Thomas Merton

Thomas Merton was born in Prades, Pyrénées-Orientales, France, on January 31, 1915, to parents of Welsh origin: Owen Merton, a New Zealand painter active in Europe and the United States, and Ruth Jenkins Merton, an American Quaker and artist. They had met at a painting school in Paris.{{Cite web|url=https://merton.org/chrono.aspx|title=Thomas Merton's Life and Work – Thomas Merton Center|website=merton.org|access-date=May 31, 2024|archive-date=February 16, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220216175214/https://merton.org/chrono.aspx|url-status=live}} He was baptized in the Church of England, in accordance with his father's wishes.{{Cite magazine|last=Jacobs|first=Alan|date=December 28, 2018|title=Thomas Merton, the Monk Who Became a Prophet|url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/thomas-merton-the-monk-who-became-a-prophet|access-date=April 16, 2024|magazine=The New Yorker|language=en-us|archive-date=September 2, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190902120314/https://www.newyorker.com/books/under-review/thomas-merton-the-monk-who-became-a-prophet|url-status=live}} Merton's father was often absent during his son's childhood.

During World War I, in August 1915, the Merton family left France for the United States. They lived first with Ruth's parents in Queens, New York, and then settled near them in Douglaston. In 1917, the family moved into an old house in Flushing, Queens, where Merton's brother, John Paul, was born on November 2, 1918.Seven Storey Mountain, pp. 7–9. The family was considering returning to France when Ruth was diagnosed with stomach cancer. She died from it on October 21, 1921, in Bellevue Hospital. Merton was six years old and his brother not yet three.Seven Storey Mountain pp. 15–18.

In 1926, when Merton was eleven, his father enrolled him in a boys' boarding school in Montauban, the Lycée Ingres. In the summer of 1928, he withdrew Merton from Lycée Ingres, saying the family was moving to England.{{cite book|last=Cunningham|first=Lawrence|title=Thomas Merton and the Monastic Vision|year=1999|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|page=[https://archive.org/details/thomasmertonmona0000cunn/page/5 5]|isbn=9780802802224|url=https://archive.org/details/thomasmertonmona0000cunn|url-access=registration}}

In October 1933, Merton, age 18, entered Clare College, Cambridge, as an undergraduate to study French and Italian. He was unhappy at Clare College, preferring loafing over studying, and fathered a child that he never met, although he later signed at least two official court documents stating that he had "no children".{{cite web|title=Declaration of Intention|url=http://www.themartyrdomofthomasmerton.com/ewExternalFiles/Declaration%20of%20intention.pdf}}{{cite web|title=Petition for Naturalization|url=http://www.themartyrdomofthomasmerton.com/ewExternalFiles/Petition-for-Naturalization-1948.pdf}}

In January 1935, Merton enrolled as a sophomore at Columbia University in New York City. There he established close and long-lasting friendships with the painter Ad Reinhardt,{{Cite web|last=Yau|first=John|date=January 16, 2014|title=Ad Reinhardt and the Via Negativa|url=https://brooklynrail.org/special/AD_REINHARDT/ad-and-spirituality/ad-reinhardt-and-the-via-negativa|access-date=August 29, 2021|website=The Brooklyn Rail|language=en-US|archive-date=August 3, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210803100923/https://brooklynrail.org/special/AD_REINHARDT/ad-and-spirituality/ad-reinhardt-and-the-via-negativa|url-status=live}} poet Robert Lax,{{Cite book|last=Biddle|first=Arthur W.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DGO8mse-lOIC&q=john+slate+robert+lax&pg=PR8|title=When Prophecy Still Had a Voice: The Letters of Thomas Merton and Robert Lax|date=January 1, 2001|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=978-0-8131-2168-0|language=en|access-date=September 1, 2021|archive-date=May 31, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240531065639/https://books.google.com/books?id=DGO8mse-lOIC&q=john+slate+robert+lax&pg=PR8#v=snippet&q=john%20slate%20robert%20lax&f=false|url-status=live}} commentator Ralph de Toledano,{{Cite web|last=Ziolkowski|first=Jan M.|date=2018|title=The Juggler of Notre Dame and the Medievalizing of Modernity. Volume 6: War and Peace, Sex and Violence|url=https://www.openbookpublishers.com/htmlreader/978-1-78374-539-5/ch3.xhtml|access-date=August 29, 2021|website=openbookpublishers.com|archive-date=August 29, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210829082033/https://www.openbookpublishers.com/htmlreader/978-1-78374-539-5/ch3.xhtml|url-status=live}} and the law student John Slate.{{Cite web|title=Slate, John H., 1913–1967 – Correspondence|url=http://merton.org/Research/Correspondence/y1.aspx?id=1861|access-date=July 10, 2021|website=merton.org|archive-date=May 31, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240531065643/https://merton.org/Research/Correspondence/y1.aspx?id=1861|url-status=live}} He also befriended the publisher Robert Giroux.{{Cite book|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvpj7764|title=The Letters of Robert Giroux and Thomas Merton|date=2015|publisher=University of Notre Dame Press|doi=10.2307/j.ctvpj7764|jstor=j.ctvpj7764|isbn=978-0-268-01786-6|access-date=August 29, 2021|archive-date=August 29, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210829082022/https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvpj7764|url-status=live}} Merton attended an 18th-century English literature course during the spring semester taught by Mark Van Doren, a professor with whom he maintained a lifetime friendship.{{Cite book |last=Ledbetter |first=J. T. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zvkfAQAAIAAJ&q=thomas+merton+mark+van+doren |title=Mark Van Doren |date=1996 |publisher=Peter Lang |isbn=978-0-8204-3334-9 |pages=158 |language=en}}

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In January 1938, Merton graduated from Columbia with a B.A. in English. In June, his friend Seymour Freedgood arranged a meeting with Mahanambrata Brahmachari, a Hindu monk visiting New York from the University of Chicago. Merton was impressed by him. While Merton expected Brahmachari to recommend Hinduism, instead he advised Merton to reconnect with Christianity. He suggested Merton read the Confessions of Augustine and The Imitation of Christ. Merton read them both.{{cite news |title=Mahanambrata Brahmachari Is Dead at 95 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/01/world/mahanambrata-brahmachari-is-dead-at-95.html?sec=&spon= |date=November 1, 1999 |newspaper=New York Times |first=Gustav |last=Niebuhr |access-date=May 25, 2010 |archive-date=May 23, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130523130315/http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/01/world/mahanambrata-brahmachari-is-dead-at-95.html?sec=&spon= |url-status=live }} In August 1938, he attended Mass at Corpus Christi Church, located near the Columbia campus. He began to read more extensively in Catholicism.{{Cite web |last=King |first=David A. |date=2019-10-17 |title=Thomas Merton and the doors of Corpus Christi Church - Georgia Bulletin |url=https://georgiabulletin.org/news/2019/10/thomas-merton-and-the-doors-of-corpus-christi-church/ |access-date=2024-10-31 |website=georgiabulletin.org |language=en-US}}

On November 16, 1938, Thomas Merton underwent the rite of baptism at Corpus Christi Church and received Holy Communion.Thomas Merton's paradise journey: writings on contemplation, by William Henry Shannon, Thomas Merton, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2000 p. 278. On February 22, 1939, Merton received his M.A. in English from Columbia University. Merton decided he would pursue his PhD at Columbia and moved from Douglaston to Greenwich Village. He then discerned a call to religious life.

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On December 10, 1941, Thomas Merton arrived at the Abbey of Gethsemani and spent three days at the monastery guest house, waiting for acceptance into the order. On December 13 he was accepted into the monastery as a postulant by Frederic Dunne, Gethsemani's abbot since 1935, and given the religious name Mary Louis. Merton had a severe cold from his stay in the guest house, where he sat in front of an open window to prove his sincerity. During his initial weeks at Gethsemani, Merton studied the Trappist sign language and daily work and worship routine.

In March 1942, during the first Sunday of Lent, Merton was accepted as a novice at the convent. In June, he received a letter from his brother John Paul stating he was soon to leave for the war and would be coming to Gethsemani to visit before leaving. On July 17 John Paul arrived in Gethsemani. John Paul expressed his desire to become a Catholic, and by July 26 was baptized at a church in nearby New Haven, Kentucky, leaving the following day. This would be the last time the two saw each other. John Paul died on April 17, 1943, when his plane failed over the English Channel. A poem by Merton to John Paul appears in The Seven Storey Mountain.

Merton kept journals throughout his stay at Gethsemani. Initially, he felt writing to be at odds with his vocation, worried it would foster a tendency to individuality. But his superior, Dunne, tasked Merton beginning in 1943 to translate religious texts and write biographies of saints.

On March 19, 1944, Merton made his temporary vows and was given the black scapular and leather belt. In November 1944 a manuscript Merton had given to friend Robert Lax the previous year was published by James Laughlin at New Directions: a book of poetry titled Thirty Poems.{{Cite book |last=Merton |first=Thomas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=epHws7LjWw0C&dq=Thirty+Poems+merton&pg=IA5 |title=The Collected Poems of Thomas Merton |date=1977 |publisher=New Directions Publishing |isbn=978-0-8112-0769-0 |pages=25 |language=en}} In 1946 New Directions published another poetry collection by Merton, A Man in the Divided Sea, which, combined with Thirty Poems, attracted some recognition for him. The same year Merton's manuscript for The Seven Storey Mountain was accepted by Harcourt Brace & Company. The Seven Storey Mountain, Merton's autobiography, was written during two-hour intervals in the monastery scriptorium as a personal project.{{Cite journal |last1=Cunningham |first1=Lawrence S. |last2=Martin |first2=James |last3=Weis |first3=Monica |last4=Weiss |first4=Monica |last5=Pycior |first5=Julie Leininger |date=2015 |title=Merton at One Hundred: Reflections on "The Seven Storey Mountain" |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/44195542 |journal=American Catholic Studies |volume=126 |issue=2 |pages=69–80 |jstor=44195542 |issn=2161-8542}}

On March 19, 1947 he took his solemn vows, binding for life. He also began corresponding with a Carthusian at St. Hugh's Charterhouse in England. Merton had harbored an appreciation for the Carthusian order since coming to Gethsemani in 1941, and would later come to consider leaving the Cistercians for that order.{{Cite book |last=Grayston |first=Donald |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qoecCQAAQBAJ&dq=merton+and+carthusians&pg=PA56 |title=Thomas Merton and the Noonday Demon: The Camaldoli Correspondence |date=2015-05-19 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers |isbn=978-1-4982-0937-3 |pages=56 |language=en}}

In 1948 The Seven Storey Mountain was published to critical acclaim, with fan mail to Merton reaching new heights. Merton also published several works for the monastery that year, which were: Guide to Cistercian Life, Cistercian Contemplatives, Figures for an Apocalypse, and The Spirit of Simplicity. That year Saint Mary's College (Indiana) also published a booklet by Merton, What Is Contemplation? Merton published as well that year a biography, Exile Ends in Glory: The Life of a Trappistine, Mother M. Berchmans, O.C.S.O. Merton's abbot, Dunne, died on August 3, 1948, while riding on a train to Georgia. Dunne's passing was painful for Merton, who had come to look on the abbot as a father figure and spiritual mentor. On August 15 the monastic community elected Dom James Fox, a former US Navy officer, as their new abbot. In October Merton discussed with him his ongoing attraction to the Carthusian and Camaldolese orders and their eremitical way of life, to which Fox responded by assuring Merton that he belonged at Gethsemani. Fox permitted Merton to continue his writing, Merton now having gained substantial recognition outside the monastery. On December 21 Merton was ordained as a subdeacon. From 1948 on, Merton identified himself as an anarchist.{{cite book | last=Labrie | first=R. | title=Thomas Merton and the Inclusive Imagination | publisher=University of Missouri Press | year=2001 | isbn=978-0-8262-6279-0 | url=https://archive.org/details/thomasmertonincl00labr | url-access=registration | access-date=May 7, 2017 | page=[https://archive.org/details/thomasmertonincl00labr/page/207 207]}}

On January 5, 1949, Merton took a train to Louisville and applied for American citizenship. Published that year were Seeds of Contemplation, The Tears of Blind Lions, The Waters of Siloe,Lekai claims that Siloe was Merton's "only truly historical work." Lekai, Louis (1978). "Thomas Merton - the Historian?". Cistercian Studies. 13 (4): 387. and the British edition of The Seven Storey Mountain under the title Elected Silence. On March 19, Merton became a deacon in the order, and on May 26 (Ascension Thursday) he was ordained a priest, saying his first Mass the following day. In June, the monastery celebrated its centenary, for which Merton authored the book Gethsemani Magnificat in commemoration. In November, Merton started teaching mystical theology to novices at Gethsemani, a duty he greatly enjoyed. By this time Merton was a huge success outside the monastery, The Seven Storey Mountain having sold over 150,000 copies. It is on National Review{{-'}}s list of the 100 best nonfiction books of the twentieth century.[http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/215718/non-fiction-100 The 100 best non-fiction books of the century] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150215165349/http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/215718/non-fiction-100|date=February 15, 2015}}, National Review

In this particularly prolific period of his life, Merton is believed to have been suffering from loneliness and stress. One incident indicative of this is his drive with the monastery's jeep, acting in a possibly manic state, during which he almost caused a head-on collision.Waldron, Robert G. (2014). The Wounded Heart of Thomas Merton. Paulist Press. p. 56. {{ISBN|978-0809146840}}.

In 1953 he published a journal of monastery life titled The Sign of Jonas. Merton became well known for his dialogues with other faiths and his non-violent stand during the race riots and Vietnam War of the 1960s. By this time, he had adopted a broadly human viewpoint, concerned about issues like peace, racial tolerance, and social equality. In a letter to Nicaraguan liberation theologian Ernesto Cardenal (who had entered Gethsemani but left in 1959 to study theology in Mexico), Merton wrote: "The world is full of great criminals with enormous power, and they are in a death struggle with each other. It is a huge gang battle, using well-meaning lawyers and policemen and clergymen as their front, controlling papers, means of communication, and enrolling everybody in their armies."Letter, November 17, 1962, quoted in Monica Furlong's Merton: a Biography p. 263. He developed a personal radicalism which was political but not overtly sympathetic to Marxism, even though his Cisterican critic Louis Lekai identified Merton's "adherence to Marxian slogans."{{Cite journal |last=Lekai |first=Louis |date=1978 |title=Thomas Merton - the Historian? |journal=Cistercian Studies |volume=13 |issue=4 |pages=384–386 |quote=he had recourse to worn-out clichés (borrowed mostly from Marx), or quoted traditionally accepted views without attempting to look more deeply into the subject.}} Merton was above all devoted to non-violence. He regarded his viewpoint as based on "simplicity" and expressed it as a Christian sensibility. His New Seeds of Contemplation was published in 1961.

Merton finally achieved the solitude he had long desired while living in a hermitage on the monastery grounds in 1965. Over the years he had occasional battles with some of his abbots about not being allowed out of the monastery despite his international reputation and voluminous correspondence with many well-known figures of the day.

At the end of 1968, the new abbot, Flavian Burns, allowed him the freedom to undertake a tour of Asia, during which he met the Dalai Lama in India on three occasions, and also the Tibetan Buddhist Dzogchen master Chatral Rinpoche, followed by a solitary retreat near Darjeeling, India. In Darjeeling, he befriended Tsewang Yishey Pemba, a prominent member of the Tibetan community.{{cite book |last= Merton |first= Thomas |title= The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton |publisher= New Directions |date= February 1975 |isbn= 0-8112-0570-3 |url-access= registration |url= https://archive.org/details/isbn_0811205703 }} Then, in what was to be his final letter, he noted, "In my contacts with these new friends, I also feel a consolation in my own faith in Christ and in his dwelling presence. I hope and believe he may be present in the hearts of all of us."{{cite magazine |title=Religion: Mystic's Last Journey |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,904007,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081214065625/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,904007,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 14, 2008 |date=August 6, 1973 |magazine=TIME | access-date=May 25, 2010}}

Merton's role as a writer is explored in novelist Mary Gordon's On Merton (2019).{{cite book | url=https://www.shambhala.com/thomas-merton.html | title=On Merton | publisher=Shambhala Publications | author=Gordon, Mary | year=2019 | isbn=978-1-6118-0337-2 | access-date=February 9, 2019 | archive-date=August 8, 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190808053757/https://www.shambhala.com/thomas-merton.html | url-status=dead }}

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According to The Seven Storey Mountain, the youthful Merton loved jazz, but by the time he began his first teaching job he had forsaken all but peaceful music. Later in life, whenever he was permitted to leave Gethsemani for medical or monastic reasons, he would catch what live jazz he could, mainly in Louisville or New York.

In April 1966, Merton underwent surgery to treat debilitating back pain. While recuperating in a Louisville hospital, he fell in love with Margie Smith,{{cite news |title=Book on monk Thomas Merton's love affair stirs debate |url=http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-12-23-Merton23_st_N.htm |date=December 23, 2009 |newspaper=USA Today |access-date=December 16, 2012 |archive-date=January 27, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130127013403/http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-12-23-Merton23_st_N.htm |url-status=live }} a student nurse assigned to his care. (He referred to her in his diary as "M.") He wrote poems to her and reflected on the relationship in "A Midsummer Diary for M." Merton struggled to maintain his vows while being deeply in love. It is not known if he ever consummated the relationship.This issue is discussed in detail in {{cite book |title=Beneath The Mask of Holiness|last=Shaw |first=Mark |year=2009 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=978-0-230-61653-0 }}

In Learning to Love, Merton's diary entries discuss his various meetings with Smith. In several cases he expressly denies sexual consummation, e.g. p. 52. On June 11, 1966, Merton arranged to 'borrow' the Louisville office of his psychologist, Dr. James Wygal, to get together with Smith, see p. 81. The diary entry for that day notes that they had a bottle of champagne. A parenthetical with dots at that point in the narrative indicates that further details regarding this meeting were not published in Learning to Love. In the June 14 entry, Merton notes that he had found out the night before that a brother at the abbey had overheard one of his phone conversations with Smith and had reported it to Dom James, Abbot of Gethsemani. Merton wondered which phone conversation had been monitored, saying that one he had the morning following his meeting with Smith at Wygal's office would be "the worst!!", see p. 82. Merton's June 14 entry note his discussions with Abbot James on this matter, and his intent to follow the Abbot's instruction to end his romantic relationship with M. In his entry for July 12, 1966, Merton says regarding Smith,

"Yet there is no question I love her deeply ... I keep remembering her body, her nakedness, the day at Wygal's, and it haunts me ... I could have been enslaved to the need for her body after all. It is a good thing I called it off [i.e., a proposed visit by Smith to Gethsemani to speak with Merton there following their break-up]." See p. 94.

Learning to Love reveals that Merton remained in contact with Marge after his July 12, 1966 entry (p.94) and after he recommitted himself to his vows (p. 110). He saw her again on July 16, 1966, and wrote:

She says she thinks of me all the time (as I do of her) and her only fear is that being apart and not having news of each other, we may gradually cease to believe that we are loved, that the other's love for us goes on and is real. As I kissed her she kept saying, 'I am happy, I am at peace now.' And so was I" (p. 97).

On December 10, 1968, Merton was at a Red Cross retreat facility named {{transliteration|th|Sawang Khaniwat}} ({{langx|th|สวางคนิวาส}}) in Samut Prakan, a province near Bangkok, Thailand, attending a monastic conference.{{cite book|first=Jim|last=Forest|author-link=Jim Forest|year=1991|title=Living with Wisdom: A Life of Thomas Merton|url=https://archive.org/details/livingwithwisdom00fore/page/210/mode/2up|location=Maryknoll, New York|publisher=Orbis Books|page=211|isbn=0-88344-755-X|lccn=91-21922}}{{cite book|editor-first=John|editor-last=Moffitt|year=1970|title=A New Charter For Monasticism|url=https://archive.org/details/newcharterformon00meet/page/334/mode/2up|location=Notre Dame, Indiana|publisher=University of Notre Dame Press|page=334|lccn=70-122049}}{{cite web|first=Netiwit|last=Chotiphatphaisal|author-link=Netiwit Chotiphatphaisal|date=July 8, 2022|title=Petition in support of Thomas Merton Memorial in Thailand|url=https://netiwit.com/petition-in-support-of-thomas-merton-memorial-in-thailand/|website=Netiwit.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220709050225/https://netiwit.com/petition-in-support-of-thomas-merton-memorial-in-thailand/|archive-date=July 9, 2022|url-status=live}} After giving a talk at the morning session, he was found dead later in the afternoon in the room of his cottage, wearing only shorts, lying on his back with a short-circuited Hitachi floor fan lying across his body.Hugh Turley and David Martin, The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton: An Investigation, [http://merton.org/book.aspx] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190903210706/http://merton.org/book.aspx|date=September 3, 2019}} His associate, Jean Leclercq, stated: "In all probability the death of Thomas Merton was due in part to heart failure, in part to an electric shock."{{cite web|url=http://monasticdialog.com/a.php?id=873 |title=Monastic Interreligious Dialogue – Final Memories of Thomas Merton |date=December 12, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081212155450/http://monasticdialog.com/a.php?id=873 |archive-date=December 12, 2008 }} Since there was no autopsy, there was no suitable explanation for the wound in the back of Merton's head, "which had bled considerably."Michael Mott, The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton, pp. 567–568. Hugh Turley and David Martin, The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton: An Investigation, p. 84. [http://www.themartyrdomofthomasmerton.com/] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181025070934/http://www.themartyrdomofthomasmerton.com/|date=October 25, 2018}} Arriving from the cottage next to Merton's, the Primate of the Benedictine order and presiding officer of the conference, Rembert Weakland, anointed Merton.{{cite book|last=Weakland|first=Rembert|title=A Pilgrim in a Pilgrim Church|year=2009|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|page=166|isbn=9780802863829|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_O9SSZk7SVUC&pg=PA166}}

His body was flown back to the United States on board a US military aircraft returning from Vietnam. He is buried at the Gethsemani Abbey.

In 2018, Hugh Turley and David Martin published The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton: An Investigation, presenting the evidentiary record's refutation of claims of accidental electrocution, and suggesting Merton was assassinated for his political opposition to the Vietnam War.{{cite web|url=https://kboo.fm/media/66428-martyrdom-thomas-merton-investigation|title=The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton: An Investigation|date=July 9, 2018|access-date=December 3, 2018|archive-date=March 27, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190327134835/https://kboo.fm/media/66428-martyrdom-thomas-merton-investigation|url-status=live}}{{cite web

|url=https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/did-the-cia-kill-a-turbulent-war-critical-catholic-monk-1.3718440

|title=This turbulent monk: Did the CIA kill vocal war critic Thomas Merton?

|author=Soline Humbert

|date=December 3, 2018

|publisher=Irish Times

|access-date=December 3, 2018

|archive-date=May 31, 2024

|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240531065644/https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/did-the-cia-kill-a-turbulent-war-critical-catholic-monk-1.3718440

|url-status=live

}} A subsequent book by Turley, Thomas Merton's Betrayers: The Case Against Abbot James Fox and Author John Howard Griffin, presents documentary evidence of manipulation and coverup by the Catholic Church and Merton's political foes.

The Spring 2024 issue of The Catholic Historical Review published "The Official Thai Reports on Thomas Merton's Death". The official cause of death was a natural cause, "sudden heart failure" and not "accidental electrocution." The police report states that Merton was already dead before he came into contact with a faulty fan that was found lying across his body.{{cite book|last=Turley & Martin|title=Catholic Historical Review|date=Spring 2024|volume=110 |issue=2 |pages=384–396 |publisher=Catholic University of America Press|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/16/article/928001}}

Merton was first exposed to and became interested in Eastern religions when he read Aldous Huxley's Ends and Means in 1937, the year before his conversion to Catholicism.Solitary Explorer: Thomas Merton's Transforming Journey p.100. Throughout his life, he studied Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Jainism, and Sufism in addition to his academic and monastic studies.{{Cite web|url=https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/merton.htm|title=Thomas Merton|website=lighthousetrailsresearch.com|access-date=May 31, 2024|archive-date=February 27, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240227173425/https://lighthousetrailsresearch.com/merton.htm|url-status=live}}

While Merton was not interested in what these traditions had to offer as doctrines and institutions, he was deeply interested in what each said of the depth of human experience. He believed that for the most part, Christianity had forsaken its mystical tradition in favor of Cartesian emphasis on "the reification of concepts, idolization of the reflexive consciousness, flight from being into verbalism, mathematics, and rationalization."Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander p. 285.

Merton was perhaps most interested in—and, of all of the Eastern traditions, wrote the most about—Zen. Having studied the Desert Fathers and other Christian mystics as part of his monastic vocation, Merton had a deep understanding of what it was those men sought and experienced in their seeking. He found many parallels between the language of these Christian mystics and the language of Zen philosophy.

In 1959, Merton began a dialogue with D. T. Suzuki which was published nearly ten years later in Merton's Zen and the Birds of Appetite as "Wisdom in Emptiness". Merton wrote then that "any attempt to handle Zen in theological language is bound to miss the point," calling his final statements "an example of how not to approach Zen."Zen and the Birds of Appetite p. 139. Merton struggled to reconcile the Western and Christian impulse to catalog and put into words with the ideas of Christian apophatic theology and the unspeakable nature of the Zen experience. Zhong Fushi mentions having met Merton, who allegedly said to him “Zen, is a way of perceiving the substantial reality of all things—their goodness, their beauty, and their oneness (ichinyo). Zhong interpreted this as Merton aligning Zen Buddhism with an enlightment of the Aristotelean-Thomistic transcendentals common to everything that has or is or will exist.{{Cite journal |last=Fashi |first=Zhong |date=2024-01-01 |title=The Zen Letters |url=https://www.academia.edu/125077462 |journal=Private}}

In keeping with his idea that non-Christian faiths had much to offer Christianity in experience and perspective and little or nothing in terms of doctrine, Merton distinguished between Zen Buddhism, an expression of history and culture, and Zen.Solitary Explorer: Thomas Merton's Transforming Journey p. 105. By Zen, Merton meant something not bound by culture, religion or belief. Merton was influenced by Aelred Graham's book Zen Catholicism of 1963.Solitary Explorer: Thomas Merton's Transforming Journey p. 106."Can a philosophy of life which originated in India centuries before Christ—still accepted as valid, in one or other of its many variants, by several hundred millions of our contemporaries—be of service to Catholics, or those interested in Catholicism, in elucidating certain aspects of the Church's own message? The possibility cannot be ruled out. To the point is St. Ambrose's well-known dictum, endorsed by St. Thomas Aquinas, being a gloss on {{bibleverse-lb|1|Corinthians|12:3|KJV}}, 'All that is true, by whomsoever it has been said, is from the Holy Ghost.{{' "}} {{cite book |last=Graham |first=Aelred |title=Zen Catholicism |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nnzXAAAAMAAJ |date=1963 |location=San Diego, CA |publisher=Harcourt, Brace & World |series=Harvest book |volume=118 |page=10 |isbn=978-0-15-699960-1 |access-date=July 20, 2019 |archive-date=January 26, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126021327/https://books.google.com/books?id=nnzXAAAAMAAJ |url-status=live }}

Merton also explored American Indian spirituality. He wrote a series of articles on American Indian history and spirituality for The Catholic Worker, The Center Magazine, Theoria to Theory, and Unicorn Journal.{{cite book|last=Merton|first=Thomas|title=Ishi Means Man|year=1976|publisher=Unicorn Press|url=http://merton.org/Research/Manuscripts/manu.aspx?id=3921|access-date=September 25, 2015|archive-date=September 26, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150926000451/http://merton.org/Research/Manuscripts/manu.aspx?id=3921|url-status=live}} He explored themes such as American Indian fasting{{cite book|last=Merton|first=Thomas|title=Ishi Means Man|year=1976|publisher=Unicorn Press|page=17|url=http://merton.org/Research/Manuscripts/manu.aspx?id=3921|access-date=September 25, 2015|archive-date=September 26, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150926000451/http://merton.org/Research/Manuscripts/manu.aspx?id=3921|url-status=live}} and missionary work.{{cite book|last=Merton|first=Thomas|title=Ishi Means Man|year=1976|publisher=Unicorn Press|page=37|url=http://merton.org/Research/Manuscripts/manu.aspx?id=3921|access-date=September 25, 2015|archive-date=September 26, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150926000451/http://merton.org/Research/Manuscripts/manu.aspx?id=3921|url-status=live}}

File:Thomas merton sign.jpg

Merton's influence has grown since his death, and he is widely recognized as an important 20th-century Catholic mystic and thinker. Interest in his work contributed to a rise in spiritual exploration beginning in the 1960s and 1970s in the United States. Merton's letters and diaries reveal the intensity with which their author focused on social justice issues, including the civil rights movement and proliferation of nuclear arms.{{cite journal| last=Farrell| first=James J.| title=Thomas Merton and the Religion of the Bomb| url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1123966| journal=Religion and American Culture| publisher=University of California Press| date=1995| volume=5| number=1| pages=77–98| doi=10.2307/1123966| jstor=1123966| s2cid=170922796| access-date=July 7, 2021| archive-date=July 9, 2021| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709235612/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1123966| url-status=live| url-access=subscription}} He had prohibited their publication for 25 years after his death. Publication raised new interest in Merton's life.{{cite journal|last= Pearson|first= Paul M.|title= Thomas Merton, Archivist : Preserving His Own Memory|url= https://www.jstor.org/stable/25154852|journal= Memory and History|publisher= Catholic University of America Press|date= 2003|volume= 21|number= 2|pages= 47–62|jstor= 25154852|access-date= July 7, 2021|archive-date= July 9, 2021|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20210709224943/https://www.jstor.org/stable/25154852|url-status= live}}

The Abbey of Gethsemani benefits from the royalties of Merton's writing.{{cite news |author=Robert Giroux |title=Thomas Merton's Durable Mountain |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/10/11/bookend/bookend.html |newspaper=The New York Times |date=October 11, 1998 |access-date=February 20, 2017 |archive-date=March 1, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180301092208/http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/10/11/bookend/bookend.html |url-status=live }} In addition, his writings attracted much interest in Catholic practice and thought, and in the Trappist vocation.

In recognition of Merton's close association with Bellarmine University, the university established an official repository for Merton's archives at the Thomas Merton Center on the Bellarmine campus in Louisville, Kentucky.{{Cite web|date=November 11, 2012|title=Merton Center in Louisville|url=https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/merton-center-louisville|access-date=June 2, 2020|website=National Catholic Reporter|language=en|archive-date=October 24, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024231703/https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/merton-center-louisville|url-status=live}}

The Thomas Merton Award, a peace prize, has been awarded since 1972 by the Thomas Merton Center for Peace and Social Justice in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.{{Cite web|title=Thomas Merton Award goes to climate change activist|url=https://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2013/11/05/Thomas-Merton-Award-goes-to-climate-change-activist/stories/201311050133|access-date=June 2, 2020|website=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|language=en|archive-date=August 12, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200812121514/https://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2013/11/05/Thomas-Merton-Award-goes-to-climate-change-activist/stories/201311050133|url-status=live}}

The 2015, in tribute to the centennial year of Merton's birth, The Festival of Faiths in Louisville Kentucky honored his life and work with Sacred Journey’s the Legacy of Thomas Merton.{{Cite web|last=Elson|first=Martha|title=20th Festival of Faiths honors Merton|url=https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2015/05/11/festival-faiths-examine-sacred-journeys/27132373/|access-date=June 2, 2020|website=The Courier-Journal|language=en|archive-date=May 31, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240531065641/https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/2015/05/11/festival-faiths-examine-sacred-journeys/27132373/|url-status=live}}

An annual lecture in his name is given at his alma mater, Columbia University in which the Columbia chaplaincy invites a prominent Catholic to speak.{{Cite web|title=Columbia250 Celebrates Colmbians Ahead of Their Time|url=https://c250.columbia.edu/c250_celebrates/remarkable_columbians/thomas_merton.html|access-date=July 6, 2021|website=Columbia University|language=en|archive-date=June 12, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210612071737/http://www.c250.columbia.edu/c250_celebrates/remarkable_columbians/thomas_merton.html|url-status=live}}

The campus ministry building at St. Bonaventure University, the school where Merton taught English briefly between graduating from Columbia University with his M.A. in English and entering the Trappist order, is named after him. St. Bonaventure University also holds an important repository of Merton materials worldwide.{{cite web| url = http://web.sbu.edu/friedsam/archives/mertonweb/index.html| title = index1| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130511215042/http://web.sbu.edu/friedsam/archives/mertonweb/index.html| archive-date = May 11, 2013}}

Bishop Marrocco/Thomas Merton Catholic Secondary School in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada, which was formerly named St. Joseph's Commercial and was founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph, is named in part after him.{{Cite web|last1=Robert|first1=Grip|last2=Gary|first2=Young|title=Two Merton Schools|url=http://merton.org/ITMS/Seasonal/16/16-1Grip-MertonHigh.pdf|access-date=July 6, 2021|website=merton.org|language=en|archive-date=July 9, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210709190141/http://merton.org/ITMS/Seasonal/16/16-1Grip-MertonHigh.pdf|url-status=live}}

Some of Merton's manuscripts that include correspondence with his superiors are located in the library of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, Georgia. Antony Theodore has provided details of his encounters with Asian spiritual leaders and the influence of Confucianism, Taoism, Zen Buddhism and Hinduism on Merton's mysticism and philosophy of contemplation.{{cite book | first= Antony | last= Theodore | url= https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/30320691 | date= January 1, 1993 | access-date= July 6, 2021 | title= Thomas Merton's Mystical Quest for Union with God | pages= 88–92 | oclc= 30320691 | archive-date= May 31, 2024 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20240531065643/https://search.worldcat.org/title/30320691 | url-status= live }}

Merton was one of four Americans mentioned by Pope Francis in his speech to a joint meeting of the United States Congress on September 24, 2015. Francis said, "Merton was above all a man of prayer, a thinker who challenged the certitudes of his time and opened new horizons for souls and for the Church. He was also a man of dialogue, a promoter of peace between peoples and religions."{{cite web | url= https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2015/september/documents/papa-francesco_20150924_usa-us-congress.html | date= September 24, 2015 | access-date= September 24, 2015 | title= Address of the Holy Father | website= The Vatican | archive-date= September 25, 2015 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150925134238/http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2015/september/documents/papa-francesco_20150924_usa-us-congress.html | url-status= live }}

In 2023, Columbia University opened the Thomas Merton Institute for Catholic Life at the Church of Notre Dame.{{Cite web |last=Vance |first=Shea |title=Columbia Catholic Ministry opens University's first Catholic center – Columbia Spectator |url=https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2023/02/13/columbia-catholic-ministry-opens-universitys-first-catholic-center/ |access-date=April 1, 2023 |website=Columbia Daily Spectator |archive-date=April 1, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230401194504/https://www.columbiaspectator.com/news/2023/02/13/columbia-catholic-ministry-opens-universitys-first-catholic-center/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |date=February 16, 2023 |title=Columbia University gets its own Catholic center |url=https://aleteia.org/2023/02/16/columbia-university-gets-its-own-catholic-center/ |access-date=April 1, 2023 |website=Aleteia — Catholic Spirituality, Lifestyle, World News, and Culture |language=en |archive-date=April 1, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230401194425/https://aleteia.org/2023/02/16/columbia-university-gets-its-own-catholic-center/ |url-status=live }}

Merton's life was the subject of The Glory of the World, a play by Charles L. Mee. Roy Cockrum, a former monk who won the Powerball lottery in 2014, helped finance the production of the play in New York. Prior to New York the play was being shown in Louisville, Kentucky.{{cite web | url=https://www.npr.org/2016/01/16/463081186/glory-of-the-world-is-more-wacky-birthday-party-than-traditional-play | title='Glory Of The World' Is More Wacky Birthday Party Than Traditional Play | publisher=NPR.org | date=January 16, 2016 | author=Lunden, Jeff | access-date=April 4, 2018 | archive-date=November 16, 2018 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116072030/https://www.npr.org/2016/01/16/463081186/glory-of-the-world-is-more-wacky-birthday-party-than-traditional-play | url-status=live }}

In the 2017 movie First Reformed, written and directed by Paul Schrader, Ethan Hawke's character (a middle-aged Protestant minister) is influenced by Merton's work.{{Cite news|url=https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/first-reformed-paul-schrader-ethan-hawke/Content?oid=48718475|title=Paul Schrader's First Reformed finds pride at the root of despair|last=Jones|first=J.R.|work=Chicago Reader|access-date=June 12, 2018|language=en|archive-date=June 12, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612142518/https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/first-reformed-paul-schrader-ethan-hawke/Content?oid=48718475|url-status=live}}

Thomas Merton is portrayed briefly by Adam Kilgour as a character in the 1994 movie Quiz Show.

Starting in the early 1990s The Thomas Merton Society of Great Britain & Ireland explores the life & writings of Thomas Merton and his shaping on the modern world, with conferences, retreats and the publication of the Merton Journal.{{Cite web |date=April 6, 2023 |title=The Thomas Merton Society of Great Britain & Ireland |url=https://www.thomasmertonsociety.org.uk/ |access-date=November 7, 2023 |website=The Thomas Merton Society of Great Britain & Ireland |language=en-GB |archive-date=November 7, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231107100628/https://www.thomasmertonsociety.org.uk/ |url-status=live }}

• List of peace activists
• List of works about Thomas Merton
• Thomas Merton bibliography

{{Reflist|group=note}}

{{Reflist}}

{{refbegin|2}}

• 2023 – Turley, Hugh and David Martin, Thomas Merton's Betrayers: The Case against Abbot James Fox and Author John Howard Griffin (2023), McCabe, {{ISBN|978-0-9673521-6-9}}
• 2022 – Smelcer, John, Enacting Love: How Thomas Merton Died for Peace (2022), Naciketas Press, {{ISBN|978-1952232671}}
• 2021 – Hillis, Gregory K., Man of Dialogue: Thomas Merton's Catholic Vision (2021), Liturgical Press, {{ISBN|978-0814684603}}
• 2021 – Sweeney, Jon M., Thomas Merton: An Introduction to His Life, Teachings, and Practices (2021), Essentials, {{ISBN|978-1250250483}}
• 2019 – Gordon, Mary, On Merton (2019), Shambhala Publications, {{ISBN|978-1611803372}}
• 2018 – Turley, Hugh and David Martin, The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton (2018), McCabe, {{ISBN|978-1548077389}}
• 2017 – Merton, Thomas and Paul M. Pearson. Beholding Paradise: The Photographs of Thomas Merton. Paulist Press.
• 2015 – Lipsey, Roger. Make Peace before the Sun Goes Down: The Long Encounter of Thomas Merton and His Abbot, James Fox. Boulder, CO. Shambhala Publications {{ISBN|978-1611802252}}
• 2014 – Shaw, Jeffrey M. Illusions of Freedom: Thomas Merton and Jacques Ellul on Technology and the Human Condition. Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock. {{ISBN|978-1625640581}}.
• 2014 – Horan, Daniel. The Franciscan Heart of Thomas Merton: A New Look at the Spiritual Inspiration of His Life, Thought, and Writing Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press. (2014). {{ISBN| 978-1594714221}}
• 2008 – Graham, Terry, {{Cite web |url=http://www.nimatullahi.org/journal/merton |title=The Strange Subject – Thomas Merton's Views on Sufism |access-date=October 24, 2008 |archive-date=June 20, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100620031416/http://www.nimatullahi.org/journal/merton |url-status=dead }}, 2008, SUFI: a journal of Sufism, Issue 30.
• 2007 – Deignan, Kathleen, A Book of Hours: At Prayer With Thomas Merton (2007), Sorin Books, {{ISBN|1-933495-05-7}}.
• 2006 – Weis, Monica, Paul M. Pearson, Kathleen P. Deignan, Beyond the Shadow and the Disguise: Three Essays on Thomas Merton (2006), The Thomas Merton Society of Great Britain and Ireland, {{ISBN|0-9551571-1-0}}.
• 2003 – Merton, Thomas, Kathleen Deignan Ed., John Giuliani, Thomas Berry, When The Trees Say Nothing (2003), Sorin Books, {{ISBN|1-893732-60-6}}.
• 2002 – Shannon, William H., Christine M. Bochen, Patrick F. O'Connell The Thomas Merton Encyclopedia (2002), Orbis Books, {{ISBN|1-57075-426-8}}.
• 1997 – Merton, Thomas, "Learning to Love", The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume Six 1966–1967(1997), {{ISBN|0-06-065485-6}}. (see notes for page numbers)
• 1993 – Theodore, Antony, Thomas Merton's Mystical Quest for Union with God (1993), Ventura Verlaghaus, {{ISBN|978-38-809676-3-2}}
• 1992 – Shannon, William H., Silent Lamp: The Thomas Merton Story (1992), The Crossroad Publishing Company, {{ISBN|0-8245-1281-2}}, biography.
• 1991 – Forest, Jim, Living With Wisdom: A Life of Thomas Merton (revised edition) (2008), Orbis Books, {{ISBN|978-1-57075-754-9}}, illustrated biography.
• 1984 – Mott, Michael, The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton (1984), Harvest Books 1993: {{ISBN|0-15-680681-9}}, authorized biography.
• 1978 – Merton, Thomas, The Seven Storey Mountain (1978), A Harvest/HBJ Book, {{ISBN|0-15-680679-7}}. (see notes for page numbers)

{{refend}}

{{sister project links|d=Q335011|c=category:Thomas Merton|n=no|b=no|v=no|voy=no|m=no|mw=no|wikt=no|s=no|species=no}}

• [https://findingaids.library.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_4079099/ Finding aid to the Thomas Merton papers at Columbia University] [https://library.columbia.edu/libraries/rbml.html.html Rare Book & Manuscript Library]
• [http://archives.sbu.edu/Merton_Site/index.html Thomas Merton Archives at St. Bonaventure University]
• [https://merton.org The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University]

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