Women Who Knew Thomas Merton
Five women will discuss their personal memories of Thomas Merton, one of our century's formative thinkers, on the 30th anniversary of his death. The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine College in Louisville, Kentucky will bring together "Women Who Knew Merton:" five women who developed a friendship or professional association with Merton before his death in 1968.
The discussion will be held Dec. 10 at the Center, at Bellarmine College in Louisville, and is co-sponsored by the Thomas Merton Center Foundation. The Center and the Foundation staged an earlier event that explored Merton through the recollections of a panel of monks who were novices or students of Merton.
The "Women Who Knew Merton" are:
Christine Bochen: A professor of religious studies at Nazareth College in Rochester, N.Y. She is a founding member of the International Thomas Merton Society and editor of the fourth volume of Merton's letters, "The Courage for Truth," and the sixth volume of Merton's journals, "Learning to Love."
Sister Myriam Dardenne: Having first met Merton on a visit to Gethsemani, Sister Dardenne and Merton became friends and correspondents. She was superior of the Trappistine monastery, Our Lady of the Redwoods, in Whitethorn, Calif., which Merton visited twice in 1968.
Madelyn Meatyard: Wife of renowned photographer Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Madelyn Meatyard became a friend of Thomas Merton through the couple's many trips to Gethsemani to photograph Merton and discuss photography, and during Merton's visits to the Meatyard home in Lexington, Ky.
Tommie O'Callaghan: Having first met Thomas Merton in the early 1950s, Tommie O'Callaghan's relationship with Merton grew throughout the 1960s. On his many trips to Louisville, Merton frequently visited the O'Callaghan family. Merton selected O'Callaghan to be the local trustee of the Merton Legacy Trust, a position she continues to hold today. O'Callaghan is also a trustee of the Thomas Merton Center Foundation.
Sister Mary Luke Tobin: Merton found a kindred spirit in Sister Mary Luke Tobin, superior of the Convent of the Sisters of Loretto in Nerinx, Ky., which is located near Gethsemani. Sister Tobin was appointed as an official auditor at the Second Vatican Council, the first woman accorded that position. She founded the Thomas Merton Center for Creative Exchange in Denver as a meeting ground for those desiring to live a life of contemplative prayer and of action.
For more information about activities at the Merton Center, contact Ed Kanis in the Bellarmine College news office at 502-452-8023.
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