10th C. Lay Hermits

In the tenth century lay people began withdrawing directly into solitude without passing through a period of monastic formation. Living in remote locations they remained in contact with those of their own class - outcasts, outlaws, and itinerants. Official social and religious showed little concern for these people. Inasmuch these hermitages quickly became refuges for those who most needed guidance and hope. It is therefore ironic that the lay people who sought to lay aside the distractions of the world were places that were open to the world in a gentle, new, and unique manner. By this time preaching and teaching had been relegated to church officialdom; monks only preached to themselves. But now the Gospel was presented to the poor in an understandable fashion - the simple love of Christ. Some of these itinerants were officially blessed, but many others were not. But it did not matter to them; all of this formed the historical background for the emergence of the eremitism of the first Franciscans.