RECLUSI. — Seclusion is a form of eremitical life in which the religious imposes upon himself a solitary existence, far from every community or shut up in a cell deprived, as far as possible, of communication with the outside world. Ancient Egypt had known the seclusion of certain priests of Serapis, but this practice has no connection with Christian usage.
It is in the East that seclusion appears earliest and most widely in the Church, chiefly in Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor; and, especially from the 4th century onward, it spread more among men than among women. Some embraced it with excessive refinements: living in a cave or a tomb, like Pietro il Galata, or in a cell that permitted neither a sitting nor a lying position, deprived of any light or ventilation other than what filtered through a simple opening in the roof; in some cases, the cell, without a roof, exposed the r. to the rigors of frost and the heat of the sun. The longevity of certain r., considering such a lack of hygiene, is almost miraculous. Others fasted to the extreme limits of weakness. Those who left their retreat to obtain food or draw water did so only at night. Others received some nourishment through an opening at ground level, which could occasionally serve for a few laconic words of spiritual guidance to rare visitors; thus, for example, Salamanes on the banks of the Euphrates. Still others had a companion as well; Pietro il Galata, for example, lived with a demoniac. There were also cases of r. who directed a monastery from a distance. Their life in general, however, lived in the most absolute silence, consisted almost exclusively in prayer and in reading the Scriptures and the Fathers.
The West adopted the reclusive life around the 5th century, under the influence of the East, through the dissemination of the lives of s. Antonio and s. Ilario and thanks to the Collationes and the writings of Cassiano. Gregorio di Tours frequently recalls the existence of r. in Gaul in the 4th century: for example, Marzio, who lived in a cave he had himself excavated in the rock near Royat, in Auvergne, and Ospizio, who lived near Nice, his naked body bound in iron chains and wearing a hair shirt.
Although the austerities of the r. were less severe than in the East, certain councils nevertheless promulgated canons to regulate the practice. After the Councils of Vannes (463), Agde (506), Orléans (533), and Toledo (643), the Council in Trullo (692; can. 41 [Hefele-Leclercq, III, p. 568]) authorized seclusion only for monks who had spent three years in a monastery, provided that they had obtained permission from the abbot and the bishop. Certain customs were thus established: from the time of s. Radegonda, at Poitiers, a nun’s entrance into seclusion was accompanied by a genuine ceremony; most r. depended to some extent on a monastery; thus s. Benedetto, when, at the beginning of his religious life, he shut himself up in a cave. It was not always perpetual; for some, it was sometimes limited to a period of life, or to specified times of the liturgical year, or even interrupted by the necessity of apostolate or charitable works; in the 6th century Eparco, an r. for 43 years, directed a monastery near Angoulême at the same time; s. Senoch withdrew during Lent and from the feast of s. Martino until Christmas.
Seclusion developed still further from the 9th to the 13th century; it is sometimes difficult to distinguish it from eremitism in general, then very widespread, but about which information is still inadequate: rules were even imposed—something paradoxical—on a profoundly individualistic form of religious life: Regula solitaria of Grimlaico (9th century), the Rule of Etelredo of York (12th century 7), and the Rule of Pietro il Venerabile for the r. of Cluny.
Cistercian abbeys and regular Chapters considered themselves honored to have at least one r. in their vicinity and under their dependence. Some, such as Roberto d'Arbrissel, founder of Fontevrault, have remained very famous. The sheer number of r. and hermits led Pope Innocenzo IV to regulate their multitude under the Rule of s. Agostino (1256). The flourishing of the mendicant Orders, despite the initiatives of the Spirituals, contributed to bringing seclusion into disuse during the last two centuries of the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, in France the reclusory in the cemetery of the Innocents in Paris was inhabited until the
RECLUSI - RECOLLETTI DI S. AGOSTINO
fine del sec. xv e la vita di reclusione fu illustrata allora Corbie (v.); v'erano però ancora r. a Roma al principio del sec. xv.
Dal sec. xv in poi la vita propriamente reclusa non è stata praticata che in via eccezionale, invece l'eremitismo continuò a trovare adepti fino al sec. xx; p. es., Foucauld (v.) nel Sahara.