Recluses is the name given to men and women who, in pre-reformation times, left the world to live a life of prayer and contemplation, dwelling in a cell, usually attached to a church, sometimes with the precincts of a monastery. They were also called anchorites and anchoresses. The recluse was enclosed in the cell by the bishop, the entrance was bricked up, and he sealed it with his ring, and except in case of serious illness, it was not reopened until the death of the inmate. A special office for the enclosing of anchorites is found in the Sarum missal, and also in Bishop Lacy's pontifical. The size of the cell varied: the Bavarian rule for solitaries ordered it to be 3.65 meters square and to be built of stone. It generally had three windows - one looking into the church, at which the recluse could assist at mass and receive holy communion; one glazed with horn or glass, for admitting light; one grated, closed with a shutter, and curtained, through which food was supplied, and visitors received. Research Recluses
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Research Recluses