The date is 1272, and outside a small church in northern England, a crowd has gathered.
Masons are putting the finishing touches on a new extension to the church, and the assembled
crowd peers through the final few holes left in the stone wall they are building.
Through those holes they can see a young woman, sitting on a rough wooden bed, clasping her
hands together in prayer.
Finally, the masons insert the last stone into place, and the woman is sealed away,
never to feel the warmth of the sun on her skin or the warmth of a loved one's embrace
ever again.
She will live out her life and die in the tiny room she has just been entombed within.
But what might be most shocking of all is the fact that this isn't a punishment, in
fact it's an honor.
And it's an honor that the young woman has chosen for herself.
Anchorites were a religious group that grew in popularity during the middle to late middle
ages, and while they attracted both men and women, they were predominantly female with
as many as twice as many women as men becoming anchorites.
These pious men and women dedicated their life wholeheartedly to God, and more specifically
to prayer for the salvation of the world- and the best way to accomplish this in their
minds was to seal themselves away, where they could not be tempted or led astray from their
path.
It's believed that John the Baptist served as inspiration for the Anchorite way of life,
as he was a hermit monk who retreated from the world so that he may come closer to God.
For his faith and devotion, God rewarded him with the privilege of preparing others for
the coming of Jesus, and ultimately with the baptism of Jesus himself as the latter began
his earthly ministry.
Yet while John the Baptist was a famous hermit, he wasn't a recluse by any means, and certainly
did not go to the extreme lengths that Anchorites did.
Hermitdom was also popular during the time of the Anchorites, and for much the same reasons
as John the Baptist's- becoming a hermit was a way of leaving the world behind and enduring
a life of hardship in a bid to become closer to God.
Unlike today where we consider hermits to be creepy weirdos, hermits were largely honored
during the Middle Ages, as their seclusion was seen as an act of pious devotion to God.
Hermits were often sought out for their spiritual wisdom and counsel, and received some level
of honor rather than disdain.
For some, hermitdom was too easy a path to follow, and these people decided that they
needed a more extreme form of social isolation in order to get close to God.
To become an anchorite, an individual needed to get the cooperation of a church, as their
cell where they would spend the rest of their life needed to be constructed on the side
of a church where they could still be close to religious services.
The anchorite had to prove to the Bishop of the church that they were capable of supporting
themselves for a number of years, and had the services of at least one servant to bring
them food and water as well as remove their waste.
This has led modern researchers to puzzle over the practice, as it is clear that only
educated, financially well-to-do individuals could afford to engage in such a lifestyle,
and these aren't the type of people who's lives are so difficult that they might seek
to escape them by any means necessary.
This is evidence then that the life of an Anchorite was not just chosen by those who
participated, but even desired, bizarre as that might seem to us today.
Once entombed, the Anchorite was forbidden from ever leaving their enclosure, and given
that there was no doorway and they were surrounded in solid stone, escape was a moot point.
The only openings to the outside world were two to three slits cut into the rock.
One slit would face into the church, from where the Anchorite could see the altar and
could partake in mass.
Another slit would face outwards, from where the Anchorite could receive visitors.
Sometimes a third slit was cut for the anchorite to receive food and water and to pass their
waste to a servant on the outside.
The interior of the cell contained only sparse and very rough wooden furnishings, typically
just a rough cot to sleep on, a desk, and possibly a chest or set of drawers.
Fresh hay may have been shoved through the slits for the Anchorite to make a bed with,
but that was the extent of comfort for the imprisoned.
In fact, the more difficult the living conditions the more holy the experience was considered,
and Anchorites often actively strove for discomfort in order to bring themselves closer to God.
The interior of the cell was typically about twelve square feet, or the size of a small
bedroom.
There was no bathroom, largely because this was the middle ages, and the anchorite would
have to make use of a bucket, living with their waste until it was collected by a servant
on the outside.
In summer months with sweltering heat, the cell provided little to no relief from breezes,
as the slits cut into the chamber were far too small to allow much air flow.
The insufferable heat must have only been worsened by the stench from the anchorite's
waste, and their own body as Anchorites would be unable to bathe.
Some Anchorites did include additional furnishings so that they could pursue a trade craft while
entombed.
One famous anchorite was a renowned goldsmith, and worked with raw ore brought to him, crafting
it into jewelry and holy symbols.
These would have been the time's version of a Louis Vuitton bag today, as Anchorites were
that highly renowned and wearing an item crafted by one would have been a great honor.
For this reason, Anchorite 'guidebooks' encouraged them to limit their crafting or sewing to
simple, modest items, as the celebrity of these figures was well known.
Celebrity was itself a bit of a problem for the anchorite, and despite being able to receive
visitors through the slit in their cell, they were expressly discouraged from doing so.
Anchorite guide books warned that anchorites were to limit their time spent with visitors
to a minimum, and churches were instructed to forbid the gathering of large groups of
visitors.
While Anchorites were highly sought after for spiritual guidance and religious advice,
they were discouraged from spending their time chatting away as they were supposed to
focus on prayer and religious study instead.
Celebrities though, they were, and despite being extreme recluses, Anchorites were highly
honored within the Church.
In a society where women held little to no power, women Anchorites- who outnumbered men
by as much as two to one- were seen as the highest spiritual authority within their church,
even higher than the Bishop himself.
Their wisdom was even sought after by nobles, and even kings and queens.
Some modern researchers postulate that women chose to become Anchorites so that they could
escape the social oppression of their day, and receive prestige and honor in a world
where they would have otherwise been nothing much more than a wife, expected to rear and
raise children.
Some in fact believe that the life of an anchorite was so popular with women because they sought
it as a means of escaping forced marriages.
The term anchorite is believed to have originated from the prestige afforded to these solitaires,
as their wisdom and piety was believed to be the literal anchor of a church.
Dedicating their life wholeheartedly to prayer, these men and women were thought to be immune
to worldly temptations and deceits, and thus could steer a church through troublesome periods
by being its spiritual anchor.
This was a role taken extremely seriously by the Anchorite, with part of their motivation
for entombment being a need to pray for the sins of the world.
By dedicating themselves to praying for the world, the Anchorite hoped to intercede between
God's judgment and a wicked world, and the Anchorite would spend much of their time in
supplication for God's mercy.
The family and friends of an Anchorite was encouraged to consider their loved one to
be dead, and in fact they were legally considered as such.
As the final stones were laid into place in an Anchorite's cell, the priest would deliver
final rites, the prayers which were said at a person's funeral.
Their earthly lives were over, and now were given over for prayer to God until the day
they died.
With so few visitors though, an Anchorite might die without anyone noticing except for
their assigned servant, and last rites seems a bit practical as well as ceremonial.
It's not known what Anchorites felt about their way of life, if they had any regrets
over their entombing or if they gladly accepted such an extreme lifestyle.
The only surviving text from an Anchoress is that of Julian of Norwich, an Anchorite
that lived in the late 1300s.
The only reference to her personal feelings on her lifestyle is a small comment which
reads, 'this place is a prison, this life is penance'.
Whether Julian was referring to the earth as a prison, and our earthly lives as penance,
or her actual life entombed next to a church is unknown.
Anchorites were nothing if not stoic.
It wouldn't matter much if an Anchorite did experience a change of heart anyways, as the
church would never allow them to be freed.
Anchorism was a deadly serious commitment, and there was no option to fail.
That being said, some Anchorites did eventually attempt to escape with the help of outsiders.
Yet for some, Anchorism was not extreme enough, and a group known as the Stylites had for
a long time been engaging in an even more extreme lifestyle choice.
Stylities get their name from the world stylos, which means pillar, and from their habit of
living out their lives entirely sitting atop stone pillars.
Exposed to the elements on a tiny platform, Stylites vowed to spend their entire lives
perched atop stone pillars and endure extreme hardship for the sake of closeness to God.
Much like Anchorites, Stylites were also greatly honored, and one in particular- St. Daniel
the Stylite- even received royal visitors who sought out his wisdom.
Perched atop a pillar built specially for him outside Constantinople by Emperor Leo
I, St. Daniel gave counsel to Emperors Leo and Zeno of Constantinople, as well as the
city's patriarch.
He regularly held sermons and counseled the faithful, partaking in the Eucharist and even,
it's claimed, healing the sick.
It's said that he came down from his pillar only once in thirty three years, to turn Emperor
Baliscus away from Monophysitism, a blasphemous belief that Jesus Christ was not God in human
flesh, but was entirely God and had no human nature.
For Christians, the belief that Jesus was both part human and part divine is a point
of great comfort, as it inspires them to believe in a savior that endured the same hardships
and temptations with the same human frailty that normal people do, and yet triumphed over
them.
Turning away to the blasphemy of Monophysitism then would likely be a good excuse for St.
Daniel to abandon his perch briefly, but we bet getting the chance to stretch his legs
must've felt amazing.
The life of an Anchorite or a Stylite couldn't have been an easy one, and while this seems
insane to us today and there is no mention in the Bible of any of these practices being
necessary at all, one can't help but admire the conviction and personal discipline it
must have taken to live out a life of extreme solitude, and the selflessness of dedicating
oneself to a life of prayer for the world.
Next time you're in your room at home and the internet goes out, close your eyes for
a moment and imagine that you now have to spend the rest of your life in that room,
with no entertainment, no bathroom breaks, and no human contact.
Want to hear more stories about religion?
Check out our video, Where could the ark of the covenant be?
Or check out this other video instead!