Encyclopedia of the Saints’ Lives

Questions About the Anchorites (Al-Suwāḥ)

Questions About the Anchorites (Al-Suwāḥ)

1. Did the anchorites reach a state of infallibility from sin, or could they commit sin?
   No human is infallible from sin as long as he lives in the body on earth. God alone is the One who does not sin.
   The biographies of the anchorites recount stories of some of them falling and then repenting.
   Among the anchorites who fell into sin was Saint Abba Moses the Anchorite.
   After living thirty years in anchoritic life—so much that the beasts became familiar with him and submitted to him—the devil was able to deceive him and make him fall more than once.
   Then Abba Moses repented, and God sent him Saint Abba Samuel the Confessor, to whom he confessed, and he received the Holy Mysteries, and departed from this world repentant.
   And Saint Abba Timothy the Anchorite, at the beginning of his life, sinned, and grieved greatly over his sin, and wept and lamented until an ulcer formed in his liver. The angel healed him of it, and he spent his life in holiness.

2. Did the anchorites wear clothing, knowing that their clothes would certainly have worn out during tens of years of their anchoritic life?
   We read in the life of Saint Macarius the Great that he saw two anchorites naked in the inner desert to the west toward Libya. But this is an unusual case.
   Saint Abba Paul, the first of the anchorites, made for himself a garment from palm fiber or fronds. And Saint Abba Onuphrius the Anchorite had long hair that covered his nakedness instead of a garment.
   And Saint Abba Pijimi the Anchorite was tempted to live naked as a form of detachment, but he wisely rebuked himself and said:
   “It is not fitting that I live naked, for God made tunics for Adam and Eve, and even the angels have two wings covering their feet.”
   Thus we see that either God preserves their garments from wearing out, or their hair covers their bodies, or they make garments from fiber or fronds, or perhaps from the skins of animals that die in the wilderness, or some of them remain naked since no one sees them.
   We hear about Saint Mary the Anchorite that she hid behind a rock when Abba Zosima reached the desert. And when he approached to receive her blessing, she asked him to throw his garment to her, and she girded herself with it…

3. Is the number of anchorites limited? And whenever one of them dies, do they choose another to keep the number the same?
   There is no reason to limit the number. There may be anchorites in one place who do not know one another. And the gathering of anchorites together to choose someone to become an anchorite to complete their number indicates that these would be living a communal life, not a solitary one. This does not agree with the anchorite who does not mix with others and may go tens of years without seeing a human face.
   The idea of a limited number and selecting someone to take the place of the deceased is a trick used by the devil in fighting Abba Ghalioun the Anchorite and causing his downfall, by calling him to anchoritic life because the number of anchorites was lacking…
   Such an idea was never reported on the tongues of the saints.

4. Was “Abouna Abdel-Masih El-Habashi” an anchorite?
   Abouna Abdel-Masih El-Habashi was a hermit, and there is a difference between a hermit and an anchorite. The hermit has a known cave that visitors can reach, unlike the anchorite whose place no one knows, and who may go tens of years without seeing a human face, as we explained last time. And the anchorite may dwell hundreds of kilometers or miles away from inhabited areas…

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