from Courier-Journal
As the abbey bell tolled slowly and as stiff gusts scattered the first drops of an incoming rainstorm, the Rev. Matthew Kelty was lowered into his grave in a twilight ceremony whose simple dignity matched his monastic calling.
Kelty, perhaps the most public face of the Abbey of Gethsemani since the death of renowned author Thomas Merton, died Friday and was buried Monday afternoon following a funeral attended by dozens of fellow monks and priests and more than 100 visitors.
Kelty, a longtime chaplain to the monastery’s retreat guests, was 95 — the abbey’s oldest monk. He was “lucid and interested up to the last” before dying during a midday nap following a brief illness, said the monastery obituary.
Kelty, a one-time typist for Merton, published several books on spirituality himself. For many years, he spent hours each day counseling people who had come on retreat to the remote Roman Catholic monastery in Nelson County, Ky.
As the abbey bell tolled slowly and as stiff gusts scattered the first drops of an incoming rainstorm, the Rev. Matthew Kelty was lowered into his grave in a twilight ceremony whose simple dignity matched his monastic calling.
Kelty, perhaps the most public face of the Abbey of Gethsemani since the death of renowned author Thomas Merton, died Friday and was buried Monday afternoon following a funeral attended by dozens of fellow monks and priests and more than 100 visitors.
Kelty, a longtime chaplain to the monastery’s retreat guests, was 95 — the abbey’s oldest monk. He was “lucid and interested up to the last” before dying during a midday nap following a brief illness, said the monastery obituary.
Kelty, a one-time typist for Merton, published several books on spirituality himself. For many years, he spent hours each day counseling people who had come on retreat to the remote Roman Catholic monastery in Nelson County, Ky.
Until he was recently slowed by age, Kelty gave nightly devotional talks to retreatants. Speaking in a crisp South Boston accent that contrasted with the immediate surroundings of rural Kentucky, he mixed his own observations with a sampling of poetry and prose by other writers.
Kelty spent the morning of his death talking with fellow monks, many of whom were with him at his death, the monastery obituary said.
“So many of us are the better for having known him,” said Gethsemani Abbott Elias Dietz at Kelty’s funeral Mass in the historic abbey church.
Kelty spent the morning of his death talking with fellow monks, many of whom were with him at his death, the monastery obituary said.
“So many of us are the better for having known him,” said Gethsemani Abbott Elias Dietz at Kelty’s funeral Mass in the historic abbey church.
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