Rarely has a romance seemed so star-crossed. He was 51, she 25. She was a petite student nurse; he was stocky and bald, with a wandering intellect and a boisterous laugh.
He was also the most celebrated Catholic monk in America.
Margie Smith had read at least one of the books that made Thomas Merton famous when she walked into his hospital room in Louisville in 1966.
Over the next several months, the nurse and the monk wrote letters, drank wine and fell in love, sneaking in and out of the Abbey of Gethsemani like teenagers.
"There is no question I am in deep," Merton wrote in his journal just a month after meeting M., as he coded her name. Though some Merton biographers have been reluctant to reveal Smith's full name and still gasp at its disclosure, it has been published in biographies and national newspapers.
The cloistered Merton burst into public view in 1948 with the publication of his memoir The Seven Storey Mountain, which detailed his journey from a young rogue who wallowed in "beer, bewilderment, and sorrow," according to a friend, to a penitent novitiate in the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance, the formal name of the Trappist order.
Merton went on to write a steady stream of spiritual books, essays and poems and became one of the best known and loved Catholic writers of the 20th century.
He died at age 53 in 1968 in a freak electrocution in Thailand.
Scholars and even casual fans have long known of his affair with Smith, especially since his seven-volume personal journals were published in the 1990s. But some disagree about whether the affair was a lapse or an emotional breakthrough for a man who struggled with his feelings toward women.
A new Merton biography, Beneath the Mask of Holiness, falls firmly in the latter camp. Author Mark Shaw paints a portrait of the monk as a tormented "imposter of sorts" who reluctantly played the part of the happy, contemplative guru. In reality, Shaw argues, Merton was haunted by his youthful indiscretions with women and the chasm between his past and image.
Merton's mother died when he was 6 and he entered the monastery without ever having a loving relationship with a woman, Shaw says. The affair with M., which Shaw calls a "magical, inspiring love story," changed his life.
"Having proved to himself that he could truly love, and be loved, Thomas Merton shed his mask, since no unfinished business was present to restrict any freedom to be with God alone," Shaw said in an interview.
But after several months Merton realized the relationship was untenable; he broke it off and reaffirmed his vows.
Compelling as his theory may be, a number of Merton scholars strongly disagree with Shaw's reading of the monk's life, calling it prurient and ill-informed. The book has caused a stir in the International Thomas Merton Society.
Jim Forest, an acclaimed biographer of Merton, wrote a scathing review of it in a journal for Merton scholars. "Shaw seems to have no understanding of or sympathy with Merton's basic choices: to become a Christian, to be baptized in the Catholic Church, and then to embrace monastic life," Forest writes.
A number of other Merton scholars refused to comment on the book, saying they have not read it and won't.
If Merton was truly unhappy with being a "poster boy" for Catholic contemplative life, as Shaw asserts, he could have left Gethsemani at any time, says James Martin, a priest and editor at the Jesuit weekly magazine America, who has written essays on Merton.
"Clearly, if he was so miserable, he would have left the monastery and taken up with Margie," Martin says.
For sure, Merton was not the typical monk. He butted heads with superiors, had a steady stream of visitors, made a deep study of Zen Buddhism and occasionally downed a few bourbons.
Still, Merton's evident humanity does not make him any less holy, Martin says.
"Especially with Merton, one sees both the sins and the sanctity," Martin says. "And I wonder if this isn't something like the way God sees us."
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