“On the last day of January 1915, under the sign of the Water Bearer, in a year of a great war, and down in the shadow of some French mountains on the borders of Spain, I came into the world.”
Few people have ever fixed their date of birth more indelibly than Thomas Merton did in that lyrical opening to his memoir, “The Seven Storey Mountain.”
A best-seller upon its 1948 publication, it remains in print in multiple languages as a modern classic of spiritual autobiography.
But its appeal only begins to explain why this Saturday — on the last day of January 2015 — people in Pittsburgh and elsewhere will be holding prayer vigils and other events to mark the centennial of the birth of Merton.
On the 50th anniversary of Thomas Merton's death, here's a 2015 story from the archives on his legacy: Why Thomas Merton 'continues to captivate' | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette https://t.co/EcQp3JN3b1
— Peter Smith (@PG_PeterSmith) December 10, 2018