John Sherman Cooper served as a United States Senator from Kentucky in intermittent terms between 1946-1973 and was a member of the Republican Party.
Séamus Cooney was a professor at the Indiana University Department of English in 1968.
Doña Luisa Coomaraswamy was the widow of Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy, a scholar of Indian, Persian, and Islamic art, who saw a unifying truth underlying major religions of the world. Doña Luisa took the responsibility of organizing his papers after his death and attempted to collect some of his unfinished projects for publication as a book of collected writings. She died before finishing this project, but Roger Lipsey edited a two-volume set of his papers published in 1977 (source: «The Hidden Ground of Love», p. 125).
Terence J. Cooke was Chancellor of the Vatican Pavilion for the New York World's Fair in 1964-1965. He was later made bishop of New York and named a cardinal in 1969.
Sr. Angela Conway was a Dominican sister living in England at the time of writing.
Mother Mary Consolata was Clarissine Abbess of the Madres Clarisas monastery in La Paz, Bolivia.
Fr. Terence Connolly was Director of Libraries for Boston College from 1944 until 1959, succeeded by Brendan Connolly. He obtained a copy of a manuscript for «The Seven Storey Mountain» in the late 1940's.
Fr. Brendan Connolly was Director of Libraries for Boston College at the time of correspondence.
Fr. Tarcisius Conner was a monk of Gethsemani assigned to the Vatican at the beginning of their correspondence. He writes to Merton from Rome, Paris, and Mont des Cats Abbey in Northern France.
William Congdon was an American artist who converted to Catholicism in 1959. For much of his life, he was a wanderer who rejected a life as heir to a wealthy Rhode Island family. His conversion happened in Assisi, where he would live much of the rest of his life, dying in Italy in 1998. His early artistic influences came from the neo-romantic and abstract expressionist schools. After his conversion to Catholicism, he produced many religiously themed works of art. His biography from his foundation's web site likens his conversion to a "suicide", marginalizing him from the mainstream art community. Congdon wrote essays on art, especially sacred art and the duty of a Christian artist. Merton was writing about similar themes in his unpublished work, «Art and Worship». (Source: Official William Congdon Site, maintained by the William G. Congdon Foundation, ‹https://congdonfoundation.com›, 2004/09/16.)
Thomas Congdon was Senior Editor of «The Saturday Evening Post».
Maria Columba was writing from St. Petersburg, Florida.
Ted Coltman was writing Merton from Cambridge, Massachusetts, on behalf of «The Current».
Br. Frederic Collins is a monk of Gethsemani Abbey. Because of his business studies before entering the monastery, Dom James Fox appointed him to start a mail-order business for the cheese and fruitcake that was made by the monks. This type of monastic consumerism did not appear to Merton, and the two did not see eye to eye. In the mid-sixties, he was sent to La Dehesa Monastery in Chile that Gethsemani was taking over as a mission from Spencer Abbey (becoming an independent monastery in 1970, and moving and changing its name to Miraflores in 1986). Unlike the mail order business, Merton was very interested in Latin America and considered this as a place to become a hermit. At this time, the two monks became closer. [Sources: personal account by Br. Frederic Collins (June 2003) and Web site of AIM (Inter-Monastery Alliance) ‹http://www.aimintl.org/communs/miraflores/miraflores.htm›.]
Edward Collins was writing to Merton from Iowa City.
Fr. Bernard Collins was Editor of «Monastic Studies». He and the publication were located at Holy Cross Abbey in Berryville, Virginia, in 1963-1964. Later in 1964, Collins writes from Guadalupe Abbey in Lafayette, Oregon. By 1965 through the rest of the correspondence, he and «Monastic Studies» have moved to Mount Saviour Monastery in Pine City, New York. In December of 1966, Collins informs Merton that he has changed his religious name to Brendan instead of Bernard, and that not all solemnly professed monks would be addressed as "Father" and that he would now be Brother Brendan.
Early in their correspondence, Sr. Angela of the Eucharist (née Viola M. Collins) was a Carmelite Prioress in Louisville, Kentucky. Between 1965 and 1966, she would became Mother Angela of the Eucharist, appointed superior of the Carmelite monastery in Savannah, Georgia.
Alan C. Collins was President of the publishing company Curtis Brown, Ltd., and writes from New York.
Rienzo Colla was Editor of «La Locusta», a publication for young Catholics published from Vincenza, Italy.
Mary Cole was working for the Archdiocese of New York in the office of Spanish Community Action.
Fr. Basilio Colasito was a Benedictine monk writing from Montserrat Abbey in Manila, Philippines.
Marvin Cohen was author of «The Self-Devoted Friend» (1967), and a contributor to «Monks Pond» in 1968. He writes from New York.
Thomas Coffey was President of Dimension Books in Denville, New Jersey.
Ann Cockrill was entering the Carmelites and writing from Memphis, Tennessee.
Dick Coanda was active in the Cursillo Movement in the Catholic Church and served as editor of a small Cursillo newsletter called «Ultreya».
Mother Coakley was a Religious of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and Master of Novices of the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Albany, New York.
Fr. Benedict (Br. Benedict at this time) was a Trappist monk at Assumption Abbey in Ava, Missouri.
Fr. Clement was a priest at a Passionist monastery in Fukuoka-Shi, Japan.
The letterhead of his letter states that Fr. Clark was of the "Jesuit Mission Band" from St. Louis, Missouri. His ministry was working with those in prison on death row.
Fr. Benjamin Clark was a monk of Mepkin Abbey in Moncks Corner, South Carolina. He was a novice with Merton and later served as one of his censors. (Source: «The School of Charity», pp. 336.)
Merton writes to Mother Mary Francis Clare, who is in New Orleans. She had attended a meeting at Gethsemani Abbey in December of 1967 of Merton speaking with contemplative nuns.
Sr. Clare Marie was of the Poor Clares of Chicago.
Sr. Clare Immaculate was writing from the Sisters of Saint Francis in Philadelphia.
Bill Claire was the founder of the literary magazine «Voyages», based in Washington, D.C.
In 1933, Archbishop Amleto Giovanni Cicognani was appointed the Apostolic Delegate to the United States. He was elevated to Cardinal in 1958, replaced as Apostolic Delegate by Egidio Vagnozzi. In 1968, Cardinal Cicognani was made President of Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See, Roman Curia, Vatican City.
John Ciardi, according to the title of a lecture series on Ciardi, was a "Poet - Translator - Critic - Editor" (the lecture's brochure is included in the correspondence file). He long served as the Poetry Editor for the «Saturday Review» in New York, and in this capacity writes to Merton. He is noted for making poetry accessible to the public.
Fr. Chrysostom was a Trappist monk at Mepkin Abbey in Moncks Corner, South Carolina.
Br. Chrysostom was a monk of Gethsemani at the time of writing.
Sr. M. Chrysantha was a Franciscan sister at the College of St. Francis in Joliet, Illinois.
Marie Therese Christie writes from London.
Gordon Christiansen was the Director of Studies of the Peace Education Division of the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The AFSC is a social justice and peace organization founded by Quakers.
Christine Bochen describes Napoleón Chow as "belong[ing] to the circle of Nicaraguan poets that included Ernesto Cardenal, Pablo Antonio Cuadra, Angel Martinez, José Coronel Urtecho, and others" (Source: «The Courage for Truth», pp. 167).
Fr. Serge Choupner writes from the Monastery of the Franciscan Fathers in Rennes, France.
Noam Chomsky, best known for his landmark influence on linguistics, has also been a stern critic of political empiricism and a voice of the political left in the United States. He was a stalwart critic of the war in Vietnam and attempts to get Merton's support of "A Call to Resist Illegitimate Authority". (Source: "Chomsky, Avram Noam" The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy. Simon Blackburn. Oxford University Press, 1996. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Bellarmine University. 28 July 2004 ‹http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t98.e397›).
Fr. Augustine Chlest was writing from St. Joseph Church in Carpinteria, California.
Dr. R. S. Y. Chi was a scholar on many topics including Buddhism and Oriental art. He earned doctoral degrees from Oxford and Cambridge. Merton learned of him from Lunsford Yandell, who put them in contact in 1967. Dr. Chi was a professor at University of Indiana at the time of writing (Source: «The Hidden Ground of Love», pp. 121-122).
Merton wrote to the Hon. Frank Chelf, who was with the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C.
Maria Braz Chaves (Maria Therezinha) writes from Minas Gerais, Brazil. Merton wrote her a brief letter of thanks in November of 1966. The letter is not extant but was reproduced for a book by Maria Braz Chaves, «Um Ser Entre Bilhões». The book was published in 1969 and Braz Chaves sends a copy with a note in the book and a separate letter to Dom Flavian Burns, Abbot of Gethsemani Abbey, in memory of Thomas Merton.
