Carole Hutchison

Excellent scholarly study of this, sadly, forgotten eremitcal order whose founder, Etienne (Stephen) de Muret sprang from the same "revival" which produced such famous saints as Francis and Dominic. Alas, it fell victim to both secular and church politics and is now virtually unknown, despite being in existence from nearly 600 years. I believe also that part of the reason the world has forgotten this Order which touched the lives of such saints as Vincent du Paul and Armand Jean le Bouthillier de Rancé (eventually founder of the Cistercians of the Strict of Observance, or Trappists), was due to the fact that this Order was decidedly and emphatically eremitical and contemplative, two things which have always had little in common with the almost Calvinistic utilitarianism of most of the Christendom. Indeed, deRance was for a time a Grandmontine hermit and, as the author of this book states, one is left to wonder what would have happened had he stayed at Grandmont and not joined the Cistercians. Would ThomasMerton have gained his fame for being a hermit of Grandmont rather than a Trappist?

All in all, this volume is a very good read, though somewhat depressing in the end as one reads of the valiant handful of hermits striving against all odds to maintain the vision of their founder, St. Stephen, against all the corruption the medieval/"enlightenment" church could throw at them.

This Order deserves to be remembered amongst the best of them, and Hutchinson does her best to fill in this lamentable gap in history.… (mais)