March 2011

A recent photo of the hermits

On the island of Mallorca have to go back to the time of Ramon Llull to talk about hermits, and he was one of the first on the island was abandoned to solitude to devote himself to writing and pray. He retired to the mountains for a Cure and the area of \u200b\u200bValldemossa, in Miramar.

After Ramon Llull came more men and some women, like Catherine Thomas, who were abandoned in the solitude of prayer. This was the thirteenth century aproximadamente.Ya in the seventeenth century, in Alaro, at Castle AlaróAlaró, inside a cave, lived the hermit Julian, (said I was the only hermit on the island) which admitted him a young man named Juan Mir.

This young man, who had the age of 15 or 16 years was a native of the town of Alaro and went up the mountain to become a hermit and engage with all your soul and heart to sir. Julian the hermit taught the young John all I had to know to live for the Lord.

After a short time the young John was given the habit of a hermit, and renamed Mir hermit Juan de la Concepción. When Juan Mir had about 19 years, the hermit died and Juan Mir Julian was alone in the mountains, sad and all alone without the help of his teacher.

After a while, some monks from a monastery in France who were going to Ibiza, they stopped to Mallorca to visit our hermit Juan Mir. Juan Mir was fascinated with how to profess and live that these monks had decided to adopt French algunas de sus leyes.

Juan Mir se sentía solo en la cueva así que decidió abandonar el paraje de Alaró y dirigirse donde habían vivido gran parte de sus antecesores ermitaños, en las montañas de Valldemossa, justo donde vivieron los discípulos de Ramon Llull, en una zona del bosque de Miramar conocida hoy como Ses Ermites Velles (las ermitas viejas), donde Juan Mir encontró alguna vieja construcción de estos antecesores.

Juan moró en estas ermitas hasta que el dueño de un terreno de la zona le cedió un trozo de tierra y bosque para construirse una nueva ermita. Juan construyó entonces una pequeña ermita, con una cisterna y una celda para descansar, la que fue llamada the chapel of the Blessed Trinitat.

After a short time to be in Valldemossa was a young man of the people that John Mir who also wanted to receive the habits of a hermit. The community grew over time, and the shrine also grew as the congregation grew.

worth mentioning that John with the help of some great friends he had made in Valldemossa people which were the Carthusians, which helped him in his spiritual life, and where they came from the priest who gave Mass, wrote a book titled book amonástica vine and Hermits.

this book were the rules and laws that had to keep every man who would become a hermit. Over time the community was unable to fit into the chapel and founded several more, sometimes 2 or 3 hermits together, sometimes just one. Juan Mir was the superior of all the shrines that were formed over time.

came the day when this man of God would happen to a better life with our Lord, having taken about 60 years of Soledad and austere hermits. I have said Juan Mir de la Concepcion, his successor as superior of the community would be the second hermit who came to the shrine after him.

The congregation of the hermits of St. Paul and San Antonio has grown over the years and there were many chapels that were occupied. In 1805 they gave ground near the town of Arta, located northwest of the island, where he built what was one of the largest and most beautiful shrines in the island (a few months ago the hermits who still lived in the chapel had to evacuate because the owner claimed the land).

went to live a community of hermits 8 or 9 in it, and it was at this time when it was decided to put a superior to every shrine and not one for all. When in 1835 it carried out the seizure, authorities, seeing that they lived in absolute poverty, it took their hermitages, nor did they abandon them, but if they did break the habit and to dress in civilian clothes, and also who had shaved their beards and heads.

Over time there was a continuity in the congregation until the late 70's or so, when it ceased to have vocations. This is the reason why hermits are are 80 years or so. The congregation is slowly dying out because there is no vocations, but the life that these holy men have been in solitude, is proof that the island of Mallorca is an island with a great story hermit.

Posted March 10, 2011 by Mario de Cristo Salvador in Hesychius of which has been taken in part.