Talk about mid-life career change! Michael Daum, a former police officer in Germany, has been hired as the new hermit of the city of Solothurn. The position has a tradition going back to 1442.
The official hermitage is in the Verna Gorge, just outside town, and next to St. Martin’s Chapel, above, which is occasionally used for weddings. It’s in an area where St. Verena is said to have lived as a hermit in the 3rd century AD.
Daum, who left police work a while ago to study Catholic theology and the meditations of monks, won out over 21 other candidates for the position that comes with a rent-free hermitage, about $2000 a month in salary, and the duty to maintain St. Martin’s chapel and the hermitage.
And, surprisingly for a hermit, the job requires social skills and sociability. The previous hermit, Sister Benedicta, quit last February in a dispute over what the job required, and her predecessor quit after complaining that too many tourists came to visit the hermitage and chapel.
