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Thomas Merton, born Thomas Heathcote Merton (January 31, 1915—December 10, 1968), was a popular Trappist monk that lived at The Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani from 1941 to 1968. He gained recognition for himself and the monastery in 1948 with the publication of his early autobiography The Seven Storey Mountain—which takes its name from Dante's "Purgatory" in the Divine Comedy and chronicles Merton's early life and conversion to Catholicism. As an outspoken opponent of the Cold War and the Vietnam War, Merton increasingly became known as a leading voice in the Catholic tradition. He engaged in global correspondences with 20th century thinkers and writers on subjects like peace and nonviolence, and formed meaningful relationships with members of Eastern religions, including: D.T. Suzuki, Thich Nhat Hanh, and His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Beginning in the 1950s, Merton started adopting elements of Christian humanism into his outlook.

Early life
Thomas Merton was born in Prades, Pyrénées-Orientales, France, on January 31, 1915, the son of Owen Merton and Ruth Jenkins. His father was a struggling painter from New Zealand, and his mother was a Quaker from the United States. He was baptized at Prades in the Church of England, following his father's wishes. Merton's family moved into Ruths' parent's home in New York City in August of 1915, then settled into a home in Flushing, New York two years later. Merton's only sibling, John Paul, was born in 1918. It was in New York that Ruth Jenkins died of stomach cancer in 1921, when Merton was six years old. In the introduction to her book In The Dark Before Dawn: New Selected Poems of Thomas Merton, writer Lynn Szabo writes, "Her loss would retain its unimaginable impact throughout his life, particularly recorded in his many dreamscapes where the feminine presents itself in the form of a dark-eyed Jewish girl named Proverb, as Hagia Sophia—the feminine wisdom of God—and as a nurse with special healing powers."

In 1932 Merton received a scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge, becoming a freshman there that following year. His time at Cambridge was marked by poor grades, promiscuity and heavy drinking. That following year Merton fathered a son out of wedlock, a detail that was left out of a number of his earlier biographies. In addition, Tom lost his scholarship due to a poor academic performance at the college. Tom Bennett—Tom's legal guardian—"invited" Merton to return to New York City to live with his mother's family in Long Island, and the mother was compensated out of court. The mother and child are suspected casualties of the London Blitz during World War II. Merton would later look back on this incident with regret. Upon his return to New York, Merton's grandfather suggested he continue his schooling at Columbia University.

Merton entered Columbia University as a sophomore in 1935. As a capable writer and artist, Merton worked for the college's triweekly satire and investigative newspaper, the Jester of Columbia.

After achieving his BA degree from Columbia University in 1938, Merton re-enrolled for his MA studies there that same year. In 1939 he completed his thesis on William Blake, titled "Art and Nature in William Blake."

During April of 1941, Merton attended a retreat at The Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani during Holy Week—an experience that left a tremendous impression upon him. He wrote in his journal about his visit, "Leaving Gethsemani was very sad." In the summer he volunteered his services at the Friendship House in Harlem, New York, giving great consideration to the possibility of working and living there. He decided to volunteer after attending a lecture at St. Bonaventure University given by the founder of the organization, Catherine de Hueck. Merton was disappointed and troubled by the fierce racism he saw being directed at the Harlem community. Though he did not stay on at Friendship House, he did develop a lasting friendship with Catherine de Hueck. Merton was increasingly attracted to the idea of joining Gethsemani by that fall, giving away (or trashing) his unpublished novels and many of his other belongings to friends before joining the monastery that winter.

Monastic life

 * Merton began his monastic journey at The Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani on December 10, 1941. He spent his first three days in the monastery guest house—where he awaited admittance into the cloister—finally being accepted as a postulant by Dom Frederic Dunne on December 13 (St. Lucy's Day). He became a Trappist novice on February 21, 1942, receiving the name Brother Mary Louis (Latin: Prater Maria Ludovicus). Gethsemani followed a daily schedule in observation of the Liturgy of Hours—beginning with a Matins service at 2 a.m. and concluding with Compline before retiring for the day. Meals were strictly vegetarian at the monastery, with meat reserved only for the sick and elderly.


 * He was ordained a deacon on March 19 of 1949—becoming a priest of the Cistercian order on May 26 of that same year.

The ecumenist

 * Merton has often been criticized for his open admiration of Eastern religions (namely Buddhism, Hinduism and Taoism), which some critics believed had undermined the integrity of his Catholic devotion. But, to Merton, this admiration was always viewed through the lens of his own tradition. Throughout his writings he makes clear that his Eastern studies were carried out with the intent of deepening his own experiences and understanding of Christian monasticism.


 * On May 26, 1966, Merton met the renowned Vietnamese Zen teacher Thich Nhat Hanh at Gethsemani, a meeting arranged by the Fellowship of Reconciliation (which both men belonged to). Though this would be the only time the two men would be in the presence of one another, a real bond was made during their encounter. Merton spoke of Nhat Hanh as his brother, and Nhat Hanh would come to write a poem titled "Thomas Merton is My Brother."


 * Merton left Gethsemani for East Asia on September 10, 1968 in order to attend a meeting of the worlds' religions—to be held in Bangkok, Thailand that December.


 * In November of 1968, shortly before his own death in Thailand, Merton met with the 14th Dalai Lama in Dharamsala, India. The two discussed spiritual matters with one another, and Merton expressed an interest in the Bodhisattva ideal and Tantrism while there. This meeting left an indelible mark on Tibet's exiled leader, who referred to Merton as a 'Catholic geshe'. He has since said of their encounter, "...I have come across others with similar qualities, but it was Merton who introduced me to the real meaning of the word 'Christian'."

The hermit
For many years of his monastic life, Thomas Merton struggled with his desire to travel and remain secluded. His desire for the hermetic life had less to do with worldly abandonment, and more to do with his strong wish to achieve, as biographer Lawrence Cunnungham put it, "...an interior state in which a person cleanses that which is false in order to stand naked before God." In 1952 Dom James Fox gave Merton permission to use an old tool shed in the woods at Gethsemani for several hours each day, which Merton named Saint Anne's hermitage. In one journal entry, dated September 3, 1952, Merton writes, "I am now almost completely convinced that I am only really a monk when I am alone in the old tool shed Reverend Father gave me...True, I have the will of a monk in the community. But I have the prayer of a monk in the silence of the woods and the tool shed." It was there in his first hermitage—which is now in ruin—that he developed a deepened sense of appreciation for nature—often referring to it as the "wilderness of silence."

In August of 1965 he gave up his role as Master of Novices at the monastery to live a full time life at his new hermitage in the woods, which he moved into on August 20. This was the culmination of what he had always longed for—solitude and withdrawal. Being allowed to reside in this hermitage was not an individual success, as the Cistercian Order has a rich history of hermit monks. If anything, it paved the way for a renewal of this kind of monastic life for Cistercians that continues in practice to this day. Despite having resigned his post, Merton could be found every Sunday returning back to the monastery—where he provided informal instruction to Gethsemani's newest members. Robert E. Daggy wrote for Bellarmine College in 1980 about the hermitage, saying, "it became the closest thing to a home of his own that Merton had ever known."

By October of 1967, Merton was struggling ever more with his desire to travel and his desire for seclusion. This has since led some to wonder if the hermetic life was one well-suited for Merton's character. The choice between the two was made rather easy for him by his superior at the time, Dom James Fox. Despite having received numerous invitations to conferences and meetings abroad, Fox almost always refused him permission to go. Merton had even expressed a desire to leave for Latin America to live as a hermit—and was again refused. He was beginning to see Gethsemani as unfamiliar territory, only feeling a true sense of home in the hermitage he then occupied on the monastery grounds. By the time of his trip to East Asia, his hermitage was frequently disturbed by well meaning visitors and Gethsemanis' neighbors, and his new abbot suggested that he consider finding a new spot upon his return. Despite some speculation at the time on Merton being attracted to the religions of the East, his letters home made clear that he had every intention of returning and living out his life as a monk at Gethsemani.

The humanist

 * In 1962 Merton held a conference at Gethsemani he called "Christian Humanism and Virginity in St. Ambrose", which was later published in Cistercian Studies no. 17.


 * Merton's writings on war and peace were in part informed by his attachment to what he called Christian humanism.

The writer

 * The Way of Chuang Tzu is Merton's favorite project, which he described as, "not attempts at faithful reproduction but ventures in personal and spiritual interpretation."


 * Among Merton's many correspondences were his exchanges with the notable Zen scholar D.T. Suzuki, which started in 1959 after Merton had read some of Suzukis' works—having drawn some comparisons between Zen Buddhism and his own monastic tradition. Suzuki, in turn, believed that Merton had a particularly apt understanding of Eastern philosophy, and some of their correspondences have been included in Merton's Book Zen and the Birds of Appetite. The two men first met in New York City in June of 1964, Merton having received permission to travel there for two days from Dom James Fox (under invitation from Suzuki). It was the first time he had been to the city since having entered Gethsemani decades before. They discussed Christian mysticism and Zen on the trip, and Merton later wrote of their encounter, "I had a renewed sense of being 'situated' in this world. This is a legitimate consolation."


 * Early in 1967 he wrote a review for the book Ishi in Two Worlds by Theodora Kroeber for the March edition of The Catholic Worker. Merton also authored several essays on Ishi, which were published posthumously in 1976 as Ishi Means Man. That same year (1967) he began editing a magazine he called Monks Pond, of which only four issues were made. He circulated the magazine "unofficially" and charged no money for it. Issues were generally filled with his own photography, calligraphy and essays by himself and friends.

Margie Smith
It is indicated in some of Merton's journals [which specifically?] that in 1966 (as monk at Gethsemani) while at a hospital in Louisville, Kentucky undergoing back surgery, Merton met and fell in love with a nurse by the name of Margie Smith. The relationship was first written about in Michael Mott's biography of Merton [citation please] published in 1983. There is no evidence that the relationship was physical in nature.

By Merton

 * List of works by Thomas Merton

About Merton

 * List of works about Thomas Merton