Religion: Eremitical U.S.

Two hermits disembarked from the liner Constitution one day last week and looked around Manhattan. They were a long way from their Camaldolese* monastery, high in the Apennines, where they live in solitary cells at least 20 feet apart, where recreation is a twice-weekly chat with their fellows, and a full meal comes meatless and only once a day. The 900-old order had selected Dom Augustine Modotti to found a new monastery somewhere in the U.S. (there are already more than 20 U.S. applications for membership), and he was off with his companion, Dom Aliprando Catani, to look over prospective sites in Nebraska, Arizona. New Mexico. Colorado and California.

Dom Augustine, 61, who spent 30 years as a Jesuit in active mission work around the world before joining the Camaldolites eleven years ago. is so devoted to the solitary life that he has special permission to remain in his cell without emerging, even for Mass, more than three times a year. Dom Augustine trudged the Manhattan streets a while in his ankle-length white robe and said: “This is my first look at the outside world in ten years. Well, it’s the same old world—very noisy, very crowded. You don’t have enough time to pray. So we hermits pray for you”

New York, he added, is a fine place for hermits. “We are so impressed with the eremitical tendencies we see here,” he said. “In our hermitage each monk lives alone in his hut, pursuing his own way or meditating in silence. But in Italy community life is very communal. An Italian who gets on a train introduces himself to his fellow passengers and states his business. The others do the same. Then follows a discussion of each one’s affairs.

“But in America, what do we see? Each traveler minds his own business. He sits alone, free and silent, reading and contemplating—if not Holy Scripture, then at least the New York Times. You are hermits at heart.”

* Named for Count Maldolo, on whose property the order was founded in 1012.