Why is it called The Seven Storey Mountain? Thomas Merton (January 31, 1915 - December 10, 1968) was a prominent American Trappist monk, poet, and author.A prolific writer, he was among the most recognized monastic figures of the twentieth century. 2003 Merton, Thomas, Kathleen Deignan Ed., John Giuliani, 2002 Shannon, William H., Christine M. Bochen, Patrick F. O'Connell. "With the death of Thomas Merton, we lost really one of the great Catholic voices, one of the great prophetic figures within the . So I would suggest that it was Mertons tragedy that Dom Fox did not remain Abbot to keep him under strict control and prevent his drifting back to his drinking and womanising days. Author Robert Waldron declined to call it an affair for it was true love lasting about six months. [37] What Merton meant by Zen Buddhism was the religion that began in China and spread to Japan as well as the rituals and institutions that accompanied it. It is regrettable that Abbot Rembert Weakland, the conference organiser, waived an autopsy in a rush to transfer the body back to Gethsemani on a US military plane along with the bodies of US service personnel killed in Vietnam. On May 26, 1949, he was ordained to the Catholic priesthood and given the name "Father Louis". Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Thomas Merton, who later came to be known as Father Louis, was an American priest, Catholic thinker and a Trappist monk, who rose to prominence as a leading writer on Catholicism. He died at age 53 in 1968 in a freak electrocution accident in Thailand. His body was flown back to the United States on board a US military aircraft returning from Vietnam. Thomas Merton was born in 1915, to parents living in the French Pyrenees. What happened to Margie Smith? He primarily wrote on topics pertaining to spirituality, pacifism, and social justice and published more than 50 books within a period of 27 years. He had a severe cold from his stay in the guest house, where he sat in front of an open window to prove his sincerity. Mott opted for accidental death, without fully ruling out assassination, but dismissed, however, suicide on the grounds that there was neither motive nor circumstance for this. Thomas Merton. Margie Smith had read at least one of the books that made Thomas Merton famous when she walked into his hospital room in Louisville, Ky., in 1966. By 1967 Perfectae Caritatis was a household name at Gethsemani (6). [52], Some of Merton's manuscripts that include correspondence with his superiors are located in the library of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia. He had developed a personal radicalism which had political implications but was not based on ideology, rooted above all in non-violence. In June, he received a letter from his brother John Paul stating he was soon to leave for the war and would be coming to Gethsemani to visit before leaving. On November 19th, 1963, some three years before he met Margie, Merton had revealingly written that his dormant sexuality was stirred by a beatnik visitor who claimed to be a relative but turned out to be a nymphomaniac who gave me a wild time a real battle, at times physical, and finally when I got away alive and with most of my virtue intact (I hope) I felt shaken, sick and scared (9). The promulgation of the Decree on Religious Life, Perfectae Caritatis, (Of Perfect Charity), fostered adaptation to the signs of the times (4). On December 10, 1941, a young man named Thomas Merton was received as a novice by a monastery in Kentucky, the Abbey of Gethsemani. [41] He explored themes such as American Indian fasting[42] and missionary work. "[36] Eastern traditions, for Merton, were mostly untainted by this type of thinking and thus had much to offer in terms of how to think of and understand oneself. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Author Mark Shaw paints a portrait of the monk as a tormented, imposter of sorts, who reluctantly played the part of the happy, contemplative guru. [48], The 2015, in tribute to the centennial year of Merton's birth, The Festival of Faiths in Louisville Kentucky honored his life and work with Sacred Journeys the Legacy of Thomas Merton. "[29] Since there was no autopsy, there was no suitable explanation for the wound in the back of Merton's head, "which had bled considerably. In June, the monastery celebrated its centenary, for which Merton authored the book Gethsemani Magnificat in commemoration. [10], In 1926, when Merton was eleven, his father enrolled him in a boys' boarding school in Montauban, the Lyce Ingres. After all, Merton was a Trappist monk, and the Trappist and Franciscan traditions differ considerably, the former being more contemplative and the later being more active. You are afraid to be an ordinary monk in the community. In October Merton discussed with him his ongoing attraction to the Carthusian and Camaldolese Orders and their eremitical way of life, to which Fox responded by assuring Merton that he belonged at Gethsemani. In June, his friend Seymour Freedgood arranged a meeting with Mahanambrata Brahmachari, a Hindu monk visiting New York from the University of Chicago. The immediate aftermath of the storm for this class would be a one year delay []. Now bald-headed, he looked like Pablo Picasso. You are very stubbornyou keep coming back until you get what you want. He also began corresponding with a Carthusian at St. Hugh's Charterhouse in England. Did Thomas Merton have a child? I could have been enslaved to the need for her body after all. The two spoke of death before Merton set off on his Asia trip. He might have joined Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in protest at the loss of the Tridentine Mass. Merton was attuned to the reality that the world had changed considerably since he entered Gethsemani in 1941. [34] Throughout his life, he studied Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, and Sufism in addition to his academic and monastic studies. His autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain, has sold over one million copies and has been translated into over fifteen languages. On December 10, 1941, Thomas Merton arrived at the Abbey of Gethsemani and spent three days at the monastery guest house, waiting for acceptance into the Order. He regarded his viewpoint as based on "simplicity" and expressed it as a Christian sensibility. Yet we remain loyal. 1. The ritual of Mass was foreign to him, but he listened attentively. On August 15 the monastic community elected Dom James Fox, a former US Navy officer, as their new abbot. (3). He was one of the most vocal critics of the Vietnam War. in English. "The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little." ~ Thomas Merton. Fr Paul Quenon, who was in charge of recording Mertons conferences at Gethsemini, has recalled that when an audio tape arrived from Bangkok, it was with great anticipation that I put it onto the tape deck, eager to be one of the first ones to hear it at the monastery. They had met at a painting school in Paris. In the US alone in 1968, 11,000 religious opted out. I knew how clumsy tape operators can be but the coincidence was nothing short of ominous. It is a good thing I called it off., Merton remained in contact with Margie even after this. Hosting and SEO Consulting. As a youth, he largely attended boarding schools in England and France. Therefore the cause of the death of Reverend Thomas Merton was as mentioned. Some see him as perhaps America's best-known representative of monastic vocation, an immensely popular spiritual guide, grounded in Catholic theology and Trappist tradition. To Merton's discomfort, the council was followed by pendulum years of internal divisions between progressives and conservatives. 1997 Merton, Thomas, "Learning to Love", This page was last edited on 12 January 2023, at 06:55. By 1947 Merton was more comfortable in his role as a writer. Merton's appointment marked a new phase in his commitment to contemplative life, which should have grounded him even more within the abbey's cloistered walls near the rural village of Bardstown. Thomas Merton, original name of Father M. Louis, (born January 31, 1915, Prades, Francedied December 10, 1968, Bangkok, Thailand), Roman Catholic monk, poet, and prolific writer on spiritual and social themes, one of the most important American Roman Catholic writers of the 20th century. Thomas Merton, O.C.S.O. St. Bonaventure University also holds an important repository of Merton materials worldwide. in English and entering the Trappist Order, is named after him. Prof Peter Savastano attributes Mertons untimely death to the fact that he was very much a product of his time. [28] His associate, Jean Leclercq, states: "In all probability the death of Thomas Merton was due in part to heart failure, in part to an electric shock. From 1948 on, Merton identified as an anarchist.[19]. With him something had been broken off that seemed like it should go on indefinitely. [40], Merton also explored American Indian spirituality. Thomas Merton argues that Christ came to inaugurate a new way of being, a new Kingdom in which the predominant mode of doing politics in the world is rejected. Please enjoy the archives! What I heard at the end was utterly astonishing. Merton read them both.[17]. The account by the monk and spiritual writer Thomas Merton of a clandestine relationship he had with a young nurse, Margie Smith, in 1966 shows both . Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. "[54], Merton is honored with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of some[which?] Though some Merton biographers have been reluctant to reveal Smiths full nameand still gasp at its disclosureit has been published in recent years in biographies and national newspapers. Fox permitted Merton to continue his writing, Merton now having gained substantial recognition outside the monastery. New Seeds of Contemplation (first published in 1949 as Seeds of Contemplation; revised in 1962). It is a huge gang battle, using well-meaning lawyers and policemen and clergymen as their front, controlling papers, means of communication, and enrolling everybody in their armies."[21]. On December 10, 1941, a young man named Thomas Merton was received as a novice by a monastery in Kentucky, the Abbey of Gethsemani. Merton feared a telephone conversation with Margie from the monastery on Sunday morning of June 12th would be the worst!!. In this capacity, Merton was influenced by Aelred Graham's book Zen Catholicism of 1963. For us Merton was one of the seminal figures of our time. He fell in love with 19-year-old Margie Smith. "The possibility of death was not absent from his mind," Burns said. This was a lifestyle recalling his drinking days in the Rendezvous student pub in Cambridge. "The Modern Monkhood of Thomas Merton", "The Juggler of Notre Dame and the Medievalizing of Modernity. "The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little." ~ Thomas Merton. On November 16, 1938, Thomas Merton underwent the rite of baptism at Corpus Christi Church and received Holy Communion. Now bald-headed, he looked like Pablo Picasso. Such marks might still be distinguishable even at this distance in time, but medical evidence alone would be unable to distinguish between accidental death and suicide, although other disciplines might well be able to. Finley tells how Thomas Merton leaned into him and said: "Under my authority, you must meet me each day and tell me one story that happened that day with the pigs." Finley thought, "I can do that." And this began Finley's long journey to healing from his horrific trauma by talking every day about pigs. Stephan Bodian is a teacher in the nondual wisdom tradition of Zen, Dzogchen, and Advaita Vedanta and the founder and director of the annual School for Awakening, an intensive six-month program of exploration and study. This was reported to Fox by the brother who had driven Merton to Louisville. 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