By Isabella Micallef

Faculty Mentor: Jeremy Larochelle

Abstract

For my project I first researched the life of a famous Trappist monk and poet, Thomas Merton, who mentored and inspired a key figure in the Nicaraguan Revolution, poet priest Ernesto Cardenal. Cardenal was also a mentor himself, and inspired many citizens of Nicaragua to write revolutionary poetry. As field work I visited a Trappist monastery in Virginia and also interviewed a Trappist sister. She explained to me a lot about the theology, called Cistercian theology, that the Trappist religious follow. Through this interview I also learned of this importance of the book of Psalms, the biggest book of poetry in the Bible, to this order’s everyday prayer life. My project is an analysis of these figures and the poetry they have written or read, and examines to what extent was this poetry influential to the Nicaraguan Revolution.