Folia Canonica 5. (2002)

STUDIES - W. Becket Soule: Hermits in Current Eastern Catholic Legislation; CCEO cc. 481-485

FOLIA CANONICA 5 (2002) 149-161.

W. BECKET SOULE

HERMUS IN CURRENT EASTERN CATHOLIC LEGISLATION: CCEO CC. 481^85

I. Historical background; II. The Notion of Eremitical Life; III. required preparation for the Eremitical Life; IV. The Plai i of Enclosure; V. The Connections of a Hermit with the Monastery; VI. The Return of a Hermit to the Monastery.

The word “hermit” (Fr. ermite; Ger. Einsiedler or Eremit', It. eremita', Sp. eremita) derives from the Greek êpfjpoç, the adjectival form of the noun “desert”; the hermit is thus “one who is of or from the desert.”* 1 The Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches provides a description and requirements for hermits and the eremitical life in cc. 481—485.2

I. Historical background

Eremitism was the form of the ascetic life which preceded cenobiticism, and it survived alongside cenobiticism for centuries. Hermits most frequently lived in desert places, far from the company of men and even of other hermits, although some lived near towns (but outside the walls and in the countryside). Hermits were dedicated to prayer, meditation, silence and mortification as ways of following evangelical perfection. The eremitical life was found in all parts of the East, but flourished first in Egypt beginning in the third and fourth centuries

1 Those who lived this form of life were called <xvaxwpr|xcu, f|at>xaaxcu and épepîxou; in ancient documents they are also called povayoi and KeÀÀiwxai. P. DE Meester, Rituale-benedizionale bizantino, Rome, 1930, 12.

Hermits are referred to in the masculine throughout this article, in accord with the practice of standard English and the principle enunciated in CCEO c. 1505. Such references are equally applicable to women and women’s monasteries.

1 Codex Canonum Ecclesiarum Orientalium (AAS 82 [1990]: 1045-1383; hereinafter cited as CCEO) was promulgated by Pope John Paul II by the apostolic constitution Sacri Canones, 18 October 1990 (AAS 82 [1990]: 1033-1044). All canon numbers in this article refer to the CCEO, unless otherwise identified.

For reports of the Pontifical Commission for the Revision of the Code of Eastern Canon Law (PCCICOR) on the formulation of these canons on hermits, see Nuntia 8 (1979) 47, cc. 69-73; 11 (1980) 32-33, cc. 68-72; 16 (1983) 57-58, cc. 68-72; 24-25 (1987), cc. 479—483; 27 (1988) 50, 76; 28 (1989) 69.