We rarely question the value of religious orders when they teach, nurse, or even make honey. And while teaching, in this hermitage, makes the hermit's role easier for people to understand, in a sense it obfuscates the central question: What is a hermit?

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The Russian classic, The Pilgrim Continues His Way, has a succinct 'job description'. A hermit discusses three of his roles:

 

1. Analyzing and contemplating his moral existence. It behooves the hermit to meditate on the interior life, to theologize if he is a theologian, and to share his insights with others, in written or spoken forms.

2. The hermit is an example. This may be even truer in today's secular and fast-paced society. The hermit throws a gauntlet of solitude, prayerfulness and holiness down at the feet of a world which seems to be rejecting such notions, even as it most desperately needs them.

3. The hermit leads by moral example, shunning sin and nurturing personal sanctity.​​

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For the priest hermit-monk of the Hermitage of the Three Holy Hierarchs, there is a charism that underpins everything-- that is, the endeavour and fruitfulness of prayer. The Divine Liturgy and Office are prayed daily, each with a specific intention-- sometimes requested by people far away, sometimes regarding a global concern, sometimes about something close to home, sometimes abstract, sometimes specific. 

 

Every time we are united to the heavenly liturgy something changes here on earth. Here at the Hermitage the belief in the power of prayer is strong. The good that it will do is unquantifiable by human hands, but anything is possible through the grace of God.

According to St. Basil the Christian life is to become prayer, and prayer is to enliven life itself: "Thus you will pray without ceasing; if you pray not only in words, but unite yourself to God through all the course of life...so your life is made one ceaseless and uninterrupted prayer" (Migne, PG 31, 244; St. Basil, “Homily in Honour of St. Julitta,” nn. 3-4).

 

A hermit is a living prayer..

Lord, make me a living prayer

Let all that is in my heart be a supplication

Let all that I do speak of you

Let my every thought and breath be united with you

Lord, make me a prayer

Amen