Hermit is a person who lives a solitary life, apart from social contact with others. Men and women become hermits for many reasons. They may want to avoid the evils or temptations they see in society. They may believe they can purify themselves by living alone. Or they may feel a special calling to a life of solitude.
Hermits give up comfort, family, marriage, property, and pleasure for chastity, fasting, meditation, and silence. They train themselves to eat simply, infrequently, and in small amounts. Hermits seldom see or talk to visitors. But people who want spiritual guidance or physical healing sometimes seek them out, sometimes driving hermits to search for even more secluded places.
Religious hermits are commonly regarded as holy persons. They have played important roles in forming the religious disciplines of Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Taoism. Religious hermits have withdrawn to caves, cells, holes, pillars, and tombs. They may live in deserts, forests, ravines, or even in cities.
In some religions, particularly Buddhism and Christianity, there were hermits who joined others in forming hermitages. In a hermitage, a number of hermits live in separate cells or rooms and follow religious disciplines. They have few social contacts. Monasteries are sometimes related to hermitages. In monastic communities, monks form self-sufficient social groups and set aside certain times for solitary meditation and prayer.
Anyone may want to be alone and silent for a time to think seriously, pray, work, or prepare for some special event. Hermits find this experience so rewarding that it becomes a way of life for them.
