ANCHORITE. — From the Greek *ἀναχωρέω*, “to withdraw, to remove oneself,” it is an ascetic who lives in solitude, in remote places. In the historical development of monasticism, anchorites constituted an intermediate form between private asceticism and social, i.e., cenobitic, monastic life. Characteristics of anchoritic life are: a) isolation, sometimes absolute, though often relative, which allows for the presence in the same locality of several anchorites, each in his own cell, with the possibility of gathering on Sundays to hear Mass and even to take food together; b) prayer; c) manual labor for one’s own sustenance; d) austerity, often extreme; e) the absence of a religious superior and of a proper rule, replaced by maxims and by highly venerated oral traditions.
This form of ascetic life originated in Egypt in the second half of the 3rd century, and its rapid development is linked to the persecutions of Decius and Valerian. According to St. Jerome, the first to inaugurate this way of life would have been St. Paul of Thebes (234–347) around 250: “Huius vitae [anachoreticae] auctor Paulus, illustrator Antonius” (*Epist. XXII ad Eustochium*, 36, ed. I. Hilberg, CSEL, 54, p. 200); and it was certainly St. Anthony (251–356) who gave development and renown to anchoritism. Principal centers of anchoritic life in Egypt were: the Thebaid, with St. Anthony and his numerous followers; the valley of Nitria, with the disciples of Ammonius, who retired there around 325; and the desert of Scete, with the followers of Macarius the Great (300–91).
From Egypt the anchoritic movement spread to Palestine with Hilarion of Gaza (292–371), whose life was described by St. Jerome (*Vita b. Hilarionis*: PL 23, 29 ff.). The Sinai desert was particularly renowned for St. Nilus (d. c. 430). In Syria two varieties of anchoritic life appear: the recluses (v.) and the stylites (v.).
In the West as well this way of life flourished greatly from about the mid-4th century onward. The deeds of the Eastern anchorites, known through the writings of St. Jerome and Rufinus, had a great impact. Often the cell of a famous hermit became the center around which a *coenobium* later formed. Many monks, beginning with St. Benedict himself, began their religious life with anchoritic isolation. Later, however, it was the monasteries themselves that supplied subjects for the eremitical life. St. Benedict writes in the Rule, ch. 1: “Secundum genus [monachorum] est anachoritarum, id est heremitarum... qui... monasterii probatione diuturna... singularem pugnam heremi... Deo auxiliante pugnare sufficiunt.”
In the 11th century the institution of anchorites entered a new phase with the founding of numerous congregations or Orders of an eremitical character. Notable among these are those based on the Rule of St. Benedict: Fontevellana, Camaldoli, and Vallombrosa. Other eremitical congregations were united by Alexander IV in 1256 into a single Order that took the name of the Hermits of St. Augustine (v.).