Anchorite

Viewing the altar, hearing Mass, and receiving the Eucharist were possible through one small, shuttered window in the common wall facing the sanctuary, called a "hagioscope" or "squint".

Anchorites provided spiritual advice and counsel to visitors through these windows, gaining a reputation for wisdom.

[14]: 93 [a] Some refused to leave their cells even when pirates or looters were pillaging their towns and consequently burned to death when the church was torched.

Servants tended to the basic needs of anchorites, providing food and water and removing waste.

Aelred of Rievaulx wrote an anchorite rule book, c. 1161, for his recluse sister titled De Institutione Inclusarum.

[17] In it, he suggested keeping no housemates other than an older woman, to act as companion and doorkeeper, and a young maid as domestic servant.

The anchorhold has been called a communal "womb" from which would emerge an idealised sense of a community's reborn potential as Christians and as human subjects.

[19] Another, less widely known, example is the rule known as De Institutione Inclusarum written in the 12th century, around 1160–1162, by Aelred of Rievaulx for his sister.

[21] Richard Rolle, an English hermit and mystic, wrote one of the most influential guide books regarding the life of an anchoress.

His book The Form of Living was addressed to a young anchoress named Margaret Kirkby who was responsible for preserving his texts.