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This is a file in the correspondence of Thomas Merton under the heading: "Collins, Frederic, Br., O.C.S.O.".
Br. Frederic Collins is a monk of Gethsemani Abbey. Because of his business studies before entering the monastery, Dom James Fox appointed him to start a mail-order business for the cheese and fruitcake that was made by the monks. This type of monastic consumerism did not appear to Merton, and the two did not see eye to eye. In the mid-sixties, he was sent to La Dehesa Monastery in Chile that Gethsemani was taking over as a mission from Spencer Abbey (becoming an independent monastery in 1970, and moving and changing its name to Miraflores in 1986). Unlike the mail order business, Merton was very interested in Latin America and considered this as a place to become a hermit. At this time, the two monks became closer. [Sources: personal account by Br. Frederic Collins (June 2003) and Web site of AIM (Inter-Monastery Alliance) ‹http://www.aimintl.org/communs/miraflores/miraflores.htm›.]
Please click here for general restrictions concerning Merton's correspondence.
See also Collins letters in the "Geist, Peter, III" file.
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. |
1967/11/05 |
TALS to Merton |
It seems that over a year ago I made some kind of a promise to write and tell you how things were |
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construction of new monastery buildings - extravagant costs for Chile - will be viewed as "the rich North Americans" / lack of priests in Chile and desire to get Merton to go there - opposition by Dom James / desire to elect Merton as prior of La Dehensa despite Merton's vow not to accept abbot of a monastery
«detailed view» |
| 2. |
1967/11/14 |
TL[c] from Merton |
One thing you all don't know: a couple of months ago I asked Dom James to let me go and be a hermit |
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refusal by Dom James to allow him to be a hermit at La Dehensa / does not want to be a superior - "don't think I am competent to run an institution that is any larger than my own particular dog kennel" / might consider being a prior in Chile, "a country that does not have the Bomb and probably will not"
«detailed view» |
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