HERMIT (Gr. Epq.ctrns, from Epnyos , a desert) one who with draws from intercourse with human beings to live a life of re ligious contemplation, and so distinguished from a "coenobite" (Gr. KoLvbs, common, and gios, life), one who shares a life of withdrawal with others in a community (see ASCETICISM and MONASTICISM). Strictly speaking, the hermit or eremite was a solitary who, like the hermits of the Thebaid, chose desert and remote places for his habitation, and was thus distinct from the anchorite (Gr. avaxwiniTis from avaxcwpEiv, to withdraw), whose cell or enclosed dwelling was often attached to a church or in the neighbourhood of some place of public resort.