The nameless ones

The nameless ones                                                                                               

The anchorites, monk or nun, were given
their funeral rites, sealed into cells until death.
 
Lives of stark asceticism, incessant prayer –
intercession for the rampant sins of the world.
 
A few influential from personal accounts –
Hilton, Rolle, Julian of Norwich with her Revelations
 
but it is also of the nameless ones that I
wonder at their influence, their stories
 
sealed by their deaths to the world. 
What works were wrought by each of these
 
eccentric seclusions, dim obscurities,
shaped by faith, pain and deprivation,
 
that might have swayed the balance
of evolving souls, blunted the edge of maya,
 
facilitated the laying down of palm leaves
for the next arrival of Christ?
 
O child, legions are the nameless ones
whose sacrifices are known only to God.