Entertainment / Literature / Anchoress: A female anchorite. These women were eremites or hermits in the medieval period who would request permission from the local pastor to be walled up alive in a small cell attached to the side of the church. There the anchoress would live out the rest of her days, relying upon the charity of the local community to provide food and water through a small opening. The practice was a common one in the medieval period. Such hermits were considered especially holy for giving up worldly concerns, and they were often highly respected as spiritual counselors. Male anchoresses are called anchorites, and the enclosures they dwell in are called anchorholds. The medieval writer Julian of Norwich was one such anchoress.
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Entertainment / Literature / Mystics: In the word's most general sense, mystics are religious visionaries who experience divine insights. In medieval scholarship, the term 'mystics' or 'mystic writers' is often used as a collective term f MORE
Entertainment / Literature / Anchorite: An eremite or hermit in the medieval period who requests permission from the local pastor to be sealed up in a small cell attached to the side of the church, where the anchorite would live out the res MORE
Entertainment / Literature / Anchorhold: In medieval times, an enclosure in the wall of a church where an anchorite or anchoress would be sealed up alive as a gesture of faith. MORE