Saalfelden advertised the job of hermit by means of the internet. More than
65 persons applied, many from abroad, from places in Canada, South Africa,
the Ukraine, Spain, even a single woman, a Buddhist nun from Thailand;
eight of them were interviewed and shown the hermitage up the mountain.
A Belgian man was chosen and given the staff at the service at St George’s
Day, on which day also the horses of the region have been blessed Life at
the hermitage is without comforts, there is no water nor electricity nor
plumbing for the toilet, for heating, wood would have to be chopped and
water fetched from a castle situated halfway down the mountain. The new
hermit looks more the type than the previous one, he has a beard and
smokes a pipe, while the previous one wore jeans and tea shirt and was
clean shaven. He promised to stay for several summers, in the winter the
hermitage is closed because of frost and the danger of avalanches. He had
been a deacon in Cologne, considered to be a contemplative and spiritual
person. He said he didn’t mind living in solitude, being divorced, but he has a
mobile phone and a solar charging device to contact his children and
grandchildren!
“On the lighter Side”
StOM Page 18