The practice, philosophy, or movement of living as a hermit; the principles and spiritual values underlying a hermitic lifestyle, especially in religious contexts.
From hermit plus the suffix -ism, designating a system of beliefs or practice. Emphasizes hermit life as an organized religious movement rather than individual behavior.
Hermitism was a deliberate counterculture movement—early Christian hermits in Egypt consciously rejected civilization itself, proving their faith by surviving in the desert, and their movement eventually shaped monasticism, which created the institutions that preserved Western knowledge.
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