BY LUKE TIA
Lions’ Pride Staff Writer

www.mertoncenter.org

Thomas Merton in his study.

Students and staff from the Saint Leo community gathered in the Southard Room of Cannon Memorial Library Wednesday night to explore the life of the famous twentieth century Trappist monk and writer, Thomas Merton, through a documentary film.

The event was organized and led by Saint Leo religion professor Dr. Robert Imperato. Imperato was uniquely qualified for the task, having been a monk for seven years at Merton’s monastery, the Abbey of Gethesemi, and having later authored a book on Merton titled Merton and Walsh on the Person.

“For me, Thomas Merton is by far the most important American Catholic writer of all. I cannot even think of a close second,” said Imperato.

The film was Soul Searching: The Journey of Thomas Merton directed by Morgan Atkinson and released in 2006. It is a poetic, dramatic, and sometimes haunting telling of Merton’s life through his own writings and the words of those who knew him best, whether personally or simply through his writings. Photographs, film, actor dramatizations, and music were all included to create a rich portrait of both Merton’s personal life and the Americas’ accompanying history.

We enter Merton’s life story during his active college years at Columbia University in the 1930s and follow him through his conversion to Catholicism, his entry into monastic life, his burgeoning and prolific writing career, and finally to his untimely accidental death in 1968.

Merton’s greatest gift was his writing, which produced his autobiography The Seven Story Mountain, a modern Catholic classic, and books on subjects ranging from contemplation, war and peace, and eastern religions. His writings are as much, if not more, relevant today as they were when first written. As one commenter said, “it is not that Merton is a relic of the past, but that we have not yet caught up with him.”

The members of the audience included both those familiar to and new to Merton, but several were definitely interested in exploring more of his writings after the film.

As another commentator in the film said, Merton is one of people of the last century who has reached a mythic stature, and even this film’s beautiful and highly satisfying account of Merton’s life and spirit was only a small taste of Merton’s life and writings.

As Imperato told the audience before the film, “To really appreciate Merton, you need to read Merton.”