About Us

Beit Mery is a Contemplative Hermitage in the Roman Catholic Tradition.

Beit Mery was founded in 1985 in the Diocese of Oakland California and transferred to the Diocese of Yakima in Central Washington in 1998.

The Eremitical Vocation

By Sister Jan Strong

Hermit of the Diocese of Yakima

 The life of the hermit is one of the oldest forms of consecrated life in the Church.  The first flowering of the eremitical vocation in the church came in the third century after the persecutions of church.   Some Christians felt the church had lost its ‘edge’ when they became part of the Byzantine society and decided to go into the desert in order to recapture the fervor of the age of martyrdom.  The solitude, prayer and penance of the hermits are recognized as the forerunners of monastic life in the Church.

 When the code of Canon Law was revised in 1983, it included mention of hermits who are not members of religious institutes but who make public profession of the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity and obedience into the hands of the diocesan bishop.  As witnessed by canon 603.1 hermits are recognized in law as Christian faithful who devote their life to the praise of God and salvation of the world through the silence of solitude, stricter separation from society, and assiduous prayer and penance.

 The ministry of the hermit is prayer for the church and world community and praise of God.  It is God who invites one into solitude.  The “separation from the world’ is not a rejection of the good of the world but an affirmation of God who has loved us into being and sustains us with that love.  The solitude of the hermit is not about turning one’s back on the world.  It is about saying “yes” to God one step at a time until one finds oneself in solitude. It is about holding one’s heart open to the world community and bringing that world to God in prayer.

 At its best, the eremitic life is an icon of what it means to live in God.  It is a life that acknowledges our poverty and emptiness while emphasizing that God is the one who enriches us and fills our life with meaning.