The Thomas Merton Center at Bellarmine University

MERTON'S CORRESPONDENCE WITH:
Jordan, Placid, Fr., O.S.B., (Max Jordan) 1895-1977

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Descriptive Summary

Record Group: Section A - Correspondence

Dates of materials: 1964

Volume: 7 item(s); 8 pg(s)

Scope and Content

Biography

Fr. Placid Jordan was a Benedictine monk of Beuron Abbey in Germany. He had quite a storied past as a journalist. A convert to Catholicism in 1924, Max Jordan was one of the pioneering news reporters for the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) in the United States. He broke many of the stories concerning Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany in the 1930's and followed the anti-Hitler underground through the duration of World War II. Based on his experiences of the war, Jordan wrote the book Beyond All Fronts: A Bystander's Notes on This Thirty Years War. After the war, as many of his colleagues rose to prominence, Jordan joined a Swiss congregation of Benedictines at Beuron Abbey in Germany in the year 1954. He took the name Placid. He would again don a journalistic role in covering the Second Vatican Council, working for the news service of the National Catholic Welfare Council (NCWC). (Sources: McLeod, Elizabeth. "Max Jordan -- NBC's Forgotten Pioneer". Broadcasting History Resources website. 1998. ‹http://www.midcoast.com/~lizmcl/jordan.html›, accessed 2005/05/06. See also student newspaper clipping in correspondence folder of 1962/01/16.)

Usage Guidelines and Restrictions

Related Information and Links

See also one published letter from Merton to Jordan in The School of Charity, pp. 236-237; and see also "Pachomius, Fr." file.

Other Finding Aids

If the person in correspondence with Merton has full text records in the Merton Center Digital Collections, there will be a numeric link to them below.
   

Series List

This Record Sub-Group is not divided into Series and is arranged chronologically.

Container List

SeriesDateTypeTo/FromFirst LinesPubFull TextNotes
 1962/01/16 other THE UBYSSEY [sic] Writer-monk speaks at UBC [-] A man who won journalistic acclaim during World  [University of British Columbia student newspaper clipping from 1962/01/16 - copy printed from website of the University Archives providing background information on Placid Jordan]
 1964/08/08 TAL[c]from MertonMany thanks for your good letter from Switzerland. I am glad you received the two mimeographed   
 1964/08/no? TLSto MertonI have just received two mimeographed articles, one entitled "The Monk in the Diaspora", the other   
 1964/09/12 TL[c]from MertonFr Pachomius of Erlach writes that he has heard from you, and that while he has translated a shortYes  
 1964/09/22 TLSto MertonThank you kindly for your letter of September 12th. I am now in Rome helping NCWC cover the Council   
 1964/09/28 TAL[c]from MertonThanks for your good letter from Rome. It was helpful in more ways than one because now I have   
 1964/12/30 TLSto MertonYou were most kind replying to my last letter from Rome. Your letter of December 12th caught up   
        

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