Thomas Merton
(1915-1968) was an American writer and Trappist monk at Our Lady of
Gethsemani Abbey near Bardstown, Kentucky. He is the author
of more than seventy books (including the classic "The Seven Storey
Mountain", still in print after more than 50 years) that include
poetry, personal journals, collections of letters, social criticism
and writings for peace, social justice and
ecumenism.
Kentucky is divided
into six primary physiographic provinces : Bluegrass, Knobs,
Pennyroyal, Eastern Kentucky Coal Field, Western Kentucky Coal
Field, and the Jackson Purchase Regions. Each of these six regions
reflects the underlying geology of that particular area. The
monastery is situated at the edge of the Knobs, in an intensively
farmed wooded valley. In his journal 'The Sign of Jonas'
Merton tells of how the farmed landscape and the views of the
semi-wild surrounding hills interacted with his search for the love
of God in eternity.
This testimony is
important because he communicates in everyday language what must
have been in the minds of Cistercians through the ages regarding
the beauties and silence of their chosen environment.
