THE MARONITE EREMITICAL TRADITION: A CONTEMPORARY REVIVAL

Abstract

It is not easy to write about the life of people who have rightly chosen silence, and to mention them when they do not want to leave their names to posterity having decided to remain unknown, erased from people's memories.To meet the Maronite hermits requires following a long procedure; informing the Secretariat of the Maronite Lebanese Order, receiving permission from the Superior of the monastery to which the hermitage belongs, and finally getting the necessary consent of the hermit who has rightly chosen silence in order not to disrupt his or her quest for humility. 1 In this study we intend to look at the eremitical experience as lived within the Maronite Church.There are four hermits in the contemporary Maronite Church, three monks and one nun.There is a programme to introduce lay people to the eremitical tradition of the Maronite Church through the holding of 'Eremitical Days' organized and led by the Antonine Sisters.Finally, a group of Latin rite American monks who adopted the Maronite tradition, attracted by the eremitical spirituality of Saint Charbel. 2 Reflection on eremitical spirituality in the Maronite Church turns out to be a very delicate and difficult issue especially in the absence of written texts and other information which might facilitate the study of this school of spirituality rooted in history and revealed through the actual experience of the Maronite Church.Yet the monastic and eremitical life is at the origins of the Maronite Church in the person of its patron Saint Maron (Maroun) 3 who was 'an anchorite saint . . .living in the 4 th and 5 th century on a mountain situated, in all probability, in the region of Apamea in Syria Seconda'. 4t Maron led 'in the open air near a temple for the pagans which he converted to a Church, a life of penitence and prayer'. 5This way of life attracted a group to become his disciples.Gathered around him they formed the nucleus of the Maronite Church, their life centered on the monastery dedicated to the memory of their master, namely the monastery of Saint Maron situated in the vicinity of Apamea. 6The fact