Folia Canonica 5. (2002)

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

HERMITS IN CURRENT EASTERN CATHOLIC LEGISLATION

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Paul II nevertheless noted a unity in the variety of these forms in his apostolic letter Orientale lumen, when he wrote

In the East, monasticism has retained great unity. It did not experience the development of different kinds of apostolic life as in the West. The various expressions of monastic life, from the strictly cenobitic, as conceived by Pachomius or Basil, to the rigorously eremitic, as with Antony or Macarius of Egypt, correspond more to different stages of the spiritual journey than to the choice between different states of life. In any event, whatever form they take, they are all based on monasticism.8

The basis of the eremitical life in monasticism noted by the current pontiff points to what appears at first glance to be a rather odd position of hermits in the CCEO: all true hermits, according to the law, must be monks. Several times in the process of drafting the CCEO proposals were presented to expand the juridical figure of the hermit outside of the monastic fold, but each time the proposal was rejected.9

The notion of the hermit contained in cc. 481—485 limits the first and more ancient form of eremiticism, as it requires that the hermit be a member of a monastery sui iuris and have made perpetual monastic profession. The present definition of c. 481 also excludes non-monastic religious, even though the prior legislation in Postquam Apostolicis c. 313 §4 included such persons when it stated: “A hermit is a religious who, according to the norms of the constitutions, leads an eremitical life, without prejudice to his dependence on the superiors of his religious institute.”10 Nevertheless, particular law may permit the creation of new

Historia Lausiaca 48 (Texts and Studies, v. 6, n. 2), Cambridge, 1904, 142-143. Theodoret also tells of one hermit, Thalelaios, who is known to have spent 10 years in a tub hanging in mid air from poles: Historia Religiosa 28. 3 (SC 257.226-229). The most famous stylites were two Simeons: Simeon the Elder took up residence on a column in 423 to escape the crowds that followed him, and Simeon the Younger (d. 596) lived near Antioch. Alypius, a contemporary of Simeon the Younger, having lost the use of his feet after 53 years of standing on a pillar near Adrianople, spent his last 14 years on the pillar lying on his side. The custom of stylitism never took hold in the West, but lasted in the East into the twelfth century. As late as the 19th century in Russia, stylitism was practiced by Seraphim of Sarov (d. 1833) who lived three years (1,000 nights) on a rock exposed to the elements. Stylites also became involved in political activity, however; Daniel the Stylite descended from his column to lead a demonstrating mob to Constantinople. Cf. H. Delehaye, Les Saints Stylites, (Subsidia Hagiographica 14) Paris, 1923.

8 Joannes Paulus II, litt. ap. Orientale lumen, 2 V. 1995, n. 9. Official Eng. United States Catholic Conference, Washington, DC, 1995, 18.

9Cf. in particular Nuntia 16 (1983) 57-58 and 28 (1989) 69.

10 Pius XII, litt. ap. mp. Postquam Apostolicis Litteris, 9. II. 1952). AAS 44 (1952) 65-150, contained the law on monks and other religious (cc. 1-231), the temporal goods of the Church (cc. 232-301), and the definition of certain canonical terms (cc. 302-335).