Often individual anchorites were attached to a cenobium, where they might return for communal worship. |
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Soon there were great numbers of desert anchorites, living solitary lives of devotion to God and coming together for weekly prayer services. |
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It is difficult to say exactly when the life of the anchorites and cenobites took on a definite character of obligation toward God and the Church. |
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Some cave-dwelling anchorites, through rigorous discipline, reached the ecstasy of saints and were taken to heaven where they saw and heard things which human beings are not allowed to understand. |
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Many anchorites and anchoresses taught people from their cells. |
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