Appulby, Simon [Symon the Anker of London Wall] (d. 1537), religious recluse and author, was the last anchorite to be attached to the church of All Hallows, London Wall. An ordained priest, Simon made his anchoritic profession at the nearby priory of the ...
Article
J. P. D. Cooper
Article
Balthere [St Balthere, Baldred, Balther] (d. 756), hermit, is often confused with an earlier saint of the same name. The later and better-known Balthere was described by his near contemporary Alcuin, in his poem on the bishops, kings, and saints of York. The so-called ...
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Bartholomew of Farne [St Bartholomew of Farne] (d. 1193), hermit, stands second in reputation only to Godric of Finchale among the hermits of northern England in the twelfth century. Just as Godric's fame depends on the life written by Reginald, a monk of ...
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David Rollason
Billfrith [St Billfrith] (d. 750x800
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Henry Mayr-Harting
Guthlac [St Guthlac] (674–715), hermit, was one of the most famous and influential holy men in the first 120 years of English Christianity, his fame owed in no small degree to the well-structured and vivid life of him written c.740 by the learned East Anglian monk, ...
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C. L. Kingsford
revised by Marios Costambeys
Hereberht [St Hereberht, Herebert, Herbert] (d. 687), hermit, resided on the island in Derwent Water which still bears his name. He was a disciple and close friend of St Cuthbert, to whom he paid an annual visit for spiritual advice. The two friends both died on 20 March 687. In 1374 ...
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Michael Lapidge
Neot [St Neot] (d. in or before 878), monk and hermit, lived in Cornwall at some time probably in the mid-ninth century and was subsequently venerated as a saint. His name is preserved in modern St Neot, Cornwall, and St Neots, Huntingdonshire. No source contemporary with his lifetime records any detail concerning his life, and therefore every detail, including even the spelling of his name, is a matter of uncertainty. He is first mentioned in the life of ...
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Brian Golding
Robert of Knaresborough (d. 1218
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Jonathan Hughes
Rolle, Richard (1305x10–1349), hermit and religious author, was born in Thornton Dale in the North Riding of Yorkshire, the son of William Rolle, a prosperous but landless yeoman.
The course of Rolle's life is known almost entirely from autobiographical references in his own writings and from the biographical office compiled by the ...
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Marios Costambeys
Sualo [St Sualo, Solus] (d. 794), hermit, was one of the pilgrim Anglo-Saxon religious who travelled to the continent in the eighth century. Knowledge of him depends on a life written between 839 and 842 by Ermanric (d. 874), a monk of ...
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Wakefield, Peter of (d. 1213), hermit, was a simple unlettered man, living on a diet of bread and water and with a popular reputation as a prophet. According to Higden:
Christ appeared to this Peter twice at York and once at Pontefract, in the likeness of a child between the hands of the priest, inspiring him and saying ‘Peace, peace, peace’ and taught him many things, which afterwards he showed to bishops and people of evil life....
