According to the study’s author Prof Isacco Turina of the University of Bologna, there are as many as 1,000 hermits currently in that country with several hundred more dotted across Europe and the United States.

However, instead of sporting long beards and living in caves, the modern hermits can usually be found in a city apartment, and is even sometimes connected to the Internet for convenience.

“At the risk of sounding like a caricature, the average hermits are the sort of people who belong on the plains,” Prof Turina was quoted by British newspaper ‘The Daily Telegraph’ as saying.

Prof Turina, who tracked down 37 hermits for his study, has revealed his findings in a book titled ‘The New Hermits, The Flight from the World in Modern Italy’.

According to him, the comeback of the hermits could be traced to 1983 when the Vatican had offered “full recognition” to those who were willing to renounce worldly life and devote their lives to the solitary “praise of God”.

“The requests to take up a hermit’s life have multiplied, although there is no institutional guide on how to do it,” Prof Turina claimed.