They are ALL still among us, although sometimes their presence goes unnoticed because, sadly, they have gradually stopped wearing the habits that identify them. All religious people, including friars and monks, now prefer to go unnoticed, depriving the faithful of the TESTIMONY of their PRESENCE in society, which in my humble and insignificant view (I do not consider myself conservative) is very important.

Of course this testimony needs to come FROM WITHIN , we need to lead by example, but sometimes we don't and we don't provide any testimony of our presence through our image, and image is very important THESE DAYS .

Please forgive me if you think differently about this. I do not want to offend anyone.

COUNCIL OF TRENT 1545 – 1563

In this section we will take up the history of eremitism again because during the next stage of the EVOLUTION we have described, Diocesan Eremitic life was “left out in the cold”. The Council of Trent was a serious blow to hermits. Diocesan Eremitic life, a charism which was still present in the Church in its more or less original form, was now suppressed and dissolved.

A new, more restrictive period began with the Council of Trent which imposed severe restrictions and papal enclosure on all female religious life and also abolished ALL “simple vow” congregations.

Of course there must have been some reason for doing this but this will not be questioned here.

What is certain is that, after the Council of Trent, hermits had to either join an existing religious order or hang up their habits and go home. Some bishops did not allow them in their dioceses and there were parish priests in some towns who regularly denied them confession (there is written evidence of this).

The Council of Trent closed many doors for hermits.

Hermits reacted to this in different ways. Some joined monasteries and convents, while others continued to live, as they always had, in their hermitages – only now they lived on the fringes of ecclesiastical law.

The Church no longer recognised them as consecrated. These hermits were now ILLEGAL and MARGINAL because they were IGNORED, although in some dioceses they were tolerated.