Thomas Merton is said to be one of the most well known American Roman Catholics of the twentieth century. However, there was not much of his life that was knowd. Thomas Merton was born in Prades, France, on January 31, 1915 to Mr. Owen Merton of New Zealand and his wife Mrs. Ruth Jenkins Merton of the United States; both were popular artists. Thomas' childhood was very empty, because of the death of both is parents.. His mother died when he was very young, at the age of six, and his father died when he was fifteen. Through these experiences, he came to understand and empathize with the feelings and experiences of society's outcasts while longing for a family and drifting pointlessly through his life.

Merton attended many different boarding schools, which leaded him to a brief education at Cambridge University, England and a Master's Degree at Columbia University, in...