He was born and raised in an Irish-Catholic family in Roxbury, Massachusetts. He had nine siblings. Two of his brothers also became priests and two of his sisters became nuns. Joseph entered the Society of Jesus as a high school senior and was ordained a priest on 22 July 1933. As a Jesuit, he gave many retreats and coached the debating team at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester. He did his Tertianship in Port Townsend in 1934/1935 and soon after (1936) transferred to the Trappist Abbey of Gethsemani; he made solemn vows there as Father Raymond on 5 April 1942.
Flanagan was one of two famous author-monks living in Gethsemani Abbey; the other was Thomas Merton. The monks corresponded frequently,[1] and Merton even wrote limericks about his confrere Fr. Raymond.[2]
Fr. Raymond was buried in the Gethsemani cemetery.
Writings (selection)
Flanagan's "publications were characterized by a hard-hitting, vigorous Catholic piety that accentuated American family values, fidelity to Catholic traditions, the beauty of religious vocations, anti-Communism, and the athletic asceticism he associated with the first Cistercians."[3] Almost all of his books were translated into one or more languages, many were re-issued, and some are still in print today.[4] His book on the founders of Cîteaux Abbey (Saints Robert, Alberic, and Stephen) was titled Three Religious Rebels; it is particularly popular among novices learning about the history of the Cistercian Order. In general, Flanagan's books appealed to readers fascinated by the austerities of life in a Trappist monastery. Regarding a 1949 book (the fourth in the series "Saga of Cîteaux"), his publisher P. J. Kenedy ran an advertisement in the New York Times that read: "you cannot know the Trappist monks until you have read Burnt Out Incense, History of the Monastery of Gethsemani in Kentucky."[5]
The Man who Got Even with God is one of Flanagan's most widely-read books. It is about Brother Mary Joachim Hanning, a wild cowboy who became a Cistercian (Trappist) monk in Kentucky. As a hot-tempered young man, Hanning took revenge on his father by burning down a barn full of his father’s freshly cut tobacco. He then ran away and led the life of a wandering cowboy for years. He eventually returned home and reconciled with his family, later converting to a pious Catholic life after his mother died. John decided to “get even with God” by following a desire he had held in secret for years: to enter the novitiate at Gethsemani Abbey. The Mark Twain Quarterly called this work of historical fiction "A 'must' book for all who take their religion seriously."[6]
The book Spiritual Secrets of a Trappist Monk, originally published as You in 1957, was re-issued by Sophia Institute Press in 2000. It is one of Flanagan's most popular non-fiction books, devoted to showing that "who you are in Christ is much greater than you think", as reviewer Regis Jordan wrote. In it, Fr. Raymond "gives the keys to unlock," continued Jordan, "the mysteries of pain and of success and failure. In a startling way, he even discloses the mysteries of the future itself."[7]
The following list covers Flanagan's books. He also wrote dozens of pamphlets on subjects like the perils of communism (Trappists, the Reds and You, 1949), the beauty of religious vocations, and how to make homes into a Catholic environment. He also wrote several for men serving in the military and for their families (For Your Own Defense. A Booklet for Catholics in the Service, 1941).[8]
Monographs
The Man who Got Even with God. The Life of an American Trappist. Milwaukee 1941, OCLC1023825096.
Three Religious Rebels. The Forefathers of the Trappists. Boston 1944.
The Less Traveled Road. A Memoir of Dom Mary Frederic Dunne, O.C.S.O., First American Trappist Abbot. Milwaukee 1953, OCLC66054420.
God, a Woman, and the Way. Milwaukee 1955, OCLC255302313.
God Goes to Murderer's Row. Dublin 1956, OCLC1049557193.
These Women Walked with God. Dublin 1958, OCLC222049936.
Alkuin Schachenmayr: The Work of Fr. Raymond Flanagan, OCSO, Author of Historical Novels, Devotional Books, and Pamphlets. Cistercian Studies Quarterly 56.1 (2021), pp.77–95.
Footnotes
↑ Pearson, Paul M. (2017). "The Seven Storey Goldmine". The Catholic Library World. 87 (3): 168–177.
↑ Merton, Thomas (1998). "Five Limericks for Father Raymond". The Merton Seasonal. 23 (2): 11–12.
↑ Avella, Steven (1992). "Catholic Lay Activism in Milwaukee: The Bruce Family". Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia. 103.3/4 (3/4): 1–11, here 9. JSTOR44211181.
↑ "Advertisement". New York Times. 17 July 1949. p.BR27.
↑ "The Quarterly Recommends". Mark Twain Quarterly. 5 (2): 21–22. 1942. JSTOR42657797.
↑ Jordan, Regis (2001). "Book review". Spiritual Life. 47 (1): 61.
Cîteaux Abbey is a Catholic abbey located in Saint-Nicolas-lès-Cîteaux, south of Dijon, France. It is notable for being the original house of the Cistercian order. Today, it belongs to the Trappists.
The Cistercians, officially the Order of Cistercians, are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict. They are also known as Bernardines, after the highly influential Bernard of Clairvaux or as White Monks, in reference to the colour of the "cuculla" or cowl worn by the Cistercians over their habits, as opposed to the black cowl worn by Benedictines.
Thomas Merton was an American Trappist monk, writer, theologian, mystic, poet, social activist and scholar of comparative religion. On May 26, 1949, he was ordained to the Catholic priesthood and given the name "Father Louis". He was a member of the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani, near Bardstown, Kentucky, living there from 1941 to his death.
The Trappists, officially known as the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance and originally named the Order of Reformed Cistercians of Our Lady of La Trappe, are a Catholic religious order of cloistered monastics that branched off from the Cistercians. They follow the Rule of Saint Benedict and have communities of both monks and nuns that are known as Trappists and Trappistines, respectively. They are named after La Trappe Abbey, the monastery from which the movement and religious order originated. The movement first began with the reforms that Abbot Armand Jean le Bouthillier de Rancé introduced in 1664, later leading to the creation of Trappist congregations, and eventually the formal constitution as a separate religious order in 1892.
The Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani is a Catholic monastery in the United States near Bardstown, Kentucky, in Nelson County. The abbey is part of the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance, better known as the Trappists. Founded on December 21, 1848, and raised to an abbey in 1851, Gethsemani is considered to be the motherhouse of all Trappist and Trappistine monasteries in the United States. Gethsemani is the oldest monastery in the country that is still operating.
Stephen Harding was an English-born monk and abbot, who was one of the founders of the Cistercian Order. He is honored as a saint in the Roman Catholic Church.
The Seven Storey Mountain is the 1948 autobiography of Thomas Merton, an American Trappist monk and priest who was a noted author in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Merton finished the book in 1946 at the age of 31, five years after entering Gethsemani Abbey near Bardstown, Kentucky. The title refers to the mountain of purgatory from Dante's Purgatorio.
The Cistercian Rite is the liturgical rite, distinct from the Roman Rite and specific to the Cistercian Order of the Roman Catholic Church.
Cistercian nuns are female members of the Cistercian Order, a religious order belonging to the Roman Catholic branch of the Catholic Church.
Below is a bibliography of published works written by Thomas Merton, the Trappist monk of The Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemani. Several of the works listed here have been published posthumously. The works are listed under each category by date of publication.
Melleray Abbey was a Cistercian monastery, founded about the year 1134. It was situated in Brittany, Diocese of Nantes, in La Meilleraye-de-Bretagne in the vicinity of Châteaubriant.
The Abbey of our Lady of the Southern Star, also known as Southern Star Abbey, is a Trappist abbey located in a remote, rural area of the North Island, New Zealand in the Diocese of Palmerston North. The monastery supports itself by operating a dairy farm. It is located at Kopua near Takapau between Dannevirke and Waipukurau, Central Hawke's Bay.
The Abbey of Our Lady of the Holy Trinity was a Trappist Cistercian monastery in Huntsville, Utah, United States. They were Catholic contemplative monks of an enclosed religious order known as the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance (OCSO).
Guerric of Igny was a Cistercian abbot. Little is known about his early life. He may have been educated at Tournai's cathedral school, perhaps under Benedictine monk, Odo of Cambrai. Guerric appears to have lived a life of prayer and study near the Tournai Cathedral. His monastic formation was directly influenced by Bernard of Clairvaux, who praises him in several letters. In 1138, he became abbot of Igny Abbey, in the diocese of Rheims, a house dependent on Clairvaux. Here Guerric ruled as abbot until his death on 19 August 1157. It was here that he composed the 54 liturgical sermons that constitute his surviving works.
Konrad or Conrad of Eberbach was a Cistercian monk, and later abbot, of Eberbach Abbey, Germany, and historian of the early Cistercian Order.
Jean-Baptiste Chautard OCSO was a French Trappist abbot and religious writer.
Chrysogonus Waddell (1930–2008) was an American Roman Catholic convert and theologian. A Trappist monk of the Abbey of Gethsemani, Kentucky, he was an accomplished organist, liturgist, historian, and a scholar of chant and Cistercian liturgy.
Carta Caritatis is the constitution of the Cistercian Order. The document, approbated in 1119 by Pope Calixtus II, regulates relations among the Cistercian abbeys. The text was continually revised and adapted until 1155. In terms of canon law, the Carta Caritatis is a document of unprecedented significance, since it introduced the systematic regulations that made a group of monks at Cîteaux into the first religious order in Church history. It is held in high esteem as a legal monument of great influence.
Bede Lackner was a Hungarian-American, Catholic priest and monk of the Cistercian Order. He was a theologian and historian.
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