Seminary Lecture by the American Poet Christopher Merrill
On April 1, 2017, the Seminary hosted an evening with the celebrated American poet Christopher Merrill.
From left to right, Father Photii, Father Gregory, Father Chrysostomos, Father Patapios, Bishop Auxentios, Mother Seraphima, Mother Synkletike, and Mother Eupraxia.
On April 1, 2017, the Saint Photios Orthodox Theological Seminary, which will shortly complete its first academic year of operation, hosted, as part of its public lecture series, an evening with the celebrated American poet Christopher Merrill. Merrill has been described by one of this country’s senior poets, W. S. Merwin, two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, as “gifted, audacious, and accomplished.” His wonderful readings, commentaries, and exchanges with the small, intimate gathering at the Seminary clearly averred Merwin’s assessment, and then some. The audience was enthralled by the presentation.
Merrill, Director of the prestigious International Writing Program and Professor of English at the University of Iowa, is internationally renowned, not only for his six collections of poetry, one of which, Watch Fire, was awarded the Peter I. B. Lavan Younger Poets Award from the Academy of American Poets, but also for his five books of non-fiction, including his masterful and engrossing work on Mount Athos, Things of the Hidden God: Journey to the Holy Mountain, a place to which he has made frequent visits.
Professor Merrill is also a veteran of cultural diplomacy, having visited, lectured, and taught, primarily under the sponsorship of the United States Department of State, in more than fifty countries. He is a member of the United States National Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization and received a presidential appointment under the Obama Administration to the National Council on the Humanities. In addition to such recognition for his work and many prizes for his poetry and books, which have been translated into some fourteen languages, Merrill was knighted by the French government into the Order of Arts and Letters.
Following his lecture, Professor Merrill spent several days at the nearby Saint Gregory Palamas Monastery, attending Divine Services and visiting with the Most Reverend Metropolitan Dr. Chrysostomos of Etna, Emeritus, whom he met through the State Department’s Fulbright Program almost two decades ago, whereupon the two established a personal friendship and longtime correspondence.