Bishop John Stowe Responds as a Catholic Hermit Named Br. Christian Matson, who Lives in Solitude, Admits to Having Undergone Transition
A Catholic diocesan solitary hermit, named Brother Christian Matson, age 39, was approved by a Kentucky bishop. Hermits, live in solitute and mostly spend their lives engaged in quiet prayer.
"This Sunday, Pentecost 2024, I’m planning to come out publicly as transgender," Matson told Religion News Service on Friday (May 17), speaking out with the permission of the local bishop, John Stowe of the Diocese of Lexington in Kentucky.
Matson, who is also a Benedictine oblate, wrote, "I am currently based in the Appalachian mountains of eastern Kentucky," in an email to friends and supporters on Sunday. "I live in a hermitage at the top of a wooded hill, which I share with my German Shepherd rescue, Odie, and with the Blessed Sacrament, which was installed in my oratory shortly before Christmas."
and obedience. He has consistently been accompanied by a competent spiritual director and has undergone formation in the Benedictine tradition. He does not seek ordination, but has professed a rule of life that allows him to support himself financially by continuing his work in the arts and to live a life of contemplation in a private hermitage. Bishop John Stowe, OFM Conv., accepted his profession and is grateful to Brother Christian for his witness of discipleship, integrity and contemplative prayer for the Church.
The hermit ended up consulted a canon lawyer who explained that, per RNS, “only two aspects of Catholic life were categorically off the table: marriage and the priesthood” and that Matson should be “upfront about his status as a transgender man in any vocational conversations with church leaders.” But the canonist also suggested that taking vows as a hermit in a specific diocese could avoid certain issues because, in Matson’s words, “there’s no problem as long as there’s a bishop who will accept you, because there’s no distinction by sex and you’re not in a community — you’re by yourself.”
In 2020, Matson, who was engaged in ministry with artists at the time through the Catholic Artist Connection, wrote to Lexington’s Bishop Stowe about being a vowed hermit. RNS reported:
“Stowe wrote back immediately, expressing his openness.
“‘It was an enormous relief,’ Matson said. ‘I was in tears. I felt my hope revive.’
“Stowe confirmed Matson’s account, saying the then-aspiring brother was recommended to him by a number of people.
“‘My willingness to be open to him is because it’s a sincere person seeking a way to serve the church,’ Stowe said of Matson. ‘Hermits are a rarely used form of religious life … but they can be either male or female. Because there’s no pursuit of priesthood or engagement in sacramental ministry, and because the hermit is a relatively quiet and secluded type of vocation, I didn’t see any harm in letting him live this vocation.’ . . .
“Finally, in August 2022, Matson took his first vows as a diocesan hermit — a yearlong commitment — under Stowe’s direction. For the next year, Matson ‘lived a life of basically spending half the day in prayer and half the day doing some form of work’ that included producing and writing at a local theater.”
Matson explained:
“‘I’m Catholic...I became Catholic after I transitioned because of the Catholic understanding — the sacramental understanding — of the body, of creation, of the desirability of the visible unity of the church, and primarily because of the Eucharist.’“‘You’ve got to deal with us, because God has called us into this church,’ he said. ‘It’s not your church to kick us out of — this is God’s church, and God has called us and engrafted us into it.'”
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