Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Title
Date(s)
- 1964, 1968 (Creation)
Extent
1 folder, 19 items, 24 pages
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
This is a file in the correspondence of Thomas Merton under the heading: "Burns, Flavian, Dom, O.C.S.O.".
System of arrangement
Records are arranged chronologically. Records are not divided into Series.
Conditions of access and use elements
Conditions governing access
Regulations governing use of the collection can be found here: (‹https://bellarmine.libraryhost.com/index.php/rules›).
Technical access
Conditions governing reproduction
Languages of the material
Scripts of the material
Language and script notes
Finding aids
Acquisition and appraisal elements
Custodial history
Immediate source of acquisition
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information
Accruals
Related materials elements
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related archival materials
See also May 23, 1973 letter in "Crane, Robert D." file from Crane to Burns and one letter from Sr. Mary Luke Tobin. See also published letters from Merton to Burns in «The School of Charity» (‹https://bellarmine.on.worldcat.org/search?queryString=no%3A26858206›), pp. 206-207, 374, 379-380, 398-405, 490-411.