The present work is a general introduction, for the modern reader, to the hermit way of life. It presents immersion in solitude both as the special vocation of some and a spiritual dimension beckoning all.

Father Cornelius Wencel, Er. Cam. (above right), was born in GostyÅ, Poland, in 1964. He made his final vows as a Camaldolese hermit in 1993 and was ordained priest in 1999. He now resides at the Hermitage of "Silver Mountain" near Cracow, Poland.

Father Cornelius has published four books in Polish, and this is the first one to be translated into English. He received a doctorate in theology in 2004, successfully defending his dissertation on "The Trinitarian-Christological Perspective of Theological Anthropology in the Theodramatic of Hans Urs von Balthasar".

The author profits from the insights of Balthasar, Kierkegaard, Merton, and various contemporary Polish thinkers. Topics treated in this book include seeking God, existential openness, discipline, simplicity, contemplation, interreligious dialogue, and ecology.