Follow the Ecstasy: The Hermitage Years of Thomas MertonIn 1969, one year after Thomas Merton's tragic (and suspicious) death, John Howard Griffin was invited to write a biography of America's most famous monk, a monk who strangely had become a best-selling theologian. The result was Follow the Ecstasy: The Hermitage Years of Thomas Merton (1983). Both Merton and Griffin were converts to Catholicism, and they had become fast friends during Griffin's occasional retreats to the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani where Merton was cloistered. As Robert Bonazzi writes in his Foreword, "With natural humility and intense spirituality, they taught each other by example and silence." Merton and Griffin were both photographers as well as writers. Griffin wrote about Merton's painting and photography in A Hidden Wholeness: The Visual World of Thomas Merton (1970). They also shared a fascination with the French theologian Jacques Maritain, as well as French modernists Pierre Reverdy, George Braque, and Albert Camus. Griffin fell ill before he could finish his biography of Merton, and the mantle of official biographer passed to Michael Mott, author of The Seven Mountains of Thomas Merton, an essential compendium of the monk's life. Yet Follow the Ecstasy gets closer to the man—a portrait made by one who shared not only personal histories and interests with Merton, but an "intuitive perspective of solitude." |
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Abbey of Gethsemani abbot Abbot Fox afternoon arrived asked authentic awakened began Berrigan Brother bursitis cabin camera Camus Catholic Peace Fellowship Chuang Tzu Church cold concelebrate conferences Dan Walsh death deeply drove everything Father Abbot Father Flavian Father John Eudes Father Louis Father Merton feel Follow the Ecstasy freedom friends hermit hermitage hope hospital human infirmary Jacques Maritain James Laughlin John Howard Griffin journal kind knew letter live loneliness looked Louisville Margie Smith Mass meditation meeting Merton wrote monastery monastic monk monk's morning never Nicanor Parra night noted O'Callaghan peace photographs poems porch pray problem quiet rain realized returned sense silence simply sleep snow solitary solitude spiritual Sunday supper talked thing Thomas Merton told Trappist trees Victor Hammer vocation vows walked week woods write Wygal