Reviews

The Hermits of Big Sur by Paula Huston

heidihaverkamp's review

4.0

A history of the community of Benedictine hermit-monks at New Calmaldoli, as told by one of their oblates. In some ways, an insider text - not as interesting for those who haven't met the main characters or aren't already familiar with the community. For me as an outsider, it was still intriguing to learn about this unique monastery - Huston spends a lot of time on one of its earliest founders, an Italian priest, and the complex (awful) relationship between the Vatican, Roman Catholic priests, and Mussolini's fascist state. Then also, the influence of Thomas Merton mixed with the counter culture of California, the ups and downs of how much the monastery would be a place for hermits and how much it would be a shared, cenobitic community, and how well Western and Eastern spirituality could mix in a Roman Catholic context. She touches on the lives of many of its personalities, even a lay woman who lived on the grounds for a time, and how, now, the community faces the threats of climate change in the form of wildfires and mudslides! Huston also tells the story of her own relationship with the monastery.

katieraegordon's review

5.0

A fascinating historical narrative of the founding of New Camaldoli in Big Sur, CA in the late 1950s, on the precipice of global transformation in the Catholic Church. The story begins in the early/mid 20th century politics and fascism of Italy (where Old Camaldoli is), to the evolution of the order taking on an American foundation and adapting the charism to a new context.

This is both a political and personal account of the stories, the monks, and the papal documents that shaped their community. It is honest and touching, as well as informative about the Camaldolese three part charism of community, solitude, and outreach. Ultimately, it reveals this community's living and recent examples of what it means to be a monastic -- both hermit and cenobitic, monk and pilgrim.