Thomas Merton (1915-1968) was a Trappist monk, social activist, mystic, writer, and academic. He was a member of the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, near Bardstown, Kentucky. Merton wrote more than 50 books, including the spiritual autobiography that made him famous: The Seven Storey Mountain. Merton was an intensely curious person and devoted much of his life as a public figure to pursuing interfaith dialog. He is especially well-known for his relationships with D.T. Suzuki and Thich That Hang. He wrote several books on Zen Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism.

“‘Wisdom’, cries the dawn deacon. But, we do not attend.”

The quotation on this piece comes from Merton’s book Confessions of a Guilty Bystander, a book of reflections that draw on his daily life at Gethsemani, as well as reflections on the War in Vietnam and the Civil Rights Movement. It is one of my favorite books and the cover art that I used in this icon comes from the 1968 paperback edition that I knicked from my Dad’s bookshelf about fifteen years ago.

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