resignation of, 132
Purity of heart, xxviii
Q
Quietism, definition of, 366
R
Rancé, Armand Jean le Bouthillier de, xxiii f. 37–49, 97, 184, 300
at Rome, 42
becomes an abbot, 41
books of, 45 f.
conversion of, 39 ff.
death of, 49
illness of, 125–126
nature of, 38 f.
notions of sanctity and monastic life, 43 f., 303 ff.
portrait of, 307
repugnance for monks, 39
retirement to La Trappe, 39
Refectory, 275, 366
Religious orders: apostolic functions of, xxxv f.
suppression of, 50
Revenge, spirit of, 333
Rhode Island, Trappists in, 83, 100, 177–182, 262
Richelieu, Cardinal, 33 f., 37
Riedra, La, 185
Robert, Father, 70
Robert, St, 17
Roche, Geoffrey de la, 272
Rocourt, Dom Louis, 53
Romuald, St, 8 f.
Rosary, the, 308, 366
Rule of St. Benedict, xxii, xxv, 20 f., 54, 104, 125, 150, 151, 154, 157 f., 183, 193, 280, 289, 291, 309, 340, 348
Russia, Trappists in, 58 f.
Ryan, Dom Bruno, 143
S
Sablière, Mme. de, 48
Sacrifice, love and, xx
Ste. Marie du Mont, 220
St. Louis, settlement, 74
St. Patrick’s Cathedral, 81
St. Susan’s, Lulworth, 58
St. Thierry, William of, xx, 347
Salve Regina, 366
Sanctity, attainment of, 194
San Isidro, 218
Santander, Cistercians in, 213 ff.
Schumann, M, in monastery, 220
Scotland, Cistercians in, 240
Seasons, fundamental, 296
Secular, definition of, 366
Séez, Bishop of, 91
Self-knowledge, 22
Sept-Fons monastery, 192, 199, 219 f.
Abbot of, 189
Septuagesima, 296
Séraphin, Father, 252, 256
Sext, definition of, 366
Shakers, 67, 114
Silence in Trappist monasteries, xvi
Sleep in Tranpist monasteries, xvi
Smets, Dom Hermann-Joseph, 232, 351
Smyth, Father Clement, 142
Snuff., use of, 230–231
Social consciousness, 17
Social experimentation in America, 114 ff.
Sortais, Dom Gabriel, 220, 307
Soul of the Apostolate, The, xxiv
South America, Trappists in, 189–190
Spain: Cistercian houses in, 33
Trappists in, 58
Spalding, Monsignor Martin, 107
Spanish Civil War, 210 ff.
Catholic revival following, 218
Spirit of God, 332
Spirit of the world, 146–147, 332
Spiritual Directory, xxvif, 25, 301, 316
Stability, vow of, 126
Stephen, Brother, 177
Stephen, St, of Obazine, 20
Story of a Soul, The, 103, 325
Strict Observance, 33 f., 38, 41, 47, Order of Cistercians of the (see Trappists)
Suicide, Cistercians and, 268, 269
Sulpician fathers, 63, 106
Swallows, Dom François and, 310–311
Switzerland, Trappists in, 53 f.
Syria, monasteries of, 4
T
Tabenna, monastery at, 4, 5
Taillée, Baroness de la Roche, 150
Tegelen, monastery of, 224 f.
Theresa, St, of Avila, 272
Therésè, St, of Lisieux, 203 ff., 325, 327 f.
Third Order, Trappist, 60, 63, 102
Thymadeuc, Brittany, 93, 100
Trappe (see La Grande Trappe)
Trappistine nuns, 90, 92 f., 96, 182 f., 271, 323
at Igny, 200–201
first, 184
in Canada, 186 ff.
in South America, 189
during World War I, 200
Trappists, 11
and French Revolution, 50 ff.
become Order in own right, 145
dispersal of, 50 ff.
division into two congregations, in charge of penitentiary, 171
in China, 249 ff.
in 1834, division of, 105
life of monks, 116–118
meaning of term, xxii
meeting (1892) in Rome, 149 f.
return to France, 80–82
reunion into one order, xxiii ff.
Talleyrand’s commission, report on, 51 f.
training of monks, 152
Val Sainte reform, 61, 93 ff., 103
“Trappists of Monk’s Mound, The,” 61
Tropics, Cistercian activity in, 190
Truth, three degrees of, 22
Tuscany, Cistercians in, 33
U
Umbratilem, Pope Pius XI’s, xxxi f.
Usages, definition of, 366
Utah, Cistercians in, 243 ff., 261
Utopias, in America, 114–115
V
Vacandard, Father, 268
Vaise, convent at, 185–187
Vallombrosa, St. John of, 7
Val Sainte, 53 if, 93 ff.
timetable at, 302 f.
Val Sainte reform, 61
austerities of, 103
in Nova Scotia, 93 ff.
van der Meer de Walcheren, Pierre, 54
Van Rysenberg, Baron Van Rykvorsel, 149
Vargas, Martin, 33
Venlo, bombardment of, 225
Vespers: definition of, 366
singing of, 9, 91, 282, 287
Viaceli, monastery at, 211 ff.
Vicente, Father, 212–213
Victor, St, xxiii
Villemer, Brother Candide, 329 ff.
Vows, definition of, 367
Vox del Cister, La, 218
Vulgate, 297–298
W
Waldeck-Rousseau anti-Catholic legislation, 172, 182, 211
Walsh, E. H, 164
Waters: of Siloe, xxix
symbolism of, 272 f.
Ways of Mental Prayer, The, xxv, 194, 328
Weld, Thomas, 58
Westmalle, Belgium, 101, 148
White Cowl, The, 136, 165
William of St. Thierry, xx, 347
Women, religious communities of, 183 ff. (see also Trappistine nuns)
World, spirit of the, 146–147, 332
World War I, 195 ff.
World War II, 219 ff..
Wrentham, 182
Wurzburg, Bavaria, seminary at, 157
Wyart, Dom Sebastian, 159, 172
X
Xavier, Father Francis, 92 ff., 97
Y
Yang Kia Ping, monastery at, 249 ff.
burning of, 258
Communist attack on, 252 ff.
lists of the dead, 260–261
Yugoslavia, monasteries in, 261
About the Author
THOMAS MERTON (1915–1968) was born in France and came to live in the United States at the age of 24. He received several awards recognizing his contribution to religious study and contemplation, including the Pax Medal in 1963, and remained a devoted spiritualist and a tireless advocate for social justice until his death in 1968.
Footnotes
* After Chapter in the winter a very light breakfast (frustulum) may be taken by those who do not wish to fast until dinner.
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† Compline begins with about ten minutes of public reading in the Chapter Room or Cloister.
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1 John xvii:3.
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2 William of St. Thierry, Epistola ad Fratres de Monte Dei, ii, No. 16.
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3 St. Thomas Aquinas, Sumana Theologica, II llae, q. 182, a. 2, ad 3.
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4 (Paris, 1919); Holy Abandonment, English translation (Dublin, 1934).
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5 Les Voies de l’Oraison Mentale (Paris, 1908); English translation (Dublin, 1938).
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6 Le Directoire Spirituel des Cisterciens Reformes (Bricquebec, 1910), chap, vi, pp. 34–37. Cf. English translation by a Monk of New Melleray (Gethsemani, 1946), p. 34 ff.
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7 Purity of heart, puritas cordis, is a technical term in medieval ascetical writing. It harks back to the beatitudes, “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God” (Matt. v:8). It means detachment not only from all illicit desires but even from licit pleasures and temporal interests and cares. More than that, it signifies the ability to rise above and beyond the images of created things and all dialectical reasoning in order to seize the truth by a pure and direct intuition.
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8 Op. cit., p. 41.
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9 Ecclus. xv:3.
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10 Isa. viii:6.
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1 “We must say that the Apostolic life tends principally to contemplation which fructifies in the apostolate.” (Garrigou-Lagrange, The Three Ages of the Interior Life, St. Louis, 1948, Vol. II, p. 492.) “The life of union with God marks the summit of the Dominican life, the apostolate finds its source there.” (Joret, The Dominican Life, p. 82.)
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1 “And the glory which Thou hast given me, I have given to them; that they may be one as we also are one . . . and the world may know that Thou hast sent me,” etc. John xvii:22–23.
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2 Dom Berlière, L’Ascèse Bénédictine, p. 4, remarks: “Modern Catholic asceticism is in direct relation and perfect conformity with that of the monks of the east.” He is referring to the desert fathers.
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3 Apertis oculis ad deificum lumen. Rule of St. Benedict, Prologue.
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5 Consuetudines, Migne, P. L., Vol. 153, col. 637 ff. Migne prints Guigo’s text and the extremely interesting commentary by the seventeenth-century general of the Carthusians, Dom Innocent Lemasson. The two together give a very good idea of the substantial framework of Carthusian life, its purpose and its ideals.
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6 This forms the sixteenth section of the Exordium Cisterciensis Coenobii. See Guignard, Monuments Primitifs de la Règle Cistercienne (Dijon, 1878), p. 71. This work, called the Exordium Parvum, is the official account of the foundation and purpose of Cîteaux, drawn up by St. Stephen Harding when he applied to the Holy See for approval of the basic legislation of the new Order, in the second decade of the twelfth century.
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7 Vestimenta fratrum secundum locorum qualitatem ubi habitant vel aerum temperiem dentur: quia in frigidis regionibus amplius indigetur, in calidis vero minus. Rule, chap. 53.
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8 Rule, chap. 39.
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9 Nos vero qui jam de populo exivimus; qui mundi quaeque pretiosa ac speciosa pro Christo reliquimus; qui omnia pulchre lucentia, canore mulcentia, suave olentia, dulce sapientia, tactu placentia, cuncta denique oblectamenta corporea arbitrati sumus ut stercora, ut Christum lucrifaciamus: quorum, quaeso, in his devotionem excitare intendimus? Apologia ad Guillelmum, chap, xii, No. 38.
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10 The question came up again in the time of St. Bernard. The second generation of Cistercians, who numbered many experts on chant, like William of Rievaulx and Guy of Trois Fontaines, made a burning issue of it. They ended up by introducing a more or less definite reform and codification of norms governing the purity of chant as it was conceived in the monasteries of the White Monks. See Collectanea Cisterctensium Reformatorum, April, 1948, and St. Bernard, De Ratione Cantus, Tract, xiii.
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11 Cf. Ralph Adams Cram, The Substance of Gothic, p. 116. See also his “Gothic Architecture” in The Catholic Encyclopaedia.
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12 “L’influence directe de Saint Bernard et l’application exacte de ses principes,” M. Anselme Dimier, O.C.R., Revue du Moyen Age Latin, Vol. Ill (1947), No. 3, p. 269.
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13 The different bows prescribed for one ascending from the choir of the monks up the low steps or “degrees” that divide the “presbytery” into two sections, the isolation of the altar from the wall, the ceremonies prescribed for priest, deacon, communicants, etc., going around the altar, etc. (see Consuetudines, 53–54), form the elements of a simple, dramatic action that concentrate the attention on the altar itself and on the meaning of the Sacrifice taking place there.
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14 Orderic Vital, Migne, P. L., Vol. 188, col. 637.
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15 Rule, chap. 2.
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16 . . . quippe quibus nec corpora sua nec voluntates licet habere in propria potestate. Ibid., chap. 32.
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17 Acts iv:13. St. Benedict also refers to this passage in Rule, chap. 33.
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18 Exordium Magnum, Dist. i, cap. 1. The Exordium Magnum is a much more lengthy document than St. Stephen’s Exordium Parvum, to which we have referred, but it has far less authority. It was probably written by several hands, and much of it is legendary. However, it is full of living and accurate details of Cistercian life in the twelfth century. For the authorship of the Exordium Magnum, see Vacandard’s Vie de Saint Bernard, p. xlix. It is considered certain that the latter part of the Exordium Magnum was written by the German monk Conrad of Eberbach, but the author of the first sections is an unknown monk, probably of Clairvaux.
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19 See Migne, P. L, Vol. 153, col. 583.
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20 In the prologue, St. Benedict starts out with an explicit declaration that his Rule is addressed to anyone who wants to save his soul: Ad te mens sermo dirigitur, quisquis abrenuntians propriis voluntatibus, Domino Christo vero regi militaturus, oboedientiae fortissima atque praeclara arma sumis. In various later chapters we find him making provision for those who argue with the abbot (chap. 3), who not only disobey the Rule but make trouble for everybody and are at the same time too stupid to appreciate the force of excommunication (chaps. 23, 28). There is the possibility that honors like the priesthood or the office of prior may turn certain spirits into intriguers and troublemakers (chaps. 60, 63). Divisions may arise in the community from monks taking one another’s defense in quarrels (chap. 67), and the saint even foresees the possibility that some of his subjects may lose their tempers and get into a fight (chap. 68). Yet, with all these possibilities in full view and calmly considered, the Rule lays down prescriptions for preventing disorder and for healing any harm that may be done, and urges everyone to practice mutual obedience in an atmosphere of honor and respect that is nothing short of heroic (chaps. 69, 70).
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21 The signs of a vocation, according to St. Benedict, are: a real desire of union with God (si vere Deum quaerit), a healthy interest in the liturgical prayers of the monks (si sollicitus sit ad opus Dei), willingness to learn obedience and to accept the humiliations and hardships of the common life. Rule, chap. 56.
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22 De Gradibus Humilitatis, No. 14.
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23 I John iv:7, 8, 20, 12.
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24 De Gradibus Humilitatis, vii, 20.
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25 Spiritual Directory, Translation (2nd ed.; Gethsemani, 1946), p. 36.
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26 St. Bernard, Sermo iii de Assumptione, No. 2.
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27 Vobis frates alia quam aliis de saeculo, out certe aliter dicenda sunt (In Cant, i, No. 1). These are the opening words of the first sermon. St. Bernard appeals to the authority of St. Paul who “spoke wisdom among the perfect” (I Cor. ii:6) and tells his monks that he knows them to be well exercised in asceticism and wishes them to proceed with him to more contemplative studies—Jam acceditur ad hunc sacrum theoricum sermonem (Ibid., i, No. 3).
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28 Gilson, Mystical Theology of St. Bernard, pp. 13–17. Dom David Knowles, The Monastic Order in England, p. 218.