Merton was the son of a New Zealand-born father, Owen Merton, and an American-born mother, Ruth Jenkins, who were both artists living in France. On March 19, 1944, Merton made his temporary profession of vows and was given the white cowl, black scapular and leather belt. With his father's death, Thomas Merton had become an orphan. Merton went on to write a steady stream of spiritual books, essays and poems, and became one of the best known and well-loved Catholic writers of the 20th century. One incident indicative of this is the drive he took in the monastery's jeep, during which Merton, acting in a possibly manic state, erratically slid around the road and almost caused a head-on collision.[20]. (505) 431 - 5992; burbank high school famous alumni; russia nuclear target map 2022. rikki fulton net worth; hardy marquis reel history It was during this trip that Merton was fatally electrocuted by a faulty wire at an international monastic convention in Thailand. [8] Merton's father was often absent during his son's childhood. Although he was conscience stricken for this the next day, he wrote, Both glad. His mother, Ruth, had died of cancer when he was six. Following this, Merton began to read more extensively in Catholicism. 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. Thomas Merton was born in Prades, Pyrnes-Orientales, France, on January 31, 1915, to parents of Welsh origin: Owen Merton, a New Zealand painter active in Europe and the United States, and Ruth Jenkins Merton, an American Quaker and artist. An intense look at the life of the Church between 1915 and 1968, Merton's years on Earth, will reveal more than a few scandals and behaviors against the letter of the law and the spirit of the law by the Church itself, and even it's prominent leaders. 20. 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. Why is it called The Seven Storey Mountain? Merton wrote more than 50 books in a period of 27 years,[3] mostly on spirituality, social justice and a quiet pacifism, as well as scores of essays and reviews. Thomas Merton: Seeds of Contemplation In the late 1940s, in the aftermath of a terrible war and as the world struggled to rebuild itself, confident in technology's capacity to help in the task, a surprising thing happened: a young monk's autobiography quickly became a bestseller. The Trappists are considered one of the most ascetic of the Roman Catholic monastic orders, and there Merton grew as a mystic and pursued imaginative spiritual quests through dozens of writings. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 8. This was granted on August 17th, 1965, when Foxs council of advisers approved a new novice master and voted for Mertons transfer to a selected hermitage, built almost a mile from the monastery amid wooded, hilly grounds. On December 10, 1941, a young man named Thomas Merton was received as a novice by a monastery in Kentucky, the Abbey of Gethsemani. Stephan Bodian, 2nd Interview. During long years at Gethsemani, Merton changed from the passionately inward-looking young monk of The Seven Storey Mountain to a more contemplative writer and poet. What happened to Margie Smith? In this particularly prolific period of his life, Merton is believed to have been suffering from a great deal of loneliness and stress. You are made in the image of what you desire." ~ Thomas Merton. John Eudes Bamberger: Memories of a Brother Monk, in We are Already One. In cases of electrocution, an autopsy looks for indications of cardiac arrest accompanied by burn marks on the soft tissues. He pioneered dialogue . For all Mertons restless insecurity and constant depression, the bestselling author was a key member of the enclosed community, known as Brother Louis, assigned by his abbot to teach students preparing for the monastic life as Master of Scholastics from 1951 to 1955 and later as Master of Novices (probationers) from 1955 until 1965. Nearly ten years later, when Zen and the Birds of Appetite was published, Merton wrote in his postface that "any attempt to handle Zen in theological language is bound to miss the point", calling his final statements "an example of how not to approach Zen. 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. He was born in France to a New Zealander father and an American mother, both of whom were artistically inclined. [53], Merton was one of four Americans mentioned by Pope Francis in his speech to a joint meeting of the United States Congress on September 24, 2015. Roger Lipsey, Make Peace Before the Sun Goes Down, Shambhala, New York, 2015. The middle-aged Merton resembled a well-fed Friar Tuck and was no longer the pale, ascetic Father Ludovicus of his ordination day. I hope and believe he may be present in the hearts of all of us. In this capacity, Merton was influenced by Aelred Graham's book Zen Catholicism of 1963. Mertons first published works were collections of poemsThirty Poems (1944), A Man in the Divided Sea (1946), and Figures for an Apocalypse (1948). Disputed Questions (Kindle Location 2304) 20 "It is at once our loneliness and our dignity to have an incommunicable personality that is ours, ours alone and no one else's, and will be so forever." Merton, Thomas (2002-10-28). By September 1963 he was increasingly hospitalised, suffering pains in his left arm and his neck caused by a fused cervical disc. Louis (Merton's religious name), Feb. 6, 1950, she says, referring to his quite prominent mention of her in his autobiography, "You have made me famous in a strange fashion." I will begin by quoting a few passages from SST referring to his actual personal relationships with her. His American mother, Ruth, who would die of cancer when Thomas was only six, was a Quaker and an artist, though a less. What I heard at the end was utterly astonishing. Mertons long-term advocacy of proper structure and discipline in a monastery was ruffled by this spirit of relaxation but he argued against the traditional concept of novices and postulants being brainwashed what he called spiritual infancy: he no longer accepted that blind obedience meant true obedience. Merton's father was an artist; a very good one, in Merton's judgment. 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]. He is buried at the Gethsemani Abbey. However, after only a week he complained that they had made no efforts to find out how he was getting on. You are very stubbornyou keep coming back until you get what you want. Merton decided to explore Catholicism further. Dad at Gethsemani on retreat, October 2010. Merton began an 18th-century English literature course during the spring semester taught by Mark Van Doren, a professor with whom he maintained a lifetime friendship. After teaching English at Columbia (193839) and at St. Bonaventure University (193941) near Olean, New York, he entered the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani near Louisville, Kentucky. He believes that had Merton lived, he would possibly have left the Catholic Church and the Cistercians. 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. It is God's grace that keeps us on the right track. "Your life is shaped by the end you live for. A poem by Merton to John Paul appears in The Seven Storey Mountain. On January 5, 1949, Merton took a train to Louisville and applied for American citizenship. He would revise Seeds of Contemplation several times, viewing his early edition as error-prone and immature. American Trappist monk, theologian, mystic, poet, social activist and scholarly writer, "Can a philosophy of life which originated in India centuries before Christstill accepted as valid, in one or other of its many variants, by several hundred millions of our contemporariesbe of service to Catholics, or those interested in Catholicism, in elucidating certain aspects of the Church's own message? It is not known if he ever consummated the relationship. This group of men was formally selected on the day the evacuation of New Orleans began as Hurricane Katrina approached. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them." ~ Thomas Merton. And so was I" (p. 97). He had developed a personal radicalism which had political implications but was not based on ideology, rooted above all in non-violence. 4.12 avg rating 4,652 ratings published 1955 41 editions. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009; Moses John, Divine Discontent: The Prophetic Voice of Thomas Merton, Foreword by Rowan Williams, Bloomsbury, London, 2015. He saw her again on July 16th and wrote: She says she thinks of me all the time (as I do of her) and her only fear is that being apart and not having news of each other, we may gradually cease to believe that we are loved, that the others love for us goes on and is real. She was a pretty, petite student-nurse; he was stocky and bald, with a roving intellect and a boisterous laugh. By September 1963 he was. Motts observation that Mertons feet were oddly curled up suggests the electric shock occurred at the moment of death and not later, thus supporting the electrocution theory, although it is possible that the massive heart attack did not kill him instantly. Refresh and try again. "With the death of Thomas Merton, we lost really one of the great Catholic voices, one of the great prophetic figures within the . A romantic convert to the monarchical, medievalist Rome of Pius XII under which his writings on peace were censored, Merton warmed to the more democratic tone of Pope John XXIII, applauding his encyclical Pacem in Terris. In the US alone in 1968, 11,000 religious opted out. In that cosmically complex and fun butterfly effect way of looking at the world, we may never have been born if it wasn't for Thomas Merton, the world's most prominent Catholic monk and prolific author.Besides being a father himself before entering the monastery and Catholic priesthood (thank God Catholics and spiritual seekers everywhere have . by Gregory K. Hillis. That is hardly worth thinking about now 25 years since my last adultery.. Author Robert Waldron declined to call it an affair for it was true love lasting about six months. Horan's main premise, that Thomas Merton was a "Franciscan-hearted person," may seem strange at first. Merton was a destroyed person because of his failure to marry Margie, according to John Dear, in his study of Thomas Merton Peacemaker, in 1968, the brutal year of the Tet Offensive, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, the arrest of Daniel Berrigan and the Catonsville Nine, the police brutality at the Democratic convention in Chicago and the election of Richard Nixon. The novice master would come to interview Merton, gauging his sincerity and qualifications. Fox permitted Merton to continue his writing, Merton now having gained substantial recognition outside the monastery. He had not realised that any book on the subject would be dealing necessarily with Catholic philosophy. He was born in France in 1915 but his family left for the United States in the same year and settled down in New York. His escape from the world ceased with his return to the world of celebrity touring. Want to Read. "[54], Merton is honored with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of some[which?] The mystique of the Catholic Church which Merton joined in 1941 was lost with the introduction of the vernacular. Merton's stage-prop fan. It is the absolute requirement for the work of soul recovery, that task for which we were born. A Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, he was a poet, social activist, and student of comparative religion. Alternate titles: Father Louis, Father M. Louis, This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thomas-Merton, Academy of American Poets - Biography of Thomas Merton, The Thomas Merton Center and International Thomas Merton Society, Thomas Merton - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). Learning to Love reveals that Merton remained in contact with Marge after his July 12, 1966 entry (p.94) and after he recommitted himself to his vows (p. 110). 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