Hermitage sees surge in laypeople who want a monastic experience

When Paula Huston first met the monks of the New Camaldoli Hermitage, a Benedictine monastic community perched on cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean, she was in her late thirties and considered herself an atheist.

“I don’t think I’d ever even talked to a priest before, much less seen a monk, and here were these monks, and they were dressed in their interesting and strange white robes, and it just struck me so hard that this was really a radically alternative way to live,” she recalled.

Huston is now one of hundreds of oblates, or people who affiliate with the monastic community while living in the world. They follow an ancient rule by St. Benedict that continues to guide daily living for monks and oblates alike.