The Pilgrim Urge
Antidotes & hope for the Gyrovague
When I was a late teenager1 I was fascinated by the concept of digital nomads. The whimsical, semi-hedonistic notion of seeing the world and working from anywhere that took my fancy — provided there was wifi — was a big part of my motivation to get into the remote-friendly tech industry. I've probably consumed a lifetime’s worth of content on the idea.
Of course life went differently than my fancies would have had it, for the better I might add. But I was recently reminded of my old interest again, strangely by a passage in St. Benedict's Rule that was brought up during some discussions.
Allow me to explain.
The Benedict Opinion
In the brief first chapter of his Rule, St. Benedict is discussing the different types of monastics he's observed. The last group he takes a look at are described as follows:
...Finally, there are the monks called gyrovagues, who spend their entire lives drifting from region to region, staying as guests for three or four days in different monasteries. Always on the move, they never settle down, and are slaves to their own wills and gross appetites.
Particularly, the beginning of the final sentence struck me. "Always on the move, they never settle down..." It certainly echoes a lot of the sentiment described by many digital nomads when talking about the appeal of their chosen lifestyle. Oddly enough though, Benedict sees this appeal as a detriment to the roaming monks he calls gyrovauges.2 What is the disconnect here?
I would guess Benedict's problem with a digitally nomadic lifestyle would be the reason he states later in the same sentence. What does such a life turn a person into? "...Slaves to their own wills and gross appetites."
Vows and Consistence
It is interesting to note how the European patron remedies the malady he sees in the gyrovague. Many of you may be familiar with the monastic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.3 Some may be surprised to hear that a monk who follows the Rule of St. Benedict actually takes a different set of vows. Obedience remains, and an additional vow to remain faithful to the monastic life in pursuit of God — Conversatio morum. But for our purposes here, it is the vow of stability that matters.
To vow stability takes on both a spiritual and parochial dimension in the Benedictine tradition. You are professing stability to the general Benedictine community and spirituality, in part. But you are also vowing consistence to the local community you are placed in as part of the vocation, to that abbot and those brothers and all the people they serve.
Both the other vows taken are in this sense anchored by the promise of stability. You are binding yourself to be rooted to the living, human monastery, obedient to it and committed to it's way of life. The gyrovague can come and go as they wish, on a whim. But the Benedictine is deeply engrained with their people, with all their fatal flaws and heroic feats.
Rock tumbling
That said, what might be wrong with doing what you want and lacking any firm bonds of commitment and complexity of constantly being around the same people? I think as far as my Catholic faith has taught me, it would be that it misses the real point of Christian community.
As persons, those made imago dei, we were made to be truly known and deeply understood.
The roaming gyrovague, the lone wolf, or even the digital nomad is a lifestyle lived such that those who abide by it are hard to build any deepening relationship. If someone blows into town and are honest that they don't intend to stick around for more than a month or so, it is only natural that their relationality with those enmeshed in that community is held at arms length.
If you'll allow me an analogy, it reminds me of rock tumbling.4 When you want to smooth a stone, it needs to be placed among other stones, some grit, and spun around. The resulting friction of spinning the stones so they tumble around each other eventually makes the rocks well-rounded and smooth.
I'm sure we're each too aware of the grit chipping away at our own sharp spots from the other stones around us. But that is the grace of a good community: we are on a journey trough life with people who know faults in us we may not even be aware of, yet they remain on the road beside us. As persons, those made imago dei, we were made to be truly known and deeply understood. The challenge of community is seeing each other at our best and worst, and sticking through it anyway.
This social friction is part of how we grow, how we learn to love better and receive affirmation. But it takes humility to be willing to develop and become more well-rounded. The process of smoothing is full of small pains that take grit to get through.
I'm by no means saying we should be pushovers or morally pliable. A rock is solid and firm, but as ever there is a tension to be held with these things.
The Pilgrim Urge
I noted at the start of our discourse that I think of the digital-nomads as "semi-hedonistic" in much the same way as St. Benedict viewed the gyrovague. However, that doesn't mean I think the instinct behind the idea is unnatural. Inversely, I think the whole urge is actually a misdirected longing. Honestly, we don't yearn for whimsical world-seeing, we long for the pilgrim's respite.
Deep down, I reckon we all know the kingdoms we’re born into and trials we face therein are not our final destination.
In describing the pilgrim nature of the Catholic Church, the Catechism states:
"The Church ... will receive its perfection only in the Glory of heaven," at the time of Christ's glorious return. Until that day, "the Church progresses on her pilgrimage amidst this world's persecution and God's consolations." Here below she knows that she is exile far from the Lord, and longs for the full coming of the Kingdom, when she will "be united in glory with her king" The Church, and through her the world, will not be perfected in glory without great trials. Only then will "all the just from the time of Adam, 'From Abel, the just one, to the last of the elect,' ... be gathered together in the universal Church in the Father's presence." -- CCC 7695
The pilgrim urge in us is our desire for a journey home with our people. It's why even atheists and agnostics walk trails like the Camino de Santiago, or why Muir said "The mountains are calling and I must go." Deep down, I reckon we all know the kingdoms we’re born into and trials we face therein are not our final destination.
Ultimately our rootedness as Catholics is not in a physical location. Not essentially, in any case. It is in the community, local and universal, that is on the Journey to the good king's realm. Really, that's what the nomad is hoping for.
Further Reading En Route.
Perhaps all this strikes a chord with you. Maybe you like the idea of getting rooted in a parish and hoping for the perfection of it in the Kingdom. If so, I encourage you to take the next best step on the road. If you need some reading in the meantime, maybe our study of Mephibosheth and Aslan will give you something to discuss with your fellow pilgrims.
Which, admittedly, at 26 years-old wasn't that long ago.
The etymology and significance of this term is probably a separate discussion altogether.
These are referred to by the Church as the "evangelical counsels."
A genre of YouTube videos my wife thoroughly enjoys watching.
This passage also contains a few citations from the documents of Vatican II and the Saints.