2004]

“Most people feel ambivalent about solitude, both loving and fearing it depending on how they experience being alone at certain points in their lives. In The Value of Solitude, John Barbour explores some of the ways in which experiences of solitude, both positive and negative, have been interpreted as religiously significant. He also shows how solitude can raise ethical questions as writers evaluate the virtues and dangers of aloneness and consider how social interaction and withdrawal can most meaningfully be combined in a life.
Barbour’s work differs from previous books about solitude in two ways: it links solitude with ethics and spirituality, and it approaches solitude by way of autobiography. Barbour ranges from the early Christian and medieval periods to the twentieth century in examining the varieties of solitary experience of writers such as Augustine, Petrarch, Montaigne, Gibbon, Rousseau, Thoreau, Thomas Merton, and Paul Auster. For many authors, the process of writing an autobiography is itself conceived of as a form of solitude, a detachment from others in order to discover or create a new sense of personal identity. Solitude helps these authors to reorient their lives according to their moral ideals and spiritual aspirations.
The Value of Solitude both traces the persistence and vitality of the theme of solitude in autobiography and shows how the literary form and structure of autobiography are shaped by ethical and religious reflection on aloneness. This work should appeal to scholars in the fields of religious studies and theology, to literary critics and specialists in autobiography, and to readers interested in the experience of solitude and its moral and spiritual significance.”

“John D. Barbour’s The Value of Solitude bears a passing resemblance to a number of classic works on autobiography—James Olney’s Metaphors of the Self (1972), Karl Weintraub’s The Value of the Individual (1978), Robert Elbaz’s The Changing Nature of the Self (1987)—that wend a chronological way from canonical precursors to roughly contemporary examples. (Like many of his predecessors, Barbour visits the familiar voices of Augustine, Montaigne, and Rousseau, after which he charts a more personal course that takes him up to writers such as Annie Dillard, Thomas Merton, and Paul Auster.) For Barbour, however, this layout is not meant to trace a historical trajectory—of selfhood, of the genre of autobiography, or of the central concept invoked here, solitude. The author recognizes, certainly, that solitude has a history, and that its many incarnations are linked to cultural developments and given social needs; nodding approvingly toward Charles Taylor’s Sources of the Self, he notes that solitude’s history cannot be separated from that, say, of individuality or authenticity (9). But if Westerners have experienced solitude differently, in accordance with their temperament and historical moment, what most interests Barbour is the existential or spiritual condition of solitude. This condition is unchanging, and the autobiographical records of solitary experience under study add up to a kind of tool kit any reader can use; the texts, Barbour writes, thus illustrate “how solitude and social interaction can best be combined within a life, and . . . the advantages and disadvantages of different kinds and amounts of aloneness” (7). The Value of Solitude bears, then, some resemblance to a self-help book; questions of history, or of genre, take a back seat to a conception of literature as a vehicle for “insights and wisdom” that we may integrate into our own lives (10).”

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“Barbour shows what solitude is and where the confusion lies with other terms equated to solitude such as loneliness, isolation, alienation, and privacy. The author shows there are broader terms for solitude than being physically isolated to experience solitude and that solitude could encompass time spent alone while mentally engaged with others. And one can experience aloneness while in the background presence of other persons.
“Aloneness may help one find contact with what lies beyond social routines and conventions, beyond the repetitiveness and superficiality that often characterize interactions among people. Solitude may be a way to resist the pressures of socialization, an attempt to create a time and space for self-transformation. This may be important even if one’s experiences with others are primarily positive. Solitude is more than an antidote or corrective for negative social interactions; it offers its own distinctive blessings. Solitude allows a person to focus on certain experiences and dimensions of reality with a fuller attention, a more complete concentration, than is possible when one must also attend to the reactions of other people.”
Barbour richly writes within and without the ethics and spirituality of solitude with the autobiographies; as well as his thoughts covering history, those who had written about solitude, questions about solitude, the mystery of the inner world, criticisms and possible harm, secularization of solitude, self-teaching, values of solitude, images of solitude and, authenticity and true self, and shared solitude.”
http://www.cosmos-quest-storytelling.com/the-value-of-solitude-the-ethics-and-spirituality-of-aloneness-in-autobiography/

Contents:
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. Christian Solitude
2. Bounded Solitude in Augustine’s Confessions
3. The Humanist Tradition: Petrarch, Montaigne, and Gibbon
4. Rousseau’s Myth of Solitude in Reveries of the Solitary Walker
5. Thoreau at Walden: “Soliloquizing and Talking to All the Universe at the Same Time”
6. Twentieth-Century Varieties of Solitary Experience
7. Thomas Merton and Solitude: “The Door to Solitude Opens Only from the Inside”
8. Solitude, Writing, and Fathers in Paul Auster’s The Invention of Solitude
Conclusion: The Value of Solitude
Notes
Works Cited
Index

Parts of the book are available for reading on-line at http://books.google.com.au/books?id=0gI_pMFgRgQC&pg=PA26&lpg=PA26&dq=hermit+canon+law&source=bl&ots=PlfzdWSzKb&sig=J4eW6sL7QSVTT2P4ECIQYCb4j_M&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Ww3CUoPhM-uSiQfQjIGwDA&ved=0CEcQ6AEwBjgU#v=onepage&q=hermit%20canon%20law&f=false

John D Barbour, Professor of Religion and Boldt Distinguished Teaching Chair in the Humanities at St. Olaf College, is also the author of “The Conscience Of The Autobiographer: Ethical And Religious Dimensions Of Autobiography” (1992), “Versions of Deconversion: Autobiography and the Loss of Faith” (1994), and “Renunciation: A Novel” (2013).
See http://wp.stolaf.edu/religion/john-barbour/

The name Greek Orthodox Church (Monotonic Greek: Ελληνορθόδοξη Εκκλησία, Polytonic: Ἑλληνορθόδοξη Ἑκκλησία, IPA: [elinorˈθoðoksi ekliˈsia]) is a term referring to the body of several Churches within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, whose liturgy is or was traditionally conducted in Koine Greek, the original language of the New Testament. Today, several of these Churches conduct their services in Arabic, the common language of most of their faithful, while at the same time maintaining elements of Greek cultural tradition. The current territory of the Greek Orthodox Churches more or less covers the areas in the Eastern Mediterranean that used to be a part of the Byzantine Empire. The origins of the Orthodox Church can be traced back to the churches which the Apostles founded in the Balkans and the Middle East during the first century A.D., and it maintains many traditions practiced in the ancient Church. Among these traditions are the use of incense, Liturgical Worship, Priesthood, making the sign of the cross, etc. Greek Orthodox Churches, unlike the Catholic Church, have no Bishopric head, such as a Pope, and hold the belief that Christ is the head of the Church. However, they are each governed by a committee of Bishops, called the Holy Synod, with one central Bishop holding the honorary title of “first among equals.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Orthodox_Church

+ Alypius the Stylite

Saint Alypius the Stylite (Αλύπιος ο Στυλίτης) was a seventh-century ascetic saint. He is revered as a monastic founder, an intercessor for the infertile, and a protector of children. During his lifetime he was a much sought after starets (guide in the Christian spiritual life).
Alypius was born in the city of Hadrianopolis in Paphlagonia. His mother, who had been widowed early, was very pious. She sent her son to be educated by the bishop Theodore, gave all of her livelihood to the poor, and herself became a deaconess and lived an ascetic life. Alypius built a church in honour of the Great Martyr Saint Euphemia the All-Praised on the site of a dilapidated pagan temple. He erected a pillar beside the church and lived atop it for the majority of his adult life. Two monasteries were built beside his pillar, one for monks and one for nuns, and Saint Alypius served as spiritual director of both. According to his hagiography for the last fourteen years of his life he was unable to stand, and had to lie on his side. He died in 640, at the age of 118. He is recognised as one of the three great stylite ascetics along with Simeon Stylites the Elder and Daniel the Stylite.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alypius_the_Stylite

See also http://oca.org/saints/all-lives/2013/11/26
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/alt.religion.christian.east-orthodox/TewCJXLhhzA

+ David the Dendrite

David the Dendrite (died 540), also known as David the tree-dweller and David of Thessalonika, is a patron saint of Thessaloniki and a renowned holy fool. Originally from Mesopotamia, David became a monk at the Monastery of Saints Merkourios and Theodore outside Thessaloniki. Famed for his sound advice, crowds would hound him for words of wisdom and prayer. Wishing a quiet, contemplative life, David fled to the seclusion of an almond tree, where he lived for three years. He left the tree to petition the Byzantine emperor Justinian the Great in Constantinople to send soldiers to defend Thessaloniki from attack. David died in 540 as his ship was in route to Macedonia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_the_Dendrite

See also http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2009/06/righteous-david-dendrite-of.html
http://orthodoxwiki.org/David_of_Thessalonica

On Fools for Christ, see: http://www.shepherdsguild.org/id60.html
http://ncronline.org/blogs/eco-catholic/more-about-holy-fool

For the Dendrites generally, see: http://syrcom.cua.edu/Hugoye/Vol12No1/HV12N1Smith.pdf

Constantine P. Charalampidis “The Dendrites in Pre-Christian and Christian Historical-Literary Tradition and Iconography” (Rome, 1995)

+ Gerasimus of Kefalonia

Saint Gerasimos of Kefalonia (Greek: Άγιος Γεράσιμος) is the patron saint of the island of Kefalonia in Greece. Gerasimos (1506–1579) came from the aristocratic and wealthy Notaras family. He was ordained a Monk at Mount Athos, went to Jerusalem for 12 years, spent some time in Crete and Zakynthos and in 1555 arrived on Kefalonia. He spent his first 5 years in a cave in the area known as Lassi. He subsequently cultivated the area where the monastery of Saint Gerasimos now exists near Valsamata. The monastery which he established cared for the poor and became a center for charity.
Saint Gerasimos is believed by natives of Kefalonia to protect them and to also heal them of illness. Many natives of the island name their children after Saint Gerasimos as a tribute to the saint who protects them.

The body of Saint Gerasimos is guarded and protected in a glass casement at the monastery as it has never decomposed. After his death, his body was buried twice and exhumed intact, thus leading the church to ordain him as a saint.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerasimus_of_Kefalonia

See also http://www.kefaloniainfo.com/kefaloniaenglish/kefaloniaisland/kefaloniaislandsaintgerasimos/index.html
http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2009/10/st-gerasimos-of-kefallonia-and-demon.html
http://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.com.au/2009/10/st-gerasimos-of-cephalonia.html

+ John the Silent

Saint John the Silent (January 8, 454 – May 13, 558), also known as St John the Hesychast (Greek: Ἅγιος Ἰωάννης ὁ Ἡσυχαστής), was a Christian saint known for living alone for seventy-six years. He was given the surname because he loved recollection and silence. John was born in 454 AD in Nicopolis, Armenia. He came from a family of mainly generals and governors. His parents died when he was eighteen and he built a monastery where he stayed with ten young monks. Under John’s direction, they led a life of hard work and devotion. He obtained a reputation for leadership and sanctity, which led the archbishop of Sebaste to consecrate him bishop of Colonia in Armenia. John was only twenty-eight at the time and had no desire to be bishop. John was bishop for nine years then decided to stop due to his desire for secluded life and inability to stop certain evils. Uncertain of his future vocation, he went to Jerusalem.
His biographer says that while John was praying one night, he saw a bright cross form in the air, and heard a voice say to him, “If thou desirest to be saved, follow this light.” He saw it move and point out to the Laura (monastery) of St. Sabas. At thirty-eight years old he joined the monastery, which held one hundred and fifty monks. After some tests, St. Sabas let John have a separate hermitage for uninterrupted contemplation. For five days a week he fasted and never left his cell but on Saturdays and Sundays he went to public mass. After three years of this he was made the steward of the Laura.
John had never told anyone he had been bishop so after four years, St. Sabas thought John was worthy to become a priest and presented him to the patriarch Elias of Jerusalem. They traveled to Calvary for the ordination but upon their arrival John requested a private audience with the patriarch. John said, “Holy Father, I have something to impart to you in private; after which, if you judge me worthy, I will receive holy orders.” They spoke in private after a promise of secrecy. “Father, I have been ordained bishop; but on account of the multitude of my sins have fled, and am come into this desert to wait the visit of the Lord.” The patriarch was startled but told St. Sabas, “I desire to be excused from ordaining this man, on account of some particulars he has discovered to me.” St. Sabas was afraid John had committed a crime and after he prayed, God revealed the truth to him. He complained to John about keeping it from him and John, finding himself discovered, wanted to leave the monastery. St. Sabas convinced him to stay by promising to keep his secret. John stayed in his cell for four years, speaking to no one except the person who brought him necessities.

In 503 AD., certain turbulent disciples forced St. Sabas to leave his Laura. St. John went into a neighboring wilderness, where he spent six years in silence, conversing only with God and eating only the wild roots and herbs which the desert provided. When St. Sabas was brought back to his community, he found John in the desert and convinced him to return. John had become used to speaking only with God and found only bitterness and emptiness in anything else. He treasured obscurity and humility so he wanted to live unknown to men but, he was unable to do so. He returned with St. Sabas and lived in his cell for forty years. During this time, he did not turn people away who desired his instruction. One of these people was Cyril of Scythopolis who wrote about John’s life. The two men first met when John was ninety and Cyril was sixteen. Cyril had asked him what to do with his life. John recommended he join the Laura of St. Euthymius but Cyril did not listen. Instead, he went to a small monastery on Jordan’s banks. He fell ill there and deeply regretted not listening to John. While there, John appeared to him in a dream and after scolding him for not obeying said that if he returned to St. Euthymius’ monastery, he would get well and find his salvation. The next day he did so and was well again. John died in 558 AD at the age of one hundred and four. He lived in solitude for seventy-six years interrupted only for the nine years he was bishop.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_the_Silent

See also http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/JOHNSIL.htm
http://oca.org/saints/lives/2013/12/03/103468-st-john-the-silent-of-st-sabbas-monastery
http://orthodoxwiki.org/John_the_Silent

+ Theoctiste of Lesbos

Theoctiste of Lesbos is a saint of the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church. Born on the island of Lesbos, Theoctiste was orphaned as a child. The saint’s relations brought her to a monastery where she was raised in great joy until her 18th year, at which time Theoctiste barely evaded capture by Saracen slavers. She was taken captive with her sister and other local villagers of Lesbos and brought to the island of Paros. Once on Paros Theoctiste was able to escape. She found refuge in an island church dedicated to the Holy Theotokos and Ever Virgin Mary and dwelt there, as a hermit, for the next 35 years of her life. Numerous miraculous events are associated with her life and her relics. Saint Theoctiste of Lesbos died in the late 9th century.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theoctiste_of_Lesbos

See also http://orthodoxwiki.org/Theoctiste_of_Lesbos
http://www.antiochian.org/node/16869
http://oca.org/saints/lives/2013/11/09/103261-venerable-theoctiste-of-the-isle-of-lesbos

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Greek_hermits

“The Metéora (Greek: Μετέωρα, pronounced [mɛˈtɛoɾɐ], lit. “middle of the sky”, “suspended in the air” or “in the heavens above” — etymologically related to “Meteorite”) is one of the largest and most important complexes of Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Greece, second only to Mount Athos. The six monasteries are built on natural sandstone rock pillars, at the northwestern edge of the Plain of Thessaly near the Pineios river and Pindus Mountains, in central Greece. The nearest town is Kalambaka. The Metéora is included on the UNESCO World Heritage List under criteria I, II, IV, V and VII.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteora

“The holy Meteora, one of the most admirable and awe inspiring sceneries in the world, with their gigantic rocks reaching heights of more than 600 meters, so many centuries ago it was formed here one of the most important monastic communities of Greece.
On top of these exposed to weather elements peaks of Meteora and in the numerous caves around them, at a time when Christianity was still at its infancy, the first hermits and anchorites climbed up there, armed with indomitable will and deep faith, to become the very first to lay the foundations upon which the monastic community of Meteora centuries later was formed.
The earliest traces of such hermits arriving in the area are long lost in time, concealed by a thick mist of local myths, legends and traditions. Great ascetic figures dwelled the perilous rocks, seeking desperately to evade the temptations of the weak flesh and of a world that was morally declining rapidly, at least in their eyes. Motivated and moved by an irresistible desire of their souls to reconnect with their Creator nothing else mattered to them.
Those hermits, with their continual prayers, their unimaginable spiritual strain and sweat, they were reaching great spiritual heights in their attempt to successfully unify with the essence of God and His divine powers. The small and insignificant, the finite and the confined in matter men who became hermits are trying up on the rocks and in the caves around to establish a personal relationship, to meet and to come face to face with the unimaginable infinite the Creator Himself. A monumental endeavor for any soul to undertake that cannot be easily explained to anyone who haven’t heard or felt such a deep call, originating straight from the soul’s direct knowledge of God.
Our souls upon the moment of their creation they are facing directly the grace and power of God, our Creator. And in that very instance of their creation the soul forever falls in an everlasting love with God, and so powerful is that desire to reconnect with the Divine it became the most fundamental and dominant unconscious driving force behind man’s deeper motivations to establish a religion and worship God and to try to recreate his long lost inner paradise with culture and civilization. That was some of the inner motives of the first hermits who dwell the rocks of Meteora and of those who later followed them.

Some indicative dates as to when exactly the hermits first arrive into the area are either the 9th or the 10th century. At the end of the 11th century and early 12th, a small ascetic community was already established around Meteora. During that period the hermits of Meteora saw the need to gather around a place of their own in order to attend on the Sunday’s liturgy. So they decided to erect a small church dedicated to Theotokos that quickly became the center of their worship. This church is also referred to it as the “Kyriako” translated into Sunday’s, or “Protato” meaning the first.
In this church of Theotokos (Virgin Mary), known also among the locals as the chapel of Doupiani, it still preserves significant frescos from the 13th century. The significance of this church and the hermitage scete of Doupiani in general is that as it gathered around it the hermits of Meteora for the Sunday’s worship it facilitated the establishment of the very first organized monastic community.

So, during that 12th century we observe a gradual transition to the second phase of a now more organized monastic community from the original state in which the hermits remained at most unorganized and isolated to each other. This important transition it truly paved the way for the third and final phase of the Meteora’s monastic community development that came almost 2 centuries later with the establishment of the first monasteries in the mid 14th century.”
http://visitmeteora.wordpress.com/

“The first sketes (hermitages) in the region of Meteora appeared on the low rock of Doupiani around the 9th century A.D. Later on, reasons of safety and security urged the first monks to abandon them and settle on higher rocks. In the late 12th century a small church called Panaghia Doupiani (Virgin Mary of Doupiani) was built on the surface of this low rock, which became the first one in which all hermits gathered for Sunday liturgy, before they perceived the idea of forming a wider monastic community. This beautiful old church still displays outstanding wall paintings and a remarkable hand-made, wood-carved iconostasis.”
http://www.visitmeteora.travel/old-ruined-monasteries/doupiani-hermitage

see further http://www.greekvoyager.com/meteoraen/pg03.html

Meteora Monasteries by Sunset: One of the Best Experiences in Greece in 2024

http://www.kalampaka.com/en/meteora/history.asp
http://www.visitmeteora.travel/old-ruined-monasteries/doupiani-hermitage

Meteora Holy Trinity, Agia Triada monastery, was built in 1475 and since remodeled many times.

“Of all the places in early Christianity one is drawn to the to Syrian desert, mostly the Scetes, where the Christians fathers and mothers fled from human contact and the trials and tribulations of the time. We know that many fled because of the inner need to live the life of silence and meditation, in endless conversation with the Master; but just as many if not more fled from the persecutions of Christians in their times. The times were brutal, ravaged by plagues, butchery, and a sick disregard for the poor and the needy. This of course occurred in many parts of the world, and not particularly Egypt or Syria. But it is the kind of practices that the desert hermits undertook on thier mental and physical existence that inspires the modern being, fills us with awe, and gives us greater thoughts to meditate upon. The role that early Syrian Christianity took could be traced back to the Gospel of St. Mathew. Of all the gospels, it seems that it was St. Mathew’s that inspired the Christian hermits. We must understand that many of these hermits were from high and noble classes, they were not simple-minded folks with little education, but many of them had classical educations, and therefore their convictions are all the more sincere.”

The Example of Christ in Early Syrian Christianity

Monastery of Saint Moses the Ethiopian in Syria – see http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2010/08/monastery-of-saint-moses-ethiopian-in.html
+ Akepsimas

Akepsimas the Hermit of Cyrrhus in Syria is known as a desert ascetic of the early Church. Akepsimas, in the venerable tradition of the Desert Fathers, dedicated his life to God through solitude, silence, mortifications and prayer. The Patriarch of his day called Akepsimas out of solitude to serve the faithful as Bishop. He is recorded to have died at a very advanced age. Saint Akepsimas the Hermit is commemorated 3 November in the Eastern Christian Churches.

+ Auxentius of Bithynia

Auxentius of Bithynia was a hermit born circa AD 400 in Syria, and died February 14, 473, on Mount Scopas.

“Auxentius was in the Equestrian Guard of Roman Emperor Theodosius II, but left to become a solitary monk on Mount Oxia near Constantinople. He was accused of heresy but was exonerated at the Council of Chalcedon. Afterward he returned to his hermitage atop Mount Scopas, in Bithynia, not far from Chalcedon. This mountain is today called Kayışdağ in the Kadiköy subprovince of Istanbul, the seat of Yeditepe University. The hill ‘s thickly wooded and no remains from the late Roman period have been identified. Saint Auxentius, by origin a Syrian, served at the court of the emperor Theodosius the Younger (418-450). He was known as a virtuous, learned and wise man, and he was, moreover, a friend of many of the pious men of his era. Distressed by worldly vanity, St Auxentius was ordained to the holy priesthood, and then received monastic tonsure. After this he went to Bithynia and found a solitary place on Mount Oxia, not far from Chalcedon, and there he began the life of a hermit (This mountain was afterwards called Mt. Auxentius). The place of the saint’s efforts was discovered by shepherds seeking their lost sheep. They told others about him, and people began to come to him for healing. St Auxentius healed many of the sick and the infirm in the name of the Lord. In the year 451 St Auxentius was invited to the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon, where he denounced the Eutychian and Nestorian heresies. Familiar with Holy Scripture and learned in theology, St Auxentius easily bested those opponents who disputed with him. After the end of the Council, St Auxentius returned to his solitary cell on the mountain. With his spiritual sight he saw the repose of St Simeon the Stylite (459) from a great distance. St Auxentius died about the year 470, leaving behind him disciples and many monasteries in the region of Bithynia. He was buried in the Monastery of St Hypatius at Rufiananas, Syria.”
http://oca.org/saints/lives/2013/02/14/100518-venerable-auxentius-of-bithynia

+ Eusebius the Hermit

Saint Eusebius the Hermit was a fourth-century monk solitary of Syria. Eusebius undertook a rigorously ascetic life living without shelter near a mountain village named Asicha. According to Eastern Christian sources: “Though he was elderly and infirm, he ate only fifteen figs during the Great Forty day Fast. When many people began to flock to St. Eusebius, he went to a nearby monastery, built a small enclosure at the monastery walls and lived in it until his death.” Saint Eusebius the Hermit of Syria is commemorated 15 February by the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic Churches.

+ Jacob of Nisibis

Jacob of Nisibis (Syriac: ܝܥܩܘܒ ܢܨܝܒܢܝܐ, Yaʿqôḇ Nṣîḇnāyâ; died c. AD 338), is a Assyrian saint. He was the second bishop of Nisibis, spiritual father of the renowned Assyrian Ephrem the Syrian, and celebrated ascetic. Jacob was appointed bishop, in 308, of the Christian community of Nisibis in Mesopotamia (modern Nusaybin, located near the Turkey/Syria border). Jacob of Nisibis, also known as James of Nisibis and as Jacob of Nusaybin, is recorded as a signatory at the First Council of Nicaea in 325. He was the first Christian to search for the Ark of Noah, which he claimed to find a piece of on a mountain, Mount Judi (Turkish Cudi Dağı), 70 miles (110 km) from Nisibis. He founded the basilica and theological School of Nisibis after the model of the school of Diodorus of Tarsus in Antioch. It was not until the 10th century that the “Persian Sage” who had been incorrectly identified with Jacob of Nisibis was finally identified with Aphrahat. Jacob was the teacher and spiritual director of Saint Ephrem the Syrian, a great ascetic, teacher and hymn writer who combatted Arianism.
See further: http://syrorthodoxchurch.com/english-Dateien/st_jacob_of_nisibis.html
http://orthodoxwiki.org/Jacob_of_Nisibis
http://www.soc-wus.org/ourchurch/St.%20James%20of%20nisibis.htm

+ Macedonius of Syria

Macedonius the Hermit, sometimes known as Macedonius Kritophagus lived at the turn of the fourth to fifth century in Syria. He is venerated as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church, with a feast day of January 24. Macedonius began his ascetic life as a pilgrim wandering from city to city in Syria, Phoenicia, and Cilicia living entirely on barley moistened with water (hence Kritophagus, ‘barley-eater’). Eventually he settled in the wilderness, far from human contact, taking shelter in a pit. He considered food a form of medicine that could be taken to stave off death because it is not lawful to “shorten one’s life to shun labors and conflicts.” Macedonius became well known to people far and wide for his holiness and gifts of healing and exorcism. Gradually multitudes of people came to seek his direction and intercession. Only at a very advanced age did he agree to live in a cell provided for him. He died circa 420 at seventy years of age.
See further: http://aol.bartleby.com/210/1/244.html
https://oca.org/saints/lives/2010/01/24/100293-st-macedonius-the-hermit-of-syria

+ Maron

Maron (also Maroun or Maro; Syriac: ܡܪܝ ܡܪܘܢ, Mor(y) Morōn; Arabic: مار مارون‎) was a 5th-century Syriac Christian monk whose followers, after his death, founded a religious Christian movement that became known as the Maronites. The religious community which grew from this movement is the Maronite Church. Saint Maroun was known for his missionary work, miraculous healing and teachings of Christian monotheism. He was a priest who later became a hermit. After his death in 410 AD, his life of sanctity and miracles attracted many followers and drew attention throughout the Mediterranean empire.
See further: http://www.maronite-heritage.com/Saint%20Maron.php
http://www.maronitehistory.org/Saint_Maron

+Palladius of Antioch

Palladius of Antioch, Saint Palladius the Desert Dweller (died 309) is an Orthodox and Catholic saint. Palladius was a hermit in the desert near Antioch, Syria (today Turkey). He was a friend of Saint Simeon. Palladius died in 390 of natural causes and was canonized in pre-Congregation times. Saint Palladius the Desert Dweller led an ascetic life in a mountain cave near Syrian Antioch. Because of his struggles, he is said to have received the gift wonder-working from the Lord. Once, a merchant was found murdered by robbers near his cave. People accused St Palladius of the murder, but through the prayer of the saint, the dead man rose up and named his murderers. The saint died at the end of the fourth century, leaving behind several works. Saint Palladius is commemorated in the Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Churches on January 28.

+ Peter the Hermit of Galatia

Saint Peter the Hermit of Galatia near Antioch, in Syria, lived in the early fifth century AD. Peter’s life is recorded by Theodoret of Cyrrhus whose own family was touched by the saint’s gifts of healing. Saint Peter the Hermit left his home at a very early age and lived as a wandering monk for many years travelling extensively throughout the Middle-East. Eventually he settled near Antioch where he lived a very strict asceticism and became known for his holiness. Peter the Hermit of Galatia near Antioch is commemorated 1 February by the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic Churches.

+ Saint Rubin

Saint Rubin is a saint of the Syrian Orthodox church. He was a stylite of Kartamin. He is commemorated with feast days of August 1 and August 4.

+ Simeon Stylites

Saint Simeon Stylites or Symeon the Stylite (سمعان العمودي) (c. Saint Simeon Stylites or Symeon the Stylite (Classical Syriac: ܫܡܥܘܢ ܕܐܣܛܘܢܐ šamʻun dasṯonáyá, Ancient Greek: Συμεὼν ὁ στυλίτης Symeon Stylites Arabic: سمعان العمودي‎ semaan al aamoudi ) (c. 388 – 2 September 459) was a Christian ascetic saint who achieved fame for living 37 years on a small platform on top of a pillar near Aleppo in Syria. Several other stylites later followed his model (the Greek word style means pillar). He is known formally as Saint Simeon Stylites the Elder to distinguish him from Simeon Stylites the Younger and Simeon Stylites III.

See further: http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13795a.htm
http://oca.org/saints/lives/2013/09/01/102448-st-simeon-stylites-the-elder
http://www.panmodern.com/simeon.html
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/evagrius-simeon.asp

+ Simeon the Holy Fool

Simeon the Holy Fool was a Christian monk, hermit and saint of the sixth century AD. He is considered to be a patron saint of all holy fools and also puppeteers.

See further: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simeon_the_Holy_Fool

On Fools for Christ, see: http://www.shepherdsguild.org/id60.html
http://ncronline.org/blogs/eco-catholic/more-about-holy-fool

+ Thalassius of Syria

Saint Thalassius of Syria undertook the call of God to life as a hermit in the fifth century. Thalassius is recorded to have entered into solitude at a young age near a village named Targala in Syria. He is said to have dwelt there living the ascetic life with no shelter for nearly forty years. Thalassius’ was a soul filled with humbleness, simplicity, and a gentle nature. God manifested in the saint the gifts of powerful intercession and healing for which he gained considerable renown. In time many came to join Thalassius in the eremitic life and he welcomed them as he would welcome Christ, building them cells with his own hands. Saint Thalassius, Hermit of Syria is said to have died peacefully and is commemorated 22 February by the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Catholic Churches.

https://duckduckgo.com/c/Syrian_hermits
also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Syrian_hermits

Contemporary Syrian Hermit: http://milleetunefoi.blogs.usj.edu.lb/english-version/objectives/

The Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch (ܥܕܬܐ ܣܘܪܝܝܬܐ ܬܪܝܨܬ ܫܘܒܚܐ‎) is an autocephalous Oriental Orthodox church based in the Eastern Mediterranean, with members spread throughout the world. It employs the oldest surviving liturgy in Christianity, the Liturgy of St. James the Apostle, and uses Syriac as its official and liturgical language. The church is led by the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch. The Syriac Orthodox Church traces its history to one of the first Christian communities, described in the Acts of the Apostles (New Testament, Acts 11:26) and established by the Apostle St. Peter. The Church belongs to the Oriental Orthodox family of churches, which has been a distinct church body since the Council of Chalcedon in AD 451.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syriac_Orthodox_Church

The term Syrian is also sometimes used to refer to the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch, also known as the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East and the Antioch an Orthodox Church (Greek: Πατριαρχεῖον Ἀντιοχείας, Patriarcheîon Antiocheías; Arabic: بطريركية أنطاكية وسائر المشرق للروم الأرثوذكس‎, Baṭriyarkiyya Anṭākiya wa-Sāʾir al-Mashriq li’l-Rūm al-Urthūdhuks, “Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East”), is an autocephalous Greek Orthodox Church within the wider communion of Orthodox Christianity. Headed by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, it considers itself the successor to the Christian community founded in Antioch by the Apostles Peter and Paul.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Orthodox_Church_of_Antioch

The body of Hermit Saba laid in the Monastery’s court in 1900. Deir Mar Asha’ya (The Monastery of Mar Asha’ya). See http://maroniteinstitute.org/MARI/JMS/october99/The_Maronite_Hermits.htm

Sometimes it is also used when referring to the Maronites (Arabic: موارنة‎ mawārinah , mwārne ; Syriac: ܡܖ̈ܘܢܝܐ māronāyé , morunoyé ) are an ethnoreligious group in the Levant. They derive their name from the Syriac saint Maron whose followers moved to Mount Lebanon from northern Syria establishing the nucleus of the Maronite Church. Maronites were able to maintain an independent status in Mount Lebanon and its coastline after the Arab Islamic conquest, maintaining their religion and language there until the 13th century. Remnants of their language exist in Cyprus and formerly in some secluded mountain villages, which have since adopted Arabic due to government standardization. The Maronite Church is in communion with the Church of Rome.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maronites

It is also sometimes used when referring to the Melkite Greek Catholic Church: The Melkite Greek Catholic Church (Arabic: كنيسة الروم الملكيين الكاثوليك‎, Kanīsat ar-Rūm al-Malakiyyīn al-Kāṯūlīk) is an Eastern Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See as part of the worldwide Catholic Church. The Melkites, Byzantine Rite Catholics of mixed Eastern Mediterranean and Greek origin, trace their history to the early Christians of Antioch, Turkey, of the 1st century AD, where Christianity was introduced by St. Peter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melkite_Greek_Catholic_Church

Ignatius Zakka I Iwas (Syriac: ܐܝܓܢܐܛܝܘܣ ܙܟܝ ܩܕܡܝܐ ܥܝܘܐܨ, Arabic: إغناطيوس زكا الأول عيواص‎, Zakkà ‘Īwāṣ,

Antioch has the curious ecclesiastical and canonical distinction of having, at one time, more Patriarchs of rival jurisdictions than any other place. Today five churches use the title of Patriarch of Antioch: the Syriac Orthodox Church and Syriac Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch, the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, and the Maronite Church; and, historically, there has also been a Latin Patriarch of Antioch (this Patriarchate was officially abolished in 1964)

Brother Dismas was consecrated as Hermit in the Diocese of Banjul, The Gambia in December 2010: http://brotherdismas.blogspot.com.au/p/consecration-and-final-vows-pictures.html

“I am a Canonical Penitent Hermit of Divine Mercy in the Diocese of Banjul, The Gambia. As a hermit, my life is dedicated to prayer,contemplation and caring for the sick poor who come to the hermitage daily. My personal rule of life is an adaption of the first order rule of St. Francis of Assisi, thus I have become a beggar for the needs of the people who come to Nazareth hermitage seeking medical help and also for the Catholics in this (mainly Muslim) village in order to help them grow in their walk with Christ.”

The work of The Hermit is for the poor and sick: http://brotherdismas.blogspot.com.au/p/gallery.html

‘Living as a hermit, My labor (scripture says that we must work for our food) is for the sick poor who come to this hermitage for medical assistance. I treat many serious wounds and other emergencies as well. Most of the folks who come for help can not afford the small fee needed for treatment at the local clinic. I provide free medicines, supplies and care for these children of God. I make cord rosaries and other chaplets in order to purchase local medicines to help these folks. Should you be led by the Holy Spirit to help, Your donations and/or purchase of my cord prayer beads will help greatly to provide the necessary medicines and supplies for this work. My only income is from my Social Security and nearly half of this goes to this cause as well.

It is my hope that, in spite my own inconsistencies and weaknesses, I may present to all men and women, a prophetic witness of Christ’s teaching; that life is a journey of committed faith, trusting hope, and effective love of God and neighbor through the work of the Holy Spirit.”
http://brotherdismas.blogspot.com.au/2009/07/my-life-as-hermit.html