> [!quote] u/Kelphie-Cat (flaired user) answering [[caves were common along Medieval road networks via AskHistorians]] > Cave-dwelling hermits were said to offer shelter to pilgrims making their way to their destinations. > > St Fillan's Cave has no Christian carvings in it, but it also has a long association as a hermit's cave and was incorporated into the medieval Pittenweem Priory. > > The monasteries would have provided food to the hermits living in the caves, so presumably they would have also supplied the hermits with extra food to offer hospitality to pilgrims. - [I] Hermits make for useful characters in stories, it's interesting to note that they lived in caves. #articleseed/overviewTopic could be information about hermits. Wasn't the _Porta Negra_ in Germany inhabited by a hermit for awhile?