The Naked Hermit: A Journey to the Heart of Celtic Britain
Ebook
Overview
Descending into the darkness of a long-abandoned hermit’s cave, wading naked into an icy sea to pray, spending the night on a sacred mountain, Nick Mayhew-Smith recounts an extraordinary one-man mission to revive the ancient devotions of Britain’s most enigmatic holy places.
Based on ground-breaking research into the transition from Paganism to Christianity, this book invites the reader on a journey into the heart of the Celtic wilderness, exploring the deep-seated impulse to mark natural places as holy. It ends with a vision of how we can recover our harmony with the rest of creation: with the landscape, the weather and the wildlife, and ultimately with the body itself.
Follow the footsteps of holy men and women such as Columba, Patrick, Cuthbert, Gildas, Aidan, Bede, Ninian, Etheldreda, Samson and others into enchanting Celtic landscapes, and learn the unvarnished truth behind the stories that shape our spiritual and natural heritage.
Acknowledgements ix
Timeline xi
Map xiv
Introduction 1
1 Sacred trees 19
2 Celtic nature theology 40
3 The naked hermit of Mount Sinai 62
4 A company of birds 86
5 A desert in the sea: hermit islands 107
6 In for the chill: sacred bathing 132
7 The serpent’s lair: harrowing caves 166
8 Misty peaks 189
9 Lessons from the Celtic shore 210
Doxology: Creator 219
Notes 220
Bibliography 233
Copyright acknowledgements 240
Index 241
- Title: The Naked Hermit: A Journey to the Heart of Celtic Britain
- Author: Nick Mayhew-Smith
- Publisher: SPCK Publishing
- Print Publication Date: 2019
- Logos Release Date: 2022
- Pages: 288
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9780281077359, 9780281081547, 0281081549, 0281077355
- Resource ID: LLS:9780281077359
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-04-22T22:50:59Z