The Last of the Fathers: Saint Bernard of Clairvaux and the Encyclical Letter 'Doctor Mellifluus'

by Thomas Merton

Book Overview

Merton presents one of the most significant encyclical letters of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, together with an introduction to the life and teachings of the great mystic. "A study that will have to be... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0156494388
• Release Date: November 1981
• Publisher: HarperOne
• Length: 132 Pages
• Weight: 0.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 5.5" x 0.3"

Customer Reviews

Profound, brief yet comprehensive biography and study of Cistercian Saint Bernard of Clairvaux by fe

Late in his life, in May of 1953, Pope Pius XXII published this brief yet comprehensive examination of the Cistercian Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, entitling his encyclical The Mellifluous Doctor, underlining the placing this influential saint among the Doctors of the Church and the last of the early Church Fathers. With the delay of its complete publication in English, fellow Cistercian Father Thomas Merton received happily the task of writing a biographical and bibliographical introduction, which was published in 1954 after passing not only the Censor Librorum John M. A. Fearns, S.T.D., and receiving the Imprimatur of the great Francis Cardinal Spellman of New York (not Kentucky), but also having passing his own Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance's Censor Librorum, in Rome, and recieving the Imprimi Potest from the head of his Order, in Rome, Fr. Gabriel Sortais, about whom you may study more in Dom Gabriel Sortais: An Amazing Abbot in Turbulent Times (Monastic Wisdom Series) by Solesmes's excellent and scholarly Fr. Guy Oury, OSB, in any unusual cross-Order celebration and appreciation. Fr. Sortais in fact contributes an opening word to this present book, as well as the Order's Cardinal Protector and Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda Fide (Propagation of the Faith) Peter, Cardinal Fumasino-Biondi, who writes: "Into a world where fear and distrust run as a seemingly overpowering force, where men seek to rely on force and human strategy, our Holy Father, Pius XII, has injected once more the Christian call to hope and trust and reliance on divine love and strategy ( . . .) The teachings of Saint Bernard can be a beacon leading us, one and all, to love, for we were made to love, not to fear. 'God is love,' yesterday, today and forever." No more welcome words may we hear today, except the long war is over. Thus, as was typical and necessary for the great American monk Father Merton's works, this treatise bears a double Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat. I came to this work as a result of reading the intriguing selection of correspondence exchanged between Father Merton and the Benedictine authority on monasticism Father Jean LeClercq, published as Survival or Prophecy?: The Letters of Thomas Merton and Jean LeClercq. Dom LeClercq at that time was also writing about Saint Bernard, and is in fact poignantly cited in this present work by Father Merton. It is exciting to read their correspondence and realize the behind the scenes difficulties in, among other things, researching and producing this book. An interesting conundrum regarding the disclaimer which accompanies this double Imprimatur and Nihil Obstat, which declare the book free of doctrinal and moral error. If the disclaimer states the well-trained individuals involved in granting the here four official stamps of approval are not thereby implied in agreeing with its contents, does that not place them in danger of being supposed of being in agreement with moral and doctrina