Eremitic

Father Mark Gurtner leads the Litany of the Saints as Sister Mary Ann Burkhart, who professed her solemn vows to the eremitic life at the July 6 Mass, lays prostrate before the altar.

Sister Burkhart said that some people may find such a vocation boring, but she finds gratification in the eremitic life.

In between are those in semi-eremitic communities, or sketes, where one or two monks share each of a group of nearby dwellings under their own rules and only gather together in the central chapel, or katholikon, for liturgical observances.

Until then, Christian asceticism had been solitary or eremitic with male or female monastics living in individual huts or caves and meeting only for occasional worship services.