So You've Decided to Become Dead to the World: On Becoming an Anchoress
medievalmarginalia.substack.comOooh, I am Baader-Meinhofing hard. I went down a rabbit hole on the Anchorite life after reading about Paul of Thebes.
A thing I learned of in the truly wonderful video game Pentiment
Interesting read. I wonder what a “modern” anchoress would be like.
A family friend was a Discalced Carmelite nun, ergo a member of a cloistered community. She later, we heard, became a hermit. I imagine that she had quarters of her own on the convent property, but I don't know.
I am not sure how common it is nowadays, but a more recent example of an Anchoress is Nazarena of Jesus. Born in 1907, she joined the Camaldolese in the 40s and lived as a recluse until her death in 1990.