Mother Myriam Dardenne founded Redwoods Abbey, a Trappist community of women, in White Thorn, California. Merton met her on her way to found it in 1962. Later, he visited Redwoods before continuing his trip to Asia. They discuss Merton's travel plans and arrangements for a meeting of contemplative religious at Redwoods Monastery.
J. B. Das was writing a tribute to Dr. Mahanambrata Brahmachari, a friend of Merton's from Columbia and about whom he mentions in «The Seven Storey Mountain». He is asking for a contribution to this written piece by Merton.
Fr. Hubert Daubechies is a Jesuit and chief editor of «Revista Mensaje» and wants to translate Merton's "The Black Revolution" article into Spanish for his magazine. He writes from Santiago, Chile.
Guy Davenport was a professor of literature at University of Kentucky and author of literary essays, short stories and poetry. He visited Merton's hermitage in 1967 (source: «The Courage for Truth», p. 251).
Arthur J. Davidson writes from New York.
Irvan Davis writes on behalf of Celebrities Art Exhibits in St. Louis, Missouri.
Archbishop James P. Davis was bishop of San Juan, Puerto Rico, at the time of correspondence with Merton.
Mary Ann Davis and Donna Gunty write from Chicago, Illinois.
Peter Davison was director of «The Atlantic Monthly Press» from Boston, Massachusetts. He asks Merton for his thoughts on Bertrand Russell's autobiography for use as a promotional quote.
Social activist, author, and co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, Dorothy Day was a profound influence and mentor for Merton. Merton especially respected her commitment to non-violence and to the poor. A complex and dynamic figure, she espoused politically leftist views, while maintaining a traditional faith in Catholicism. (Source: «The Hidden Ground of Love», pp. 135-136.)
Bernard de Aguiar was born in New Jersey in 1926. First a Benedictine, he transferred to Gethsemani and became a Trappist in 1951 where he took the name Sylvanus. After 11 years at the Abbey, he was ordained a priest. Soon after, in 1962, he obtained permission to live an eremitical life away from Gethsemani with Dom Jacques Winandy in Martinique. In 1969, he moved to Hornby Island (between the British Columbia mainland and Vancouver Island) and started a pottery studio called Earthen Vessels. He was laicized in 1974.
Fr. Clément de Bourbon writes from the Cistercian Abbey of Santa María de Viaceli in Spain. He was secretary to Abbot General Gabriel Sortais.
Dr. Louis de Crenascol was director of the Art Department at Seton Hall University in New Jersey.
Fr. Roger De Ganck first rights from the Trappist abbey of Westmalle in Belgium. Later, he has relocated to the new Trappist foundation of Redwoods Abbey in California.
Fr. Paul Marie de la Croix writes from Bernay en Champagne in France.
Ricardo I. de León was a former novice at Gethsemani who was living in the Philippines at the time of correspondence with Merton. He later became director of Caritas Manila, a Catholic social services agency.
Richard De Martino was writing from the Temple University Department of Religion in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Along with Abe Masao and Nishitani Keiji, he was involved in the return in 1965 of «The Eastern Buddhist», which was originally started in 1921 by D. T. Suzuki and which featured articles on Buddhism and Buddhist texts in translation.
Dominique de Menil (wife of John de Menil [Jean Marie Joseph Menu de Menil]) writes from Houston, Texas. A prominent oil family, the de Menils collected one of the largest and most important American collections of art. They also devoted much of their later lives to ecumenism. The Menil Collection and the Rothko Chapel are testaments to their legacy in the arts and in ecumenism.
John de Menil (husband of Dominique de Menil) writes from Houston, Texas. A prominent oil family, the de Menils collected one of the largest and most important American collections of art. They also devoted much of their later lives to ecumenism. The Menil Collection and the Rothko Chapel are testaments to their legacy in the arts and in ecumenism.
Br. De Montfort was a monk of Gethsemani Abbey. He seemed to be assisting Merton in furnishing either Merton's hermitage or one of the either sheds Merton used for prayer. There are also discussions of other little places for other monks to pray in nature but to take shelter from the rain and talk of a small chapel.
Norman R. De Puy was editor of «Mission: The American Baptist Magazine» from Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.
Remi J. De Roo was Bishop of Victoria, British Columbia in Canada. He gave permission for Dom Jacques Winandy, O.S.B. to establish a "community" of hermits, the Hermits of St. John the Baptist, in his diocese in 1964. The hermits lived and prayed independently, but were in proximity to each other and under the guidance of an elder or superior.
Jacques de Spoelberch was an editor for Houghton Mifflin in Boston, Massachusetts, and asks Merton to do an introduction for Michel Bernanos' «La Montagne Morte de la Vie».
Mara de Sylva was a woman who had been nearly blind for 80 years. She writes to Merton to pray for her son, Joaquim Oscar de Sylva, who is suffering health problems from fumes he was exposed to at work.
According to a note to handwritten on one of the letters, Randy de Trinis, known at Gethsemani as Sebastian, entered Gethsemani in 1955, made simple profession in 1957, and left the monastery on June 9, 1959. He later writes from St. Joseph's Priory in Somerset, Ohio. In his last cards, he speaks of a desire to enter Christ in the Desert, a Benedictine monastery in New Mexico.
Poet and writer Catherine de Vinck was born in Belgium. She was married to Baron José de Vinck in 1945, and they moved to the United States in 1948. A Catholic, she has authored a number of books of mystical and devotional poetry and other spiritual works. She writes from Allendale, New Jersey.
Baron José M. G. A. de Vinck was a publisher, editor, translator, writer, and owner of Alleluia Press. He wrote and translated books on philosophy and theology. He writes from Allendale, New Jersey.
Fr. Edwin Deane was a Franciscan priest and master of cleric novices at St. Anthony Friary in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Fr. Jean-Marie Déchanet was a monk of Sint-Andriesabdij (Abbaye de Saint-André) near Bruges, Belgium. In 1956, he wrote the book «Christian Yoga». By his 1961 letters, he was living in a monastic foundation in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Abbot Francis De Croix was at the Cistercian Abbey in Frattocchie, Italy, of the Madonna del SS. Sacramento.
Moshe Decter was executive secretary for the Conference on the Status of Soviet Jews and writes from New York.
Dr. Arthur J. Deikman of Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Paula Deitz was associate editor for «The Hudson Review» in New York.
Valerie Delacorte was writing from New York.
Br. Alberic Delaney was a monk of Gethsemani.
John J. Delaney was an editor for Doubleday and Company in New York.
Fr. Jean Delat writes from the Trappist monastery of the Abbaye Sainte Marie du Désert in France.
Betty Delius was director of Bellarmine College Library at the time of correspondence with her in 1960.
Angelo Cardinal Dell'Acqua writes on behalf of three Popes as "Sostituto", similar to an interior minister for Vatican City.
At the time of Merton's letter to Dellinger, he was publisher and editor of «Liberation» magazine (Merton seemingly did not know Dellinger and addresses the letter "To the editor of Liberation"). Born into a prominent New England Republican family in 1815, Dellinger seemed destined to be a leader in the capitalist system he would later oppose. After earning an economics degree from Yale, he spent a year in Yale's Divinity School and another year in Union Theological Seminary in New York. Although he did not follow a vocation to the Christian clergy, he seems to have formulated a pacifist stand during these years and refused military conscription in 1940. He served a year in federal prison for this offense and later two more years for draft resistance during the Second World War. After founding a co-operative community with a farm and a newspaper, he founded «Liberation» magazine in 1956. The magazine was well-respected in the political left for its coverage of war resistance, social justice, and was one of the first national publications to recognize the significance of Martin Luther King, Jr. in the Civil Rights Movement. He achieved some of his greatest notoriety during his protests of the Vietnam War, helping organize the first major protest against the Vietnam War in New York, the October 1965 Fifth Avenue Peace Parade. An organizer of the protest at the August 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, he was arrested with others who became known as the Chicago Seven. (Source: "Dellinger, David." Obituary from Current Biography. 2004. Wilson Biographies Plus. Online. H.W. Wilson. Bellarmine University Library, Louisville, KY. 5 Oct. 2006. ‹http://vnweb.hwwilsonweb.com›.)
Frank Dell'Isola compiled and updated bibliographies of Thomas Merton's writings, as well as writing books and articles on Scripture studies.
Canon Delteil was from Merton's childhood home of Saint-Antonin in France. He sends two letters of Owen Merton and some pictures. (The letters and pictures were not kept together in this file.)
Cecil B. DeMille was a filmmaker best known for his biblical epic, «The Ten Commandments».
Barbara Deming writes from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. She was an American author and activist interested in non-violence, war resistance, civil rights, feminism, and gay and lesbian rights. (Source: Biography from «Deming, Barbara, 1917- . Papers, 1908-1985: A Finding Aid» (MC 408), Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University. Accessed 11 March 2009. ‹http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/findingAidDisplay?_collection=oasis&inoid=2145›.)
Ruby Dennison was originally from Ireland and working with the Legion of Mary in South Africa.
Fr. Basil DePinto was a Benedictine priest at Mount Saviour Monastery in Pine City, New York, and took over as editor of «Monastic Studies» from Brendan Collins. DePinto was a former monk of Gethsemani. He later left the Benedictines but remained a priest, serving in Rhode Island and California.
Fr. Don Derivaux, known in his 18 years at Gethsemani as Francis, had later left the Trappists to become a priest in Mississippi. In 1965, while still with Gethsemani and studying in Rome, Merton writes and tells him of events at the abbey and of racial tensions in the south. Though he considers becoming laicized in his letter of 1968 to Merton, he remained a priest and has recently retired as a hermit.
Christopher Derrick became editor of «Good Work», a publication of the Catholic Art Association. He writes from England.
Dom Albert Derzelle was Prior of Caldey, a Trappist monastery on Caldey Island off of Wales.
Fr. Placide Deseille was a Trappist of the Abbey of Bellefontaine in France.
Raymond A. DeSutter, II was a novice at Gethsemani under Merton. His name in religion was Fr. Robert and was at Gethsemani Abbey from 1957-1963.
Don Devereux translated "Nocturne" by late 19th Century minor French poet, Jules Tellier, which appeared in the third edition of «Monks Pond». Devereux moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1962 where he worked with programs to assist migrant workers. He was also an art and literary contributor to «The Christian Century».
Fr. Richard Devine was a Vincentian priest and dean of the graduate school at St. John's University in New York.
