Showing 2375 results

Fr. Vincent Mary was a Passionist priest. He writes from St. Bernard's Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, where he was going to conduct a retreat for the nuns.

Fr. Urban Voll was a Dominican priest and an editor for the «Catholic Theological Encyclopedia». He writes from Washington, D.C.

Dom Aelred Wall was the founder of Christ in the Desert Monastery in Abiquiu, New Mexico, and was its first superior.

Sr. Anita (Ann) Wasserman was a nun from the Carmelite Convent of Cleveland, Ohio. She had written to Merton before entering the Carmelites in 1952. She died in April of 2015 at 82. Her brother, Edmund, had entered Gethsemani Abbey and was a good friend of Merton's. His name in religion was Fr. John of the Cross, whom Merton referred to by the nicknames "Cap" or "Cappy". The Wasserman family met with Merton when coming to Gethsemani, "adopting" him into the family. (Source: «Witness to Freedom», p. 177.)

Peter Watts was a British sculptor from Bath, England, who sculpted many of the statues at Gethsemani Abbey.

Born in Austria in the end of the 19th Century, Vally Weigl was a composer, music therapist and music instructor. She and her husband, the composer Karl Weigl, moved to New York in 1938 because of the Nazi rise to power and their Jewish ancestry. She taught at the Institute for Avocational Music and the American Theater Wing and continued composing. She received a Master's degree in 1955 from Columbia University and pursued her interests in music therapy, writing and lecturing on the subject and teaching at New York Medical College and the New School. She writes to Merton in 1964 in her new role as chairperson of the Arts for World Unity Committee of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers). Their theme was World Unity through the Arts. (Source: "Weigl, Vally." Biography from the New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers. 1995. Wilson Biographies Plus. Online. H.W. Wilson. Bellarmine University W.L. Lyons Brown Library, Louisville, KY. 5 Sep. 2006. ‹http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com›.)

Gertrude S. Weiner writes from the Foreign Rights Department of Curtis Brown in New York.

Joel Weishaus is a poet and sculptor, who is currently resident writer at the Museu do Essencial e do Além Disso, Bibliothecadas das Marauilhas in Rio de Janerio, Brazil. He has published some of his poetry and haikus, and he wrote the introduction to «Woods, Shore Desert», Merton's journal of his trip to New Mexico, California and Alaska.

Walter A. Weisskopf was Professor Emeritus of Economics at Roosevelt University in Chicago, Illinois. He was the author of «The Psychology of Economics» (1955) and «Alienation and Economics» (1971).

Ulfert Wilke was a painter and calligrapher who was born in Germany and came to the United States in 1938. From 1948 to 1964, he was at the Allen R. Hite Institute at the University of Louisville.

R. Geoffrey Wilkes was a Catholic from Bilston, Staffordshire, England, who had war-time experience in the Air Force.

Sr. Gertrude Wilkinson was Redemptorist superior and editor of the «New Contemplative Review», to which Merton submitted an article.

Galen Williams was executive secretary of The Poetry Center in New York.

Jonathan Williams is a poet, publisher, designer, photographer and essayist, born in Asheville, North Carolina. After studies at Princeton and painting at the Phillips Memorial Gallery, he returned to Asheville to study photography at Black Mountain College. After his return to North Carolina, he became associated with the Black Mountain group of poets and began a publishing venture, the Jargon Society Books. Williams visited Gethsemani Abbey in January of 1967 with Guy Davenport and Ralph Eugene Meatyard. (Source: «The Courage for Truth», p. 284.)

Henry F. Wilson was an aspiring writer from Great Falls, Montana.

Robert Alfred Jump Wilson was owner of the Phoenix Book Shop in New York from 1962 through the late 1980's, where he was an antiquarian bookseller and an author. He currently resides in St. Michaels, Maryland.

Dom Jacques Winandy was born in Liege, Belgium, in the early 20th century and became a Benedictine monk Clervaux Abbey in Luxemburg. This was a compromise for him. His father wanted him to enter a Benedictine abbey closer to home rather than follow his dreams of becoming a Carthusian. Carthusians are a monastic order living in community but spending most of the day, besides Mass and two of offices of prayer, in solitude in one's cell. During World War II, the monks of Clervaux lived in exile in religious houses in Belgium. Winandy was excepted as a Carthusian during this time; however, he was elected as abbot of Clervaux immediately after the war, a role he reluctantly accepted. He served as abbot until 1957. He spent time as a hermit before, after a year in Rome, being sent to the Benedictine abbey in Martinique. There he met Br. (now Fr.) Lionel Pare. Pare shared Winandy's interest in the eremitical life. They obtained permission to start of group of hermits, living individually but under the direction of an elder in 1964. They found an amenable bishop, Bishop Remi De Roo and the space for solitude on the Tsolum River in British Columbia, Canada, near Merville. Winandy remained in a hermitage in British Columbia until 1972, when he returned to a hermitage in Belgium, not far from Clervaux Abbey. He spent the next twenty-five years of his life there before his last six months at Clervaux while infirm. Winandy's eremitical life had a profound impact on a revival of the vocation of the hermit in the Catholic Church. (Source: Brandt, M. Charles. "A monk of the Diaspora." The New Catholic Times: 5 Jan 2003.)

William Witherup is a poet, playwright and performance artist. He was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in Richland, Washington. He writes to Merton from Santa Fe, New Mexico, and living in a cabin in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. He has published a number of volumes of poetry. His poetry has focused on labor, environmentalism, and his father's working-class life in the nuclear industry. (Source: "William Witherup." Contemporary Authors Online. 2002. Literature Resource Center. Thomson Gale. Bellarmine University Lib., Louisville, Kentucky. 15 Sep. 2006 ‹http://galenet.galegroup.com›.)

Frances Witlin writes on behalf of the Good-Will Ambassadors for the Hiroshima-Nagasaki World Peace Study Mission.

Princess Monica Wittgenstein writes from Cologne, Germany.

Fr. Augustine Wulff was a Trappist monk of Gethsemani Abbey in Kentucky.

Nobuzō Yamada writes from Hiroshima, Japan. He mentions visiting Merton at Gethsemani Abbey in 1964. He was likely among the delegation for the World Peace Mission Pilgrimage of Hibakusha, the survivors of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Fr. Joseph Minoru Yamaguchi was a Marianist priest writing from Tokyo, Japan.

Bonnie Young was Assistant Curator of the Cloisters of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

John Yungblut is a Quaker scholar and scholar of Jungian psychology. One of his academic aims is arguing for the place of Christian mysticism. He was married to June Yungblut. He writes from the Quaker House (Society of Friends) in Atlanta, Georgia, which he co-directed with his wife, June.

Msgr. Vincent Arthur Yzermans took over as editor of «Our Sunday Visitor» and its affiliate magazine, «The Priest», in the fall of 1967. He was a priest from Minnesota.

Sr. Jean Zmolek was a School Sister of Notre Dame from Notre Dame Academy in Omaha, Nebraska, at the time of writing to Merton.

Ambassador Soedjatmoko writes from the Embassy of Indonesia in Washington, D.C. Raden Soedjatmoko Saleh Mangoediningrat went also by the nickname "Mas Koko" or simply "Koko". By the end of their five hour meeting in Washington, D.C., the two men referred to each other as Tom and Koko.

Br. Patrick Hart was Merton's last secretary. In his earlier years at the monastery, he went by the religious name Br. Simon. He continued to foster Merton's legacy through the interviews he has conducted and through editing many of the collections of Merton's essays, journals, and correspondence.

Br. John Lyons was a Salvatorian writing first from Mount St. Paul College in Waukesha, Wisconsin, and later from New Holstein, Wisconsin.

Masao Abe was a Zen Buddhist scholar from Kyoto, Japan.

The ITMS came into being in 1987 to promote a greater knowledge of the life and writings of Thomas Merton, one of the most influential religious figures of our time. The Society sponsors biennial conferences devoted to Merton and his work and supports the writing of general-interest and scholarly books and articles about Merton. In addition the ITMS awards regular grants to researchers and scholarships to youth. It encourages a variety of activities such as Merton retreats. Local Chapters and Affiliates of the ITMS across the world reflect a wide range of personal interest and approaches to Thomas Merton.

Merton writes to Dom Emmanuel Van Gassel, Abbot of St. Benedictus-Abdij, a Cistercian monastery in Achel, Belgium. He was superior of the abbey from 1965-1989.

Canon Arthur MacDonald (Donald) Allchin was an Anglican priest who came to know Merton through Dr. Dale Moody of the Baptist Seminary in Louisville. When he first met Merton, Allchin was at Oxford and served as librarian for Pusey House and as a student chaplain. He would later become Canon Residentiary at Canterbury Cathedral, England (source: «The Hidden Ground of Love»).

William Allchin mentions that he is a psychiatrist and is the brother of Donald [Arthur MacDonald] Allchin, a priest with a larger collection of correspondence with Merton.

Fr. Etienne Pâris was a Trappist monk from the abbey of Sainte-Marie-du-Mont at Mont-des-Cats in France.

Marie-Antoinette Pasco writes from Perpignan, France.

Sr. Patricia of Jesus writes from a Carmelite monastery in New York.

Prior Bernardin Patterson was a Benedictine monk of St. Maur's Priory in South Union, Kentucky. The monastery was unique in the United States as having been established as a racially integrated community when it was founded in 1947 on the grounds of a Shaker village. At the time of writing, he was working on a book entitled, «Religion on Trial».

Merton first wrote Giovanni B. Montini in 1949 while serving as Secretary of State for the Vatican under Pope Pius XII. Montini became Archbishop of Milan in 1955, was elevated to cardinal in 1958, and was elected Pope Paul VI in 1963. Paul VI read and appreciated Merton's writings. He had an active role in the Second Vatican Council before and after becoming pope. Merton was lending support to the Second Vatican Council's statement on interfaith dialog, which became «Nostra Aetate», the "Declaration on the Relation of the Church with Non-Christian Religions," which was proclaimed under Pope Paul VI. Merton was also pleased with Paul VI for his statement for peace before the United Nations in 1965. Merton wrote to delegates at Vatican II supporting Schema 13's provisions against modern war, later a part of «Gaudium et Spes», the "Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World".

C. G. Paulding was managing editor of «Commonweal» at the time Merton sumitted his essay to the publication.

C. Alexander Peloquin was a composer of liturgical music who was one of the earliest to begin to write in a style that reflected the changes brought about by the Second Vatican Council. He spent many years as composer-in-residence at Boston College and directed student choral ensembles. He composed music for some of Merton's "Freedom Songs", poems inspired by Negro spirituals. The songs were originally intended to be sung by African-American baritone Robert Williams. Merton and Peloquin had trouble at a time with claims that Williams made over copyright of the songs.

Maria Antonia Penido Monteiro writes from Minas, Brazil.

Dom M. Basil (Robert) Pennington was a Trappist monk, author, editor, lecturer and abbot. He joined St. Joseph's Abbey in Spencer, Massachusetts in 1951. In the early 1960's, he studied canon law at Gregorian University in Rome and returned to teach at Spencer. He began correspondence with Merton upon appointment in 1967 to reform the Trappist order's constitution. He was instrumental in launching Cistercian Publications (later Cistercian Studies) in the late 1960's. In the 1970's, he visited the Orthodox monks at Mt. Athos and began writing about Catholic-Orthodox dialogue. During this time, he also became interested in Centering Prayer and became one of its proponents, conducting numerous workshops on the subject. He spent eight years at Our Lady of Joy on Lantao Island near Hong Kong beginning in 1991. He traveled much through Asia and furthered interfaith dialogue with eastern religions. In 1999, he came back to the United States, briefly serving as superior of monasteries in Ava, Missouri, and Conyers, Georgia, before returning to Spencer. In March of 2005, he was in an accident from which he never fully recovered. In June of 2005, he succumbed to complications from the accident. He left behind a large corpus of writings. He wrote some reflections on Merton, including a book about a retreat he made at Merton's hermitage. (Source: "Dom M. Basil (Robert) Pennington, OCSO". Contemplative Outreach, Ltd. website. 2 Feb. 2006. ‹http://www.centeringprayer.com/newsltrs/basil.htm›.)

Dom Pedro Pérez was from the Benedictine Monasterio de las Condes in Santiago, Chile. In 1959, he asks some questions regarding the observance of the rule at Gethsemani and policies for novices. In 1964, he asks a number of questions regarding «aggiornamento», or reform, of religious life.

Anne Perkins worked for Harper and Brothers publishers while writing to Merton. She introduced Merton, via mail, to another author published by Harper, Abraham Heschel. She writes from New York.

Fr. Thomas Aquinas Porter was one of the Cistercian censors that needed to approve Merton's writings before publication. He writes from Holy Trinity Abbey in Huntsville, Utah.

At the time of writing to Merton, Sr. Mary James Power, SSND, was principal and a teacher at Girls Catholic High School in Malden, Massachusetts. She also served as secondary schools supervisor for the School Sisters of Notre Dame, New England Province. She wrote two books, «Poets at Prayer» (1938) and «In the Name of the Bee: The significance of Emily Dickinson» (1943), as well as making important contributions to scholarly publications. (Biographical information courtesy of research conducted by John Collins.)

Br. Thomas Qualey writes from the Christian Brothers' Scholasticate in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Br. Paul Quenon is a Trappist monk of Gethsemani. He composed some hymns and music for the Liturgy of the Hours, which he shared with Merton. In his years at the monastery, he has publish some of his poetry and photographs.

Fr. John J. Quinn was a Jesuit priest and advisor for the student literary magazine, «Esprit», from the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania.

Sandy Rabeck writes from the Contract and Copyright Department of Farrar, Straus and Giroux publishers from New York.

Fr. Denys Rackley was a Carthusian monk of La Grande Chartreuse in southern France.

Fr. Radbert was a Benedictine monk of Maria Laach Abbey in Germany.

Fr. Karl Rahner was a Jesuit priest and one of the most prominent Catholic theologians of the 20th century. He was a professor of dogmatic theology and the philosophy of religion at a number of different Jesuit universities in West Germany and Austria. (Source: (Source: "Rahner, Karl." Obituary from Current Biography. 30 March 1984. Wilson Biographies Plus. Online. H.W. Wilson. Bellarmine University Library, Louisville, KY. 13 Feb. 2006. ‹http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com›.)

Robert Rambusch was a Liturgical Design Consultant, who having trained with Frank Kacmarcik, later consulted for numerous cathedral designs and renovations. In his younger life, after the Second World War, Rambusch got involved in Catholic Action groups. He later studied liturgy and attended the Center for Sacred Art in Paris. Rambusch and his friend Frank Kacmarcik and his friend visit Gethsemani in October of 1960. Merton notes in his personal journal of being "a little suspicious of the intense activation and restlessness of some of these liturgical enthusiasts", although noting he has "[n]othing against liturgy" (personal journals, 1960/10/16).

A. Philip Randolph was in the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement for African Americans, a socialist and union leader fighting for workers writes and equality. Born in Florida, he moved to Harlem in 1911 to get into theater. Enrolling at the City College of New York, he changed life plans and majored in politics and economics. Together with Columbia University student Chandler Owen, he founded the radical magazine, «The Messenger», in 1917. He organized a union called the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1925, the Pullman Company being a major employer of African Americans. He was a supporter of non-violent means of protest and generally anti-war, fighting discrimination in the armed forces during the 1940's. During the 1950's and 1960's, he served as vice president of the AFL-CIO unions. Along with Bayard Rustin and Martin Luther King, Jr., he helped organize the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. The following year, he was given a Presidential Medal of Freedom. (Source: "A. Philip Randolph." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 9 Feb 2006, 04:34 UTC. 15 Feb 2006, ‹http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=A._Philip_Randolph&oldid=38873488›.)

Fr. Reginald A. Redlon was a Franciscan priest who served as president of St. Bonaventure University, St. Bonaventure, New York, from 1967-1972. He writes to invite Merton to come to the university to accept an honorary degree.

At the time of writing, Sammy Reese was in prison and had been on death row in Missouri (he was later re-sentenced to life in prison). Merton notes: "a prisoner [-] electric chair!" Reese was baptised in prison through contact with Merton, some nuns, and Fr. Charles Dismas Clark, known as "the Hoodlum Priest." Reese became an acomplished cartoonist and artist in prison and was at times allowed to teach other prisoners art. He was released on parole in 1976 and died in 1990.

Sr. Regina of the Immaculate Conception was a Carmelite nun from Savannah, Georgia.

Ad Reinhardt, known as the "black monk of abstract art", graduated Columbia University not long after Merton arrived. He continued to produce art for Columbia's satirical magazine, «The Jester», which was one of the publications in which Merton was involved. Even when Reinhardt considered himself a Communist, Merton saw religious significance in his work. Later, Reinhardt's paintings were influenced by eastern philosophy and Islam. He became an increasing minimalist, using fewer colors until he used only black. Merton treasured a painting of a black on black cross that Reinhardt did for him. Reinhardt visited Gethsemani in the late fifties. (Source: The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia, edited by William Shannon, Christine Bochen, and Patrick O'Connell, pp. 384-385.)

Kathleen Reinhardt writes from Manhasset, New York.

Fr. H. A. Reinhold was a native of Hamburg, Germany. He was part of the Catholic resistance to Hitler and had to escape Germany because he was pursued by the Gestapo. He came to the United States and served first in Seattle and later in Pittsburgh. He laid much of the foundation for liturgical reforms that were being considered in the decades leading up to the Second Vatican Council.

John Reiser (then Fr. Hubert) was a Trappist of Gethsemani Abbey.

Paul B. Renner writes from the Newman Center at University of Louisville in Kentucky.

William P. Restivo was president of Bearings for Re-Establishment (BSR), a group that helped former priests, ministers, seminarians and religious re-integrate into the workforce. Merton agreed to serve on Bearing's Board of Advisors in 1967. The national headquarters was in New York.

Kenneth Rexroth was a prolific poet who was the inspiration for many in the Beat Generation of the 1950's, but later breaking with this group. He also wrote literary and radical political criticism, plays, and histories in a populist style. Later in life, he turned away from politics, supporting non-violence and anarchism. He also developed an interest in mysticism. He writes to Merton from San Francisco. (Source: "Rexroth, Kenneth." Obituary from Current Biography. 6 June 1982. Wilson Biographies Plus. Online. H.W. Wilson. Bellarmine University Library, Louisville, KY. 22 Feb. 2006. ‹http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com›.)

John Reynolds worked with Ed Rice on the Catholic magazine «Jubilee» and gave Merton a «bangasa», a Japanese umbrella. He claims that Ed Rice said that he and Merton used to see performances by blues singer Lead Belly (Huddie Ledbetter).

Kenneth James Ricardi was a senior at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts. He asks about books that had influenced Merton. Besides ones that had influenced Merton in his youth that are listed in «The Seven Storey Mountain», he mentions that he has more recently been influenced by Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s «Stride Toward Freedom».

Patricia Ellen Ricci (later Patricia Ellen Doyle in marriage) was a teacher, designer and graphic artist from Chicago, Illinois. Patricia Ricci asks Merton's permission to use quotes from some of his writings on cards she had designed for the Carmel of Reno, Nevada.

Edward Rice was one of Merton's friends from Columbia University that also contributed to the university's satirical magazine «The Jester». He was one of the only Catholics in Merton's circle (before the conversion of Lax and others), and he was chosen as Merton's godfather for Merton's baptism in 1938. Ed Rice became a freelance journalist and photographer. He founded the ecumenical and progressive Catholic magazine «Jubilee», to which Merton was a contributor. As a journalist, he traveled throughout the world, sometimes getting into danger, including a threat of disembowelment by Bedouins in Jordan. (Sources: The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia, edited by William Shannon, Christine Bochen, and Patrick O'Connell, pp. 384-385; and Cummings, Mary. "Edward Rice '40: Traveling on Unbeaten Paths." «Columbia College Today». May 2001. Online version. Accessed 22 Feb. 2006. ‹http://www.college.columbia.edu/cct/may01/may01_feature_rice.html›.)

John H. Richards writes from south Wales. He writes about desiring certain aspects of the Christian experience while feeling more of a Buddhist. Merton replies with certain similarities and differences at the essence of the two, a similar response to much of what he says in «Zen and the Birds of Appetite». They also discuss the type of meditation taught at monasteries in Burma.

Francis Roberts was free-lance writer asking for Christmas remembrances from people from many walks of life and in many disciplines for an article he was writing entitled "A Christmas Remembered". Merton replies with a mimeographed version of his last circular letter from Christmas, writing about the Christmas Midnight Mass at the monastery. He removed a few portions of the letter dealing with life in his hermitage because he was trying not to publicize this too much.

Sr. Thomas of God Roberts was a Benedictine sister from Santa Clara, Mexico, writing on behalf of the first seminar of the Commitment Research Institute, which seems to have been affiliated with CIDOC (Centro Intercultural de Documentación) of Cuernavaca, Mexico. Bishop Sergio Méndez Arceo of Cuernavaca was to open the seminar. Ivan Illich was to preside at one day of the seminar, and Daniel Berrigan at another. Merton was invited to speak on commitment in the monastic life.

Fr. Julian Rochford (born Paul Rochford) was a Benedictine priest of Ampleforth Abbey in York, England. He was interested in the action-contemplation dynamic and in aggiornamento, monastic reform. He spent much of his time teaching at Ampleforth College, but also spent time in inner-city ministry. He died at 70 having collided with a car on his motorcycle on his way to preparing some children for their First Holy Communion. (Source: Price, Justin. "Obituary - Fr Julian Rochford 1993." Ampleforth Abbey Information from the Library and Archives [online]. Accessed 23 Feb. 2006. ‹http://www.archive.zenwebhosting.com/sites/obits/barry/rochford_j.htm›.)