Richard Withers

Brother Richard Scott Withers (born 1955) is an American diocesan hermit. In 1974, Withers converted to Catholicism and was baptized; later he started to live a religious life. In 1989, Withers and Sister Margaret McKenna moved to inner city Philadelphia and founded New Jerusalem Laura, a drug treatment center. Withers petitioned the Archdiocese of Philadelphia to become a diocesan hermit several times but was rejected. In 2001, Withers made his vows as a hermit by Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, the Archbishop of Philadelphia. He was the first diocesan hermit in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Withers lives in a hermitage, a converted rowhouse, in the city of Philadelphia where he spends most of his time in prayer.