25/04/2024
An Anchorite (male) or Anchoress (female) was someone devoted to the Church (the kind with the “Capital C”) who chose to live an ascetic life, focusing on prayer and communion with the divine. The practice started in the 11th century, during the early part of the High Middle Ages, and continued into the Tudor era, until Henry Tudor got ticked off at the Church (again, the “Capital C” kind), took his toys home and created the Church of England. The monasteries were then dissolved but were kind enough to give Henry all their money, treasures, and gold to help fund his newly found interest in religion.
Prior(y?) to Henry giving the Church an extreme makeover, the life of many Anchorite / Anchoress was spent in a tiny cell, built into the wall of a Church. Some chose to be literally sealed into the wall of the building. That 12 by 12-foot space, called an Anchorhold, was where they lived out their lives, with only a small window where they could receive any sustenance and necessities.
Since people, even some in religious orders, are “constant never” there are tales of Anchorites / Anchoresses tending gardens inside their cells, accepting visitors, and, contrary to their vows, coming and going from their cells at their leisure.
Our Beloved Anchoress here at the Tavern refers to her experience while living in a Church wall, as her time “in Captivity”. She appreciated the seclusion but found there wasn’t enough solitary time, as both the clergy and the commoners were constantly intruding on her contemplative time, asking her to share deep, spiritual insights and wisdom gained during her confinement.
In a candid conversation, she stated, “God’s patience may be infinite. Poor sinner that I am, mine is Not!”. She explained that after a very, long day with interruptions “almost constant from Matins to Vespers!”. Our lady received divine inspiration in the words of Fra Giovonni Giocondo's Letter to a Friend:
No heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today. Take heaven! No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present moment.
Take peace! The gloom of the world is but a shadow. Behind it, yet within our reach, is joy. Take Joy!
She took the good Father’s words to literal heart along with a few chisels, some amused, drunken strangers, and other implements of destruction, and strange noises were heard that evening after Complines (along with numerous cries of, “Plague take it!”). Daybreak revealed the Anchorhold, now free of the wall, was secured to a cart on wheels, connected to a horse.
Our lady was able to take her Heaven, her Peace, and her Joy on the road and has been traveling ever since. She periodically visits the Tavern to take a mazer or two of mead, to tell us of her travels, and to share her deep, spiritual insights and wisdom, voluntarily.
