eremite
Solitary religious devotee
An eremite is a religious recluse or hermit—someone who withdraws from society for spiritual contemplation.
The word is more literary than hermit and carries stronger connotations of desert solitude and Christian asceticism: The eremite lived alone in a cave, devoted to prayer.
Early Christian eremites sought God in the Egyptian wilderness.
One choosing isolation
- solitaryExisting alone, apart
- seclusionVoluntary withdrawal from society
- isolationComplete separation from others
- withdrawnEmotionally distant, disengaged
anchoress · sequestered · reclusive · cell · retreat · self-sufficient · solitude · aloneness
Sustained reflective attention
- meditationFocused attention practice
- prayerAddress to deity
- devotionDeep, loyal commitment
- pietySincere religious devotion
holiness · saintliness · mysticism · divine union · illumination · vision · sacred · transcendence
Enforced economic stringency
- self-denialRestraining one's own desires
- fastingDeliberate food avoidance
- abstinenceVoluntary forgoing of indulgences
- renunciationFormal surrender of claim
discipline · mortification · simplicity · celibacy · chastity · temperance · restraint · penance
recluse
One choosing isolation
- solitaryExisting alone, apart
- seclusionVoluntary withdrawal from society
- isolationComplete separation from others
withdrawn · anchoress · sequestered · reclusive · cell · retreat · self-sufficient · solitude · aloneness · privacy
contemplation
Sustained reflective attention
- meditationFocused attention practice
- prayerAddress to deity
- devotionDeep, loyal commitment
piety · holiness · saintliness · mysticism · divine union · illumination · vision · sacred · transcendence · faith
austerity
Enforced economic stringency
- self-denialRestraining one's own desires
- fastingDeliberate food avoidance
- abstinenceVoluntary forgoing of indulgences
renunciation · discipline · mortification · simplicity · celibacy · chastity · temperance · restraint · penance · hair shirt
wilderness
Uncultivated, uninhabited natural region
Egyptian · Syrian · Sahara · barren · arid · wasteland · rocky · harsh · inhospitable · scorching
anchoress
Enclosed female contemplative
rule · abbot · monastery · cloister · religious · vowed · contemplative · enclosed
- solitudesolitude, alone, isolation, aloneness, seclusion
- lonersrecluse, loner, lone wolf, introvert, solitary
- monasticismabbeys, abbey, abbots, abbot, cloister
- asceticsascetic, ascetics, recluse, recluses, monastics
- hermitsrecluse, solitary, anchoress, solitary life, anchorhold
- monksmonk, abbot, friar, brother, novice
eremitesocialite
Prominent figure in fashionable circles
social butterfly · extrovert · socializer · party animal · bon vivant