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Merton was in contact with Dom Moore when considering transferring his vows from the Trappists to the Carthusians or the Camaldolese.
Dom Thomas Verner Moore was the founder of a Carthusian charterhouse, the first in the Americas, at Sky Farm (later named the Charterhouse of the Transfiguration) in southern Vermont. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1877. He joined the Paulists in 1896. In 1903, he was granted the first doctorate in psychology in the District of Columbia from Catholic University of America. He was sent to study under one of the pioneers of psychology, Wilhelm Wundt, in Germany, but returned to the United States due to health problems. During the First World War, he changed orders from the Paulists to the English Benedictines at Downside Abbey. He went on to study medicine and earned an M.D. from John Hopkins in 1915. He then opened a children's clinic and taught clinical medical classes at Catholic University, later heading the department. After he retired in 1947, at the age of 70, he became a Carthusian at the Cartuja de Miraflores, in Burgos, Spain. In 1950, he returned to the United States under orders to begin the Sky Farm foundation. (Sources: ["Carthusian Solitude." Time magazine (11 Dec. 1950). Bellarmine University Library, Louisville, KY. 5 May 2008. «http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,814099-2,00.html»]; and [Stafford, John W. "Thomas Verner Moore: 1877-1969." American Journal of Psychology: Vol. 83, No. 2 (June, 1970), pp. 286-288. JSTOR. Bellarmine University Library, Louisville, KY. 5 May 2008. ùhttp://www.jstor.org/stable/1421336ú].)
Please click here for general restrictions concerning Merton's correspondence.
See also all letters published in Thomas Merton and the Noonday Demon: the Camaldoli Correspondence.
If the person in correspondence with Merton has full text records in the Merton Center Digital Collections, there will be a numeric link to them below.
This Record Sub-Group is not divided into Series and is arranged chronologically.
Click icons for links: ✓="Published | Library Record", ✉="Scanned" | 🗷="Scanned, Viewable Only at Merton Center"
| # | Date | From/To | First Lines | Pub ✓ | Notes |
| | y/m/d | Merton | | Scan ✉ | |
| 1. |
1955/04/25 |
TL[c] from Merton |
When our former Fr Alberic went to Sky Farm I asked him to speak to you about a personal matter |
✓ |
[page two cuts off at the bottom in mid-sentence] inquires about the Carthusians at Sky Farm (later the Charterhouse of the Transfiguration) in southern Vermont / ideas of joining the Camaldolese / Fr. Alberic of Gethsemani / relations with Dom James Fox, his abbot, and permissions to transfer from Gethsemani / writing to Archbishop Montini (later Pope Paul VI) and Fr. Larraona Saralegui (each with correspondence files and see also the "Fox, James" file)
«detailed view» |
| 2. |
1955/04/29 |
HLS to Merton |
I received your letter yesterday a little before Vespers and recommended you to God during |
✓ |
encouragement about starting a Camaldolese foundation in America and suggests northern California
«detailed view» |
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