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Ancient Origins Tour IRAQ

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Representational image of the pious Saint Drogo. Source: nsit0108 / Adobe Stock

Saint Drogo was the Bilocating Patron of the Unattractive

Sometimes it really does seem that there is a saint for everything. For among the vast pantheon of saints stands Saint Drogo, a 12th-century Flemish nobleman who, after experiencing an inexplicable...
The many faces of the famed medieval sorcerer, Merlin. Source: rolffimages / Adobe Stock

The Many Faces of Merlin: Prophet, Architect, Holy Man

The character of Merlin has been a recurring figure in Western popular culture ever since the Middle Ages. In his many iterations, Merlin is most often associated with the legendary King Arthur...
Image of the exterior of the Anchor Church Caves in Derbyshire, believed to have been first used as an Anglo-Saxon home. Source: Edmund Simons / RAU

Anchor Church Caves: Anglo-Saxon Home and Oldest House in Britain?

Archaeologists conducting a survey of a previously overlooked cave dwelling in Derbyshire have concluded that the sandstone caves were actually an Anglo-Saxon home way back in the 9th century. They’...
Left: The small cave is full of intricate engravings, initials and other markings, revealing insights into medieval religion. Right: Archaeologists investigating the cave, which could only be reached by abseiling.            Source: Archaeology South East

UK Landslide Unveils Cave Shrine Steeped in Medieval Religion

Railway engineers in Britain have made a remarkable discovery, uncovering a cave that may have been used as a shrine or hermitage in the Middle Ages . The cavern was uncovered after a landslide by...
Monk in the forest Credit: Demian / Adobe Stock

Silence is Golden: Ancient Monks Couldn’t Even Find Peace and Quiet

In our contemporary world, noise pollution has reached dangerous levels. But even in what many reminisce as “quieter times” in the “more peaceful” past people were still searching out silence and...
A pilgrim in the snow (captblack76 / Adobe Stock)

Challenge Accepted: 6 Months as a Medieval Hermit in Russia

In our crowded modern cities, there are some who wish that they could live by themselves in a remote wilderness area sometime in the past. They yearn for a time when life was, at least supposedly,...
Pavel Sapozhnikov as a 10th century Russian hermit.

Pavel Sapozhnikov: Experiencing Life as a 10th Century Russian Hermit

2014 was certainly a year to remember for a then-24-year-old Russian man. He spent eight months of that year in a social experiment. The purpose? To experience what life was like for a 10th century...
Detail of ‘Solitude’ (circa 1890) by Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton.

Alone Need Not Be Lonely: What Joyous Solitude of Early Hermits Can Teach Us

Kim Haines-Eitzen / The Conversation In today’s world, loneliness seems to have reached epidemic proportions. Countless studies have highlighted the serious and negative impact that loneliness has on...
Saint Daniel’s rock hewn house, Putna

15th Century Monk Built This Stone House to Find Solitude

St. Daniel was completely devoted in his quest to contemplate spiritual and religious issues through a life of solitary contemplation. He really did not want to be disturbed in this endeavour and...
Depiction of the hanging of Elizabeth Wilson, with William Wilson coming with the pardon (from a later edition of The Pennsylvania Hermit).

The Pennsylvania Hermit: The Woeful Tale of a Grieving Brother’s Broken-hearted Hermitage

William “Amos” Wilson, who is known also as the Pennsylvania Hermit, is a figure in the folklore of Pennsylvania, more specifically of its south-eastern and south-central regions. William lived...
‘A Player with a Hermit’ by Moritz von Schwind

Revealing the Recluse: The Sad and Secret Lives of Hermits

The word “hermit” often elicits thoughts of men with long, scraggly hair and beards, eyes lined with wrinkles and filled with wisdom, and clothes a bit torn and dirty but otherwise, no worse for wear...
The Katskhi Pillar in Georgia.

Monk Lives Life of Solitude on This 131-Foot-Tall Rock with a 2,000 Year History

The Katskhi Pillar is the name given to a natural limestone column located in Georgia. On the top of this monolith is a monastery, which was built during the 1990s. Today, a solitary monk by the name...
Entrance from above to the Loltun Cave complex

Guided by the Ancestors? Mayan Fanatic Saved by a 1000-Year-Old Priest

On the 3rd of January 1931, an article appeared in the Modesto News-Herald entitled ‘Mystery of the Loltun Cave hermit’. The article recounted the encounter between a man by the name of Robert Stacy-...
Monks, Hermits and Ascetics: The Little-Known History of Women in Desert Asceticism

Monks, Hermits and Ascetics: The Little-Known History of Women in Desert Asceticism

Theodoret of Cyrrhus (423–457) tells us that when little girls played games in forth-century Syria, they played monks and demons. One of the girls, dressed in rags, would reduce her little friends...
Ancient Russian Hermit

A day in the life of an ancient Russian hermit

A 24-year-old man in Russia is spending eight months living alone in the freezing Russian wilderness as a 10 th century hermit as part of a social experiment. The project began in September and is...