Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Title
Date(s)
- 1968 June 2 (Creation)
Extent
1 page(s); Holograph (handwritten) signed letter.
Name of creator
Biographical history
Dom Flavian Burns (born Thomas Burns in 1931) was Abbot of Gethsemani from 1968-1973. Dom Flavian approved Merton's trip to Bangkok and later approved a side journey in the same trip to India, where Merton met the Dalai Lama. Burns had been inspired by «Seven Storey Mountain» after high school and was drawn to Gethsemani. There, he studied under Merton when Merton was Master of Scholastics. In 1966, after Merton had paved the way for hermits, Burns was allowed to live as a hermit at Gethsemani until taking over as Gethsemani's seventh abbot in 1968. (Source: The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia, p. 35.)
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
First lines: "My own opinion is still, that you should not go to this meeting. I think they over-rate your"... Contents index: still does not think Merton should go to meeting [Bangkok?].
System of arrangement
Conditions of access and use elements
Conditions governing access
Technical access
Conditions governing reproduction
Languages of the material
- English