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Included how the Coptic church distinguishes between the terms, "anchorite," and "hermit"
Ironically, hermits are often sought out for spiritual advice and counsel and may eventually acquire so many disciples that they have no solitude at all. Examples include St. [[Anthony the Great]], who attracted such a large body of followers in the Egyptian desert that he is considered by both Catholics and the Orthodox to be the "Founder of Monasticism." Other religious hermits include St. [[Mary of Egypt]], St. [[Symeon the Stylite|Simeon Stylites]], St. [[Herman of Alaska]], Thomas Merton, St. [[Sergius of Radonezh]], St. [[Seraphim of Sarov]], and Charles de Foucauld.
The Coptic Church distinguishes between a hermit and an anchorite, yet the two words might be interchangeable in the Eastern Orthodox churches. An anchorite according to the Coptic Church is a person with a great spiritual stature receiving the gifts of bilocation (being at two places at the same time), agility (teleportation to great distances instantaneously), levitation, and illumination (emitting light), beyond the gift of prophecy and healing that "regular" saints are endowed with. Anchorites need not be hermits, hence. A recent-history modern-day married anchorite was Fawziyya Ishaq who would go into trances and see heaven and talk with saints while her body was paralyzed in bed on earth. Initially a hieromonk, Father Abd-AlMaseeh al-Maqari Al-Manahry, left the monastery of St. Makarius and went to the village of Manahra and had all the gift of the anchorites. Newly canonized Coptic Pope Kyrillos VI was also an anchorite during his hermitage and solitude but had to leave the hermitage to become Patriarch. His two disciples, Tamav (Mother) Irenee Mercurious (d 2006) and recently departed Father Falta'ose (Philotheus) ElSoriany where also anchorites. Except for Pope Kyrillos, the aforementioned saints where where anchorites but not hermits.
==See also==
[[Category:Asceticism]]
[[Category:Hesychasm]]
[[ro:Eremit]]