The account by the monk and spiritual writer Thomas Merton of a clandestine relationship he had with a young nurse, Margie Smith, in 1966 shows both selfishness and honesty

In his historic address to a joint meeting of Congress during his visit to the United States in 2015, Pope Francis singled out the American Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, as someone worthy of study and emulation, describing him as “a man of prayer, a thinker who challenged the certitudes of his time and opened new horizons for souls and for the Church”. This papal endorsement came despite the fact that Merton was and remains a controversial figure. He is held in suspicion by some Catholics for his opposition to war, his scepticism about capitalism, and his commitment to ecumenical and interreligious dialogue – particularly for his engagement with Eastern religious thought.

His detractors also point to the relationship he had in the summer of 1966 with Margie Smith, a trainee nurse. Debate about this relationship flares up occasionally, as it did last year in the wake of a review in Harper’s magazine by Garry Wills of a book on Merton by Mary Gordon, in which he pointed to Merton’s clandestine relationship as evidence that he was little more than a disgruntled and shallow pseudo-ascetic. Unfortunately, we don’t have Margie’s account of their relationship. We only know one side of the story – at most. Merton emerges from his own account of the affair as selfish and self-absorbed. But it also shows him grappling with his own evident shortcomings with honesty and humility.
On 25 March 1966, Merton had an operation on his back at St Joseph’s hospital in Louisville. A little less than a year earlier, Merton had been given permission to live permanently as a hermit with the blessing of his abbot and his community. While Merton relished the hermit life, it took a physical toll, and his back was soon giving him enough trouble that an operation proved inevitable. It was successful, though the recovery was slow. Assisting him in his recovery was a young student nurse named Margie Smith who, by Merton’s account, showed an “undisguised and frank” affection for him.