"Not Everybody Can Be a Hermit"

(CBS)  Deep in the woods of western North Carolina, 3,600 feet up a ridge of the Great Smokey Mountains, you will find Karen and Paul Fredette busy filling their unique niche among hermits.

"We feel we have a ministry to hermits and that's what we have committed ourselves to," Paul Fredette told CBS News Correspondent Dean Reynolds.

They do it by publishing a quarterly newsletter named "Raven's Bread" to those for whom soul-searching solitude is sublime.

"Obviously not everybody can be a hermit," Fredette told Reynolds.

According to Karen and Paul, hermits are living in plain sight among us, some even in city apartments. They're a part of society - one step removed - that desires a life of contemplation and believes quiet thoughtfulness has a social purpose.

"Simply a person who lives alone, by choice, for spiritual reasons," Karen Fredette told Reynolds.

Some have jobs. Others retired with means. But to Karen and Paul the stereotype of these solitaries as eccentrics frozen in time is all wrong.

"Even if you choose to live as a solitary, you still have the need to communicate," Karen Fredette told Reynolds.

Their newsletter now has more than a thousand subscribers worldwide, and they say more are signing up all the time from places as distant as universities in China, monasteries in Israel and maximum-security prisons in the United States.

Marte, a hermit from Tennessee, is a longtime subscriber.

"I read them, and I thought 'There are other people doing this!'" Marte told Reynolds. "That's the first I realized."

If the notion of hermits trying to connect seems contradictory, the Fredettes say that's another misconception. They frequently host them in their basement hermitage - Raven's Nest - and it's a long way from a cave.

"We put in a microwave, a refrigerator," Karen Fredette said.

"A toaster oven," Reynolds noted.

From their perch in the woods, the Fredettes will continue their efforts as long as they can, finding a way to bring together those who have chosen to live apart.

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On the Web

"Raven's Bread:" http://www.ravensbreadministries.com/

[monkhermit]

by armyoftwelve November 29, 2009 7:34 PM EST
There are no true hermits outside of the Catholic or Eastern Orthodox Churches.....The people in this article are wannabees.

I suppose by Catholic you use it in the narrow sense of ROMAN Catholic?

The Fredettes are just that anh after she's been a nun for many eyars she lived for many years as a RC hermit.

And have you read their books? Then you would have seen their fews are very Catholic!.
And by the way who are you to judge if someone is a real hermit or not? What about hermits from non-xtian traditions, that existed long before xtianity? Look at www.hermitary.com and broaden your horizons and be informed!.

monkhermit.

Monkhermit.

[nothingcatholichermit]

As a hermit, the internet provides quite a distraction, such as noticing this article. I have been on briefly doing some current hermit trend research and wrote on my blog after a long time away. And plan not to write again, for truly it all does distract from the purpose, the simplicity, the desire to pray for the world, for souls, to come to union with God.

However, it is all a process. I used to receive the newsletter and quickly realized it was not in keeping with where my vocation was calling. But it serves a purpose, and maybe it is to help hermits realize that the call is to be more hidden, more silent, more separated from the world for more assiduous prayer and penance.

Yet, it is always good to find out, from various means such as internet, someone to pray for, and to have others pray for hermits, too.

[armyoftwelve]

There are no true hermits outside of the Catholic or Eastern Orthodox Churches.....The people in this article are wannabees.

[decathlon9]

any hermit getting a newsletter or connecting to the world via the internet is a hermit-light. maybe you just are an outcast and you think you choose it..but your need to connect via internet and newsletter is more telling in itself than any self prescribed life style choice-title you want to give yoruself. here is to all the hard core hermits out there..not these sell outs!

[dragon8me]

I'm a hermit too, and I don't need no damn ministry. If I have something to say, I say it. I just don't like being around people. A person is smart, people are dumb.

[Dgunner]

I live alone and spend 90 percent of my time on my mountain. I have spent most of my life alone after vietnam.The war has nothing to do my choice. It becomes easier to take in the global and and social injustices but creates a world that I know I control. When not tracking some lost hiker or hunting for meat I spend nights counting stars and looking down the mountain.The lone life has to come from the heart. I have my animals and PLANTS to keep me company.Wine making became a art and visitors are welcome to stop by just as they are welcome not too.If you have ever been to the kiamichi mountains in southeast oklahoma then you know it is not hard to live here. Though the mountains do not suffer fools.

[androidboy]

OregonJames...that's some of the real. My heart goes out to you and your wife.

[formrusmcsgt]

Must be hard for word of mouh to expand their circulation - their readers being hermits and all......

Sheesh.

[ss433]

I used to have a pair of hermit crabs

[John_Merritt]

I was amused in this article because I believe many times I can see this way of life as a preparatory school for those who desire or not to be secluded from others. I am reminded of the seminaries and monasteries worldwide that priests, ministers, monks and nuns abide on a daily basis. This has been a practice by thousands for thousands of years.

This is a way of life for many because they feel connected, not to and of the world, but with their Creator. Alone in thought, deep in meditation and prayer; but each one has a purpose under the heavens. God picks and chooses various people to live this way, and there are many others that seek this way of life.

I do not mean to disrespect those who choose to do so, not those who do not understand. I merely am stating a point of view that God picks His spots where He best utilizes certain people. Does that mean a life in this fashion is of permanence? Not at all. I believe there will be those who will be used in a mighty way within their communities and parts beyond. Thank you for a great article and Frank and Karen for taking their 'ministry of hope and encouragement' to those who may need it the most.

[Samuel-HiLL]

Your comment is thoughtful and I respect your views, however not all of us who eschew society share your warm and fuzzy Christian values or feel any special connection to your creator. It's also pretty presumptuous of you to assume that you could somehow know what a creator thinks or does.

I suspect that you'd find many of these folks suffer from some form of mental illness and just want to be left alone.

Most people can't take solitude for more than a few days, and it's well known that isolation can drive a sane person nuts.

[porcine_aviator]

"Most people can't take solitude for more than a few days, and it's well known that isolation can drive a sane person nuts."

That's because most people nowadays are self-obsessed, citified wimps who lack the skills and mental wherewithall to handle conditions even our grandparents routinely encountered.

If a "sane" person cannot handle isolation, I think that says alot about what is considered "sane" these days. If you put me in solitary confinement for a week I'll simply have had time to write another song or two. This is not some amazing skill or ability, it's rather what happens when you decide to devote your life to using your brain for contemplation rather than videogames and other trivialities. Many of the best writers and mathematicians from Russia did their best work while serving time in a gulag.