The Hermitage, highest point in the Bahamas. Father Jerome (John Hawes) (1876-1956) started out as an architectural designer, then felt it was his calling to be an Anglican priest, built several churches (all in the Bahamas), before finally turning to Catholism, and then to a hermit. The location he chose for his hermitage, he chose for two reasons 1) beautiful view in all directions 2) and it was at the time very remote. He surveyed the land in 1939, but didn’t start construction until 1940. The hermitage took __ long years to complete. Father Jerome built the entire structure by hand, by himself. He had a sundial to tell the time. He built a very simple structure with only the bare necessities, a tiny chapel, a kitchen, a storeroom of sorts, a bedroom. It even had a shower stall complete with seat, drain, and shelf for soap!
The worship room had an altar, a wooden pew, and a beautiful window above the altar. The kitchen had a stone countertop, and a stone oven. That’s it. The storeroom was simply a room completely bare. The bedroom was just a room with a simple wooden table, and a bare wooden platform.
The bell tower had wooden rungs embedded in the stone, and a veeerrrrrry rusty bell. A well was on the premises but some very inconsiderate people apparently thought it was a trash can.
As I walked around the hermitage, all I could think about was, think of all the patience it took to build this, this piece of art. The weather was cloudy, for which we were happy and sad. We were happy because we didn’t get that hot on the hike up the steep hill, (highest point in the Bahamas) but we were sad because a friend of ours had told us that the sundial in action was amazing. He said that on one of his trips up there he studied it very closely and read 11:58. He said he looked at his watch and it was 11:58. Wow! But my biggest thought was, this man had patience, he had a gift, he saw this building in his mind, and then he brought it to life, and most of all he was just an amazing person. Truly this is a labor of love.
The worship room had an altar, a wooden pew, and a beautiful window above the altar. The kitchen had a stone countertop, and a stone oven. That’s it. The storeroom was simply a room completely bare. The bedroom was just a room with a simple wooden table, and a bare wooden platform.
The bell tower had wooden rungs embedded in the stone, and a veeerrrrrry rusty bell. A well was on the premises but some very inconsiderate people apparently thought it was a trash can.
As I walked around the hermitage, all I could think about was, think of all the patience it took to build this, this piece of art. The weather was cloudy, for which we were happy and sad. We were happy because we didn’t get that hot on the hike up the steep hill, (highest point in the Bahamas) but we were sad because a friend of ours had told us that the sundial in action was amazing. He said that on one of his trips up there he studied it very closely and read 11:58. He said he looked at his watch and it was 11:58. Wow! But my biggest thought was, this man had patience, he had a gift, he saw this building in his mind, and then he brought it to life, and most of all he was just an amazing person. Truly this is a labor of love.
