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Cover of The Seven Storey Mountain by Thomas Merton

The Seven Storey Mountain

  • 435 pages · about 7 hours
  • First published 1948
  • 39 editions

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1 About this book

The Seven Storey Mountain tells of the growing restlessness of a brilliant and passionate young man, who at the age of twenty-six, takes vows in one of the most demanding Catholic orders—the Trappist monks. At the Abbey of Gethsemani, "the four walls of my new freedom," Thomas Merton struggles to withdraw from the world, but only after he has fully immersed himself in it.

At the abbey, he wrote this extraordinary testament, a unique spiritual autobiography that has been recognized as one of the most influential religious works of our time. Translated into more than twenty languages, it has touched millions of lives.

Good for readers who want: a true life story, history, and spirituality.

  • Biography
  • History
  • Spiritual biography
  • Spiritual life
  • United States
  • Catholic Church
  • Monks
  • Antiquities

2 About Thomas Merton

1915–1968

Thomas Merton (January 31, 1915 – December 10, 1968), religious name M. Louis, was an American Trappist monk, Catholic priest, theologian, mystic, poet, and writer. He was a professed member of the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, near Bardstown, Kentucky, living there from 1941 to his death.

Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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