or **EREmité** (*ἐρημος*, a desert), one who lives in a desert, or passes his life in solitude. Hermits were distinguished from anachorets or anchorites, in that the former ranged at liberty abroad in the world, while the latter isolated themselves, not only from the abodes of other men, but from the cells of similar devotees. Thus, a hermitage was, in ancient times, often surrounded by a *laura*, or collection of isolated cells where the anchorites lived alone.