The Abbey of Gethsemani is a Trappist monastery about 50 miles from my home in Louisville. It was the home of Fr. Thomas Merton (known as Father Louis by the Trappists), a famous spiritual writer and mystic, and is the mother house of all the Trappist monasteries in the United States.
This is the cemetery where all the monks who have died in the past 150+ years have been buried.
Fr. Thomas Merton’s grave is on my right, simple and unremarkable like the graves of the other monks and priests buried there.
Thomas Merton’s history and legacy brings many people to the abbey, and many of the visitors leave objects on his grave. His most famous work is his spiritual biography, The Seven Storey Mountain.
