Thomas Merton OCSO (January 31, 1915 – December 10, 1968), religious name M. Louis, was an American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, mystic, poet, social activist and scholar of comparative religion.

Merton wrote more than 50 books in a period of 27 years,[1] mostly on spirituality, social justice, and pacifism, as well as scores of essays and reviews.

[2] He was unhappy at Clare College, preferring loafing over studying, and fathered a child that he never met,[3] although he later signed at least two official court documents stating that he had "no children".

There he established close and long-lasting friendships with the painter Ad Reinhardt,[9] poet Robert Lax,[10] commentator Ralph de Toledano,[11] and the law student John Slate.

[13] 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.

In June, his friend Seymour Freedgood arranged a meeting with Mahanambrata Brahmachari, a Hindu monk visiting New York from the University of Chicago.

[16] On November 16, 1938, Thomas Merton underwent the rite of baptism at Corpus Christi Church and received Holy Communion.

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.

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.

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.

[18] 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.

Published that year were Seeds of Contemplation, The Tears of Blind Lions, The Waters of Siloe,[22] and the British edition of The Seven Storey Mountain under the title Elected Silence.

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.

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.

"[25] 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.

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.

[29] 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.

[note 1] On December 10, 1968, Merton was at a Red Cross retreat facility named Sawang Khaniwat (Thai: สวางคนิวาส) in Samut Prakan, a province near Bangkok, Thailand, attending a monastic conference.

The Spring 2024 issue of The Catholic Historical Review published "The Official Thai Reports on Thomas Merton's Death".

[40] 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.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

[60] 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.

[64] 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.