I have lots of files (about 40) starting .xauth. Many of them are a few months old. What is their purpose? Is it safe to remove them?
The operating system is CentOS 7. Some file name examples: .xauthbkGARg, .xauthgFQRvt, .xauthzbfaFP
You perhaps mean the .Xauthority.* files?
This is handled in the post Why do I have so many .Xauthority.* files in my home directory?
The answer is that these are the "cookies" of the X client to allow connection to the X server (displays), as explained in the wiki.
If this is also your problem, you may delete them, as if you don't # have a cookie to connect to an X server, you will create a new one when connecting.
I would suggest as first step to move them elsewhere, until you are sure that this didn't cause any problem.