This file contains no correspondence between Thomas Merton and Rembert Weakland. Merton and Wealkand met at the December 1968 conference in Thailand where Merton died on December 10th. Hugh Turley, co-author of a book about Merton's death, The Martyrdom of Thomas Merton: An Investigation, wrote to Weakland requesting documents he had related to Merton's death. Weakland sent the documents contained in this file in October of 2012. Turley donated to the Center the copies he received in April 2019.
Rembert Weakland was a Benedictine monk and former Abbot Primate of the Benedictine Confederation, starting his first term in 1967, the year before meeting Merton in Thailand. He served as Archbishop of Milwaukee from 1977-2002.
Please click here for general restrictions concerning Merton's 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. |
1968/12/10 |
TL[x] by Nakvachara, Lasana |
I, Dr. Laksana Nakvachara First Class Practicioner in Medicine, Medical License No. V. 665, after |
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["Doctor's Certificate (Cause of Death)" by Dr. Nakvachara, Director of Samutprakarn Hospitals]
«detailed view» |
2. |
2019/04/23 |
TLS to Center from Turley, Hugh |
I have enclosed for you the original documents that I received from Rembert Weakland in 2012. |
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[Turley notes the documents he received from Weakland, which he understood that Weakland took with him from Thailand in 1968, differ from official documents filed with the National Archives, and these differences he notes in his letter]
«detailed view» |
3. |
undated/no/no (#01) |
other[x] by Nakvachara, Lasana |
[documents in Thai and English] |
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[documents in Thai and English regarding Dr. Nakvachara's assessment of Merton's death - verso of one of the pages of the death certificate contains a handwritten note in Thai by a Thai police officer - all three pages stamped by Katherine E. Berry, Vice Consul of the United States of America]
«detailed view» |
4. |
undated/no/no (#02) |
other[x] by Weist, Edeltrud, Sr. O.S.B. |
"December 10, 1968, just after 4:00 P.M., I suddenly heard someone saying: 'Father Thomas Merton is |
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["Report on the First Impressions after Father Thomas Merton's Tragic Death, Given by an Eye Witness, Sister M. Edeltrud Weist, O.S.B., Doctor of Medicine, Specialist of Internal Medicine, Prioress of the Missionary Benedictine Sisters in Taegu, South Korea." Includes drawing of the room in which Merton died noting the loction of the desk, bed, and body with fan on body. Black and white document with a line in red pen drawn over the marking of the fan in black ink. The latter red mark was not added by Turley.]
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