The novice master would come to interview Merton, gauging his sincerity and qualifications. He believes that had Merton lived, he would possibly have left the Catholic Church and the Cistercians. Unislim ordered to pay fitness trainer after she fell behind for taking maternity leave, Paul Krugman: Why Chinas population drop is bad news for everyone, Cash buyers drive value of prime country home sales to 198m in 2022, Dil live: Sinn Fin says Cabinet is mired in controversy, Government has no indication yet of Irish job losses at Microsoft McGrath, US Republican politician arrested after shootings at Democrats homes, Ukraine helicopter crash leaves 18 dead, including interior minister and three children. There was so much more to come from where so much had come already. Merton finally achieved the solitude he had long desired while living in a hermitage on the monastery grounds in 1965. Select Page. The possibility cannot be ruled out. During his initial weeks at Gethsemani, Merton studied the complicated Cistercian sign language and daily work and worship routine. "The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little." ~ Thomas Merton. It is quite possible the shock also gave him a massive heart attack, though this was a secondary cause of death. Unlike Fox, Merton remained culturally a European rather than an American. He was one of the most vocal critics of the Vietnam War. On July 17 John Paul arrived in Gethsemani and the two brothers did some catching up. Thomas Merton (31 January 1915 - 10 December 1968) was a 20th-century American Catholic writer. "[38] Merton struggled to reconcile the Western and Christian impulse to catalog and put into words every experience with the ideas of Christian apophatic theology and the unspeakable nature of the Zen experience. Merton had converted to Catholicism in 1938 at age 23, seeking solace after a troubled and itinerant young life. The profile of the Merton family at this time was one of rather poor, impractical idealists, dedicated to art and peace but not notably religious. 19. Merton had harbored an appreciation for the Carthusian Order since coming to Gethsemani in 1941, and would later come to consider leaving the Cistercians for that Order. What happened 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. The Conciliar and Post-Conciliar Documents, SR Scholarly Resources Inc, Wilmington, Delaware, 1975. pp. 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. In the end, they conclude that Thomas Merton was assassinated, a revelation that has made many Merton scholars uncomfortable, even reluctant to hear what Turley and Martin suggest. Finally, in August 1938, he decided to attend Mass and went to Corpus Christi Church, located near the Columbia campus on West 121st Street in Morningside Heights. Thomas Merton was born in Prades, France, on January 31, 1915, the first-born child of an American mother, born Ruth Jenkins, and a New Zealander, Owen Merton. Only this year, Fr John Eudes Bamberger confirmed he identified Mertons body in spite of the disfigurement caused by 240 volts of electricity that operated the defective fan (8). Mott reconstructs Merton coming out the shower, slipping and drawing the fan sharply towards him for support. [22][23] Then, in what was to be his final letter, he noted, "In my contacts with these new friends, I also feel a consolation in my own faith in Christ and in his dwelling presence. 8. It was a situation which was obviously provoking an acute inner crisis in Merton who was perceived to be in a mid-life fling with a young woman. Today, the 50th anniversary of his death, America remembers him with this obituaryoriginally published on Jan. 4, 1969by Mark Van Doren, a professor at Columbia University and winner of the . During his lifetime, he communicated with many of the world's greatest writers, artists and social rights activists, including Martin Luther King Jr.and Buddhist peace activist Thich Nhat Hanh. Stop thinking about how to live and begin to live. 21 Merton, Thomas (2002-11-18). To Merton's discomfort, the council was followed by pendulum years of internal divisions between progressives and conservatives. On March 19, Merton became a deacon in the Order, and on May 26 (Ascension Thursday) he was ordained a priest, saying his first Mass the following day. [51], Bishop Marrocco/Thomas Merton Catholic Secondary School in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which was formerly named St. Joseph's Commercial and was founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph, is named in part after him. On December 13 he was accepted into the monastery as a postulant by Frederic Dunne, Gethsemani's abbot since 1935. This was a lifestyle recalling his drinking days in the Rendezvous student pub in Cambridge. As I kissed her, she kept saying, I am happy, I am at peace now. And so was I., But Merton was not at peace. Merton became a keen proponent of interfaith understanding, exploring Eastern religions through his study of mystic practice. Want to Read. His mother, Ruth, had died of cancer when he was six. John Cooney: In the light of the astonishing failure of writers to examine seriously the suicide possibility, my conclusion, therefore, is that Merton regretted giving up Margie and was so eaten with remorse that she had married someone else, he no longer felt it worthwhile living, In 1965, aged 50, Thomas Merton became the first ever hermit of the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani in Kentucky, which had been founded by French Cistercians of the Strict Observance in 1848, the year of revolutionary change in Europe. The end, in fact, came at a conference cottage in Samutprakarn, some 20 miles from the Thai capital, on December 10th after he addressed fellow monks at 10.45am on Marxism and Monastic Perspectives. But this new openness in Rome did not convince the Abbot General, Dom Gervais Sortais, who in May 1963 categorically refused Mertons request to publish a banned piece on the immorality of nuclear warfare now that the encyclical said what he had written in Peace in the Post-Christian Era. Evan after they had decided to separate, Merton continued to write about her in his journals, still dreamt about her, and still called her by phone, called her even when she was about to depart for Hawaii on her honeymoon., Merton wrote in his last journal, The Other Side of the Mountain, that he burned all of Margies letters, while not even glancing at any of their contents. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. During a trip to Asia in 1968, he met several times with the Dalai Lama, who praised him as having more insight into Buddhism than any other Christian he had known. However, the fact is that he was and his writings made Gethsemini wealthy. This was reported to Fox by the brother who had driven Merton to Louisville. Thomas Mertons Message of Hope, edited by Gray Henry and Jonathan Montaldo. [27] After giving a talk at the morning session, he was found dead later in the afternoon in the room of his cottage, wearing only shorts, lying on his back with a short-circuited Hitachi floor fan lying across his body. A person's place in society, views on social activism, and various approaches toward contemplative prayer and living became constant themes in his writings. He is buried at the Gethsemani Abbey. However, his contribution at times was too sympathetic and yielding, giving the impression he had no objections to certain Hindu beliefs that are clearly unacceptable to Catholic teaching. After the Hindu monk left Bamberger chided Louis for giving a false impression about Catholic teaching. On Saturday, June 11th, 1966 Merton, by now back at Gethsemani, arranged to borrow the Louisville office of his psychologist, Dr James Wygal, to meet Margie, where they drank a bottle of champagne and became intimate. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). On December 10, 1941, a young man named Thomas Merton was received as a novice by a monastery in Kentucky, the Abbey of Gethsemani. Thomas Merton, The Sign of Jonas (p. 361) In May 2016 I was lucky enough to join a group on a brief excursion to Thomas Merton's former hermitage. [4][5] It is on National Review's list of the 100 best nonfiction books of the century.[6]. Many of his later works reveal a profound understanding of Eastern philosophy and mysticism unusual in a Westerner. He primarily wrote on topics pertaining to spirituality, pacifism, and social justice and published more than 50 books within a period of 27 years. In a letter to Fr. "The spiritual life is first of all a life. 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. It is not known if he ever consummated the relationship. With the publication of the autobiographical Seven Storey Mountain (1948), he gained an international reputation. Merton was attuned to the reality that the world had changed considerably since he entered Gethsemani in 1941. In June, the monastery celebrated its centenary, for which Merton authored the book Gethsemani Magnificat in commemoration. "Life is this simple: we are living in a world that is absolutely transparent and the divine is shining through it all the time. Updates? 2. There, at Columbia University, in 1938 he obtained the degree of Bachelor of Arts in English. He would revise Seeds of Contemplation several times, viewing his early edition as error-prone and immature. What is E10 fuel and should I be putting it in my car? [1][2] He was a member of the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, near Bardstown, Kentucky, living there from 1941 to his death. I knew how clumsy tape operators can be but the coincidence was nothing short of ominous. During his historic address before the United States Congress on September 24, 2015, Pope Francis lifted up Thomas Merton as "a man of prayer, a thinker who challenged the certitudes of his time and opened new horizons for souls and for the church. Only too aware of his weaknesses, Merton had sought refuge in Gethsemani to get away enough from temptation. "A man knows when he has found his vocation when he stops thinking about how to live and . Many institutes replaced traditional habits with modern attire, and reinterpreted obedience to a superior as a consultation between adults. In November 1944 a manuscript Merton had given to friend Robert Lax the previous year was published by James Laughlin at New Directions: a book of poetry titled Thirty Poems. He was baptized in the Church of England but otherwise received little religious education. [11], In October 1933, Merton, age 18, entered Clare College as an undergraduate to study Modern Languages (French and Italian). [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. I hope and believe he may be present in the hearts of all of us. In this small cabin set apart from the Abbey of Gethsemani, Merton lived out the final four years of his life and monastic vows from 1964 until his untimely death in 1968. [7] He was baptized in the Church of England, in accordance with his father's wishes. Thomas Merton. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them." ~ Thomas Merton. Am happy, I am at peace its centenary, for which Merton authored the book Gethsemani in! Us know if you have suggestions to improve this article ( requires login ) the solitude he had desired... 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