A
BOUT 50 MILES EAST OF SANTA FE, NEW MEXICO, in the Sangre
de Cristo mountains, Hermit Peak rises some 10,000 feet
amid the pinyon-juniper woodland of the Pecos Wilderness.
The hermit for which it was named was an Italian-born
monk, Giovanni Maria de A gostini. For three years in the
1 8 6 0 s , A g o s t i n i l i v e d h i g h u p o n t h e mo u n t a i n , f o r a g i n g f o r f o o d a n d
getting water from a spring. Despite his self-imposed solitude he
managed to attract a following during an era of religious fervor and
experimentation in America. At the end of the 19th century, a local
organization created in his honor , the Sociedad del Ermitaño, or
the Society of the Hermit, counted 62 members. Their main practice
was a long trek to the peak to pray and erect crosses.