© Rachel M. Denton  2005

The eremitical life exists within most world religions – the call to a life of seclusion, spent with God alone, in solitude and silence, has an authentic resonance within almost any faith community:  not everybody is called to the totality of the hermitage, but most people do need at least to touch the edge of solitude, to acknowledge a deep yearning for something beyond themselves, which, try as they might, is never quite satisfied.  Within the Christian church the tradition stretches back to the earliest days of the desert fathers and  mothers  in  the  first few centuries AD, when pioneering men and women left their communities to walk into the desert and live there for God alone.

 

About the calligrapher

Rachel is a hermit.  She lives “in solitude and silence” in a small Lincolnshire village and has taken a vow to stay in the hermitage for the rest of her life.

To live as hermit these days seems a strange and outlandish thing – but in reality the experience of it is surprisingly ordinary.  Before I could begin my life here as a hermit of the diocese of Nottingham, I had to  present  the  Bishop  with  a  Rule  of  Life  which  described  how  I would live in the hermitage – it states (amongst other things) that I would live in “simplicity, solitude and silence, staying and returning there insofar as duties permit” so I come back to solitude and silence in the same way most people come back to a family.

Of course I have to earn my own living.  There is not much call for rush mats and rosaries these days – the traditional industries of the hermitage – so most of my income derives from a small calligraphy workshop which I have set up  —  St Cuthberts House.  Rather perversely,  for a hermit, I love words!  We live in a society  which  sells them cheaply,  and so they can become cynical or meaningless.  Calligraphy is a means of slowing all that down - a way of exploring and valuing the particular form and identity of each word, each phrase. 

 

 

 

 

 

Any  time  left  over  from  the  workshop  is  spent  in  the  garden  which  I  try to  work organically.   My  first  job  here  was  to dig up the lawn so that I could grow my own vegetables.  It was a mammoth task, but the work paid off, and now I enjoy produce from the garden with nearly every meal.

 

My Rule of life also states that I will spend time each day in prayer.  Without this, my life in the hermitage would become meaningless.  20 years ago I was a novice in a Carmelite monastery.  Although I did not stay, I recognised whilst I was there that the most authentic experience I had of God was one of absence - the despair of not experiencing God at all - but that this non-experience was more real, more demanding, more sustaining than any other encounter I had known:  Being here keeps me in touch with that, day and day again: this is where I rest, waiting on God.

Lectio Divina

 

Lectio Divina is a form of prayer which has been practised, particularly by monastics, since before the written word was widely available:  Lectio involves a slow, ponderous reading of the scriptures or other spiritual works, until a particular word or phrase speaks  directly  to  the reader; this phrase is then repeated mindfully, explored and savoured, until it reveals something of the fullness of its meaning.  It is a way of listening with the heart; listening to God.

Calligraphy has long been practised in monasteries and religious houses as another form of lectio  –  the calligrapher puts pen to paper  to  reveal the identity of the words; to give form to the phrase; to speak something of what is true.

 

About St Cuthberts House

 

It is a great gift to me when I discover a hitherto unfamiliar or unappreciated verse  through  a  design   commission.  It becomes a familiar companion in both work & prayer – in  a  life  where     companionship might appear to be in short supply, that is not a bad thing to have at all!

I have been fascinated by lettering and calligraphy since I was a teenager and it remained an abiding passion throughout  my  university  career and my years as a science teacher in the secondary classroom, until in 2001 I resigned from the deputy headship of a school in Cambridge and moved to Lincolnshire to begin life as a hermit.  I also began looking for a new way to earn a living.  My love of calligraphy seemed an obvious route to pursue, and so after some consideration & with the encouragement of family & friends who knew my work, the  idea  of  producing bespoke greetings cards and specialised stationery emerged; a product which could speak eloquently from the silence of the hermitage and would   benefit  from  the  flexibility  of  small  scale  production.

My  style  is  generally  very clean and simple with restrained embellishment, and illustrations are used only to enhance the script. 

Not all the texts I work with are overtly spiritual in nature however they have all resonated with me in some way. 

St Cuthberts House designs and produces bespoke stationery.  This ranges from greetings cards & notelets, through to more “events” oriented stationery for weddings and other celebrations, and memorials.  Designs can be chosen and adapted from the website catalogue, or specially commissioned by the customer for an entirely personal and unique product.    The   production   process   allows   for  short  runs  to  be  personalised  or  commissioned at very affordable prices

Interested in finding out more about St Cuthbert & the Northumbrian Landscape which inspired him?  Why not visit St Cuthbert’s House, Seahouses.  Just knock on the door ...