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Douglaston's Own: Thomas Merton

The Catholic mystic and writer spent part of his youth living with his grandparents in Douglaston.

Thomas Merton is widely considered one of the 20th century’s most significant Catholic mystics and writers.

The one-time Douglaston resident was born in 1915 in Prades, Pyrenees-Orientales, France to New Zealand painter Owen Merton and American Quaker and artist Ruth Jenkins.

The family left for the United States shortly after Thomas’s birth as World War I ravaged Europe.

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The Mertons first made their home in Douglaston and then moved to Flushing. But Thomas moved back to Douglaston to live with his mother’s family in 1923.

Five years later, he and his father left for Ealing, West London.

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Thomas – who was, at this time, an agnostic – then decided to travel, stopping first in Paris and then moving on to Genoa, Florence and Rome, where he began to feel drawn to Catholic churches.

In the summer of 1933, Merton took a boat from Italy to visit his grandparents in Douglaston. During that time, he attended . At the end of the summer, he returned to England, where he attended Clare College.

Two years later, he was accepted at Columbia University and once again lived with his family in Douglaston.

During his time at Columbia, Merton read Etienne Gilson and Aldous Huxley, whose works introduced him to mysticism. He graduated in 1938 with an English degree, but began to consider becoming a priest.

In 1940, Merton arrived at St. Bonaventure University in Allegany, N.Y., where he took a job in the English department.

The following year, he arrived at Kentucky’s Abbey of Gethsemani, where he was accepted as a novice monk.

During this time, he began to keep a journal and was asked to translate religious texts.

Merton’s widely-read 1948 autobiography, “The Seven Storey Mountain,” was written at the monastery as a side project.

In 1949, Merton became a deacon and, in May, he was ordained a priest. In the years to follow, he wrote more than 70 books as well as poetry.

In the 1960s, he took part in dialogues with other faiths, including Buddhism, and took non-violent stances on the Vietnam War and civil rights issues.

He undertook a tour of Asia, where he met with the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan Buddhist Dzogchen master Chatral Rinpoche.

Merton died in December 1968 while attending an interfaith conference in Bangkok after he was electrocuted by accidentally touching an exposed wire.

He was buried at the Gesthemani Abbey.

The Episcopal Church honors Merton with a feast day on Dec. 10 and a peace prize in his name has been awarded since 1972 by Pittsburgh’s Thomas Merton Center for Peace and Social Justice.


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