Fr Eugene Vincent de Jesus set up a modern laura in 2021 consecrated to Mary Mediatrix that mixes monastic life and lifestyles in harmony with the environment, working with local farmers.
Manila (AsiaNews) – In Mindanao, southern Philippines, a Catholic priest has become an advocate for the environment through his life in a hermitage.
Fr Eugene Vincent de Jesus set up a hermitage dedicated to Mary Mediatrix in the Diocese of Kidapawan, Cotabato. Here he welcomes people to pray but he also shows them that “a hermitage with a farm and a farm with a hermitage”.
“We also integrate awareness of caring for the earth into every activity we do. We showcase a food forest in the hermitage, and we practise a lifestyle of permaculture,”[*] he explained.
Fr Eugene began this kind of experience in 2010, when he set up Our Lady’s Hermitage in Lasang, Davao province, also in the southern Philippines, initially alone, but other people joined.
On 25 March 2021, feast day of the Annunciation, he established the Mary Mediatrix Hermitage, inspired by the Laura, a monastic structure with many individual hermit cells where residents share some communal activities. Currently, four hermits live in the hermitage.
"We have our huts” and “gather only during the celebration of the Eucharist and some special occasions", but the hermitage is open to those who want to meet them.
Their mission has five parts: I ECHO, which stands for intercessory prayer, earth care, companioning searchers/pilgrims, hospitable caring, and “ora et labora” (prayer and work).
“We have two chapels within the hermitage: St Joseph (the Builder and Provider) Chapel, which is open to all at any time of the day and can accommodate 150 people; and the Chapel of Yeshua (Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration Chapel), which is limited to the hermits only but is open during special occasions for all and can accommodate 200 people.”
The site is accessible to outsiders. Being hermits, members have a designated time for prayer and work daily. “We always safeguard our time for silence, prayer, and work without saying that people are secondary and unimportant,” Fr Eugene said.
The hermitage is blessed with 6.5 hectares of land. Members raise cows, sheep, chickens, turkeys, geese and rabbits. They plant and raise animals only for their livelihood.
“If we get more, we share with whoever needs it. For those who are materially capable, they pay us for what we share. Our livelihood is not primarily for profitability but for sustainability,” the clergyman explained.
Their presence is also a stimulus for local farmers. “We live in an agricultural zone. Since we arrived here two years ago, we started to evangelise among them to do farming that nurtures our Mother Earth,” he said.
[*] A system for growing crops, plants, etc. with limited lasting impact on the environment.