About Thomas Merton

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was a Trappist monk who spent most of his adult life at the Abbey of Gethsemani just outside of Bardstown, Kentucky.  He was born inFrance where his parents met in art school.  His mother was an American Quaker and his father was from New Zealand.  Merton was baptized in the Church of England and converted to Catholicism as a young adult.  Shortly after he was born Merton’s family moved to the United States, settling in New York.  He completed his undergraduate studies at Columbia University in Manhattan.

Merton’s autobiography, The Seven Story Mountain, was published in 1948 seven years after he entered the monastery.  It became an international bestseller and launched Merton’s career has a writer.  In 1961 Merton’s spiritual classic on the topic of contemplation, New Seeds of Contemplation, was published.  Many of his readers consider this book to be an essential Merton text and a seminal work on contemplation.  Thomas Merton is widely credited with being a person whose teaching, insight, and influence spurred the reawakening of the contemplative dimension of Christianity in the west.