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This is a video on the Anchorite's Cell at Fore Abbey Co. Westmeath. An Anchorite took a special vow, to remain for the rest of his life enclosed in these small cells, awaiting his death.
Fr Patrick Beglin was easily the most famous of the Anchorites of Fore, and incidentally he is said to have come from the South East corner of Co. Westmeath, where there still are Beglins and still involved in the Church. At the time of Beglin, that is the last decades of the 16th and the early decades of the 17th century, it was owned by the Ussher family but rented out to the Nugents, of Donore I think, who I believe protected the anchorite:
There are a number of Anchorite cells in Ireland, one is attached to St Canice's Cathedral in Kilkenny for example, and at least one in the environs of Dublin described here, St Doulagh's of Balgriffin:
Why we seem to have only one continuing to function at the time of the Reformation and Counter Reformation is hard to say. Also its origin could be either from the time of St Fechin, this old Irish saint, like many others of his era, was noted for being a kind of hermit or anchorite, or it could have been created by the de Lacys when they built the nearby Benedictine Monastery c.1180, similar to one at a monastery of theirs in Wales.
Incidentally Westmeath also has another unique Catholic institution in that respect, because it also has the only monastery in Ireland which continued to function as a Catholic one all throughout the Reformation and Counter Reformation. This is the Franciscan convent of Multyfarnham, burned down and sacked many times by the English government but always built back again there or nearby and hence survived to this day.
In any case here is a description of the Anchorite in Fore from 1682:
Fr Patrick Beglin was easily the most famous of the Anchorites of Fore, and incidentally he is said to have come from the South East corner of Co. Westmeath, where there still are Beglins and still involved in the Church. At the time of Beglin, that is the last decades of the 16th and the early decades of the 17th century, it was owned by the Ussher family but rented out to the Nugents, of Donore I think, who I believe protected the anchorite:
In any case he was certainly not the last anchorite, after him you had:
There are a number of Anchorite cells in Ireland, one is attached to St Canice's Cathedral in Kilkenny for example, and at least one in the environs of Dublin described here, St Doulagh's of Balgriffin:
Why we seem to have only one continuing to function at the time of the Reformation and Counter Reformation is hard to say. Also its origin could be either from the time of St Fechin, this old Irish saint, like many others of his era, was noted for being a kind of hermit or anchorite, or it could have been created by the de Lacys when they built the nearby Benedictine Monastery c.1180, similar to one at a monastery of theirs in Wales.
Incidentally Westmeath also has another unique Catholic institution in that respect, because it also has the only monastery in Ireland which continued to function as a Catholic one all throughout the Reformation and Counter Reformation. This is the Franciscan convent of Multyfarnham, burned down and sacked many times by the English government but always built back again there or nearby and hence survived to this day.
In any case here is a description of the Anchorite in Fore from 1682:
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