MOORE, THOMAS VERNER

Catholic priest and psychologist, b. Oct. 22, 1877, Louisville, Kentucky; d. June 5, 1969, Burgos, Spain. Moore entered the Paulists in 1896, and was ordained in 1901. In 1903 he received his doctorate in psychology

from The Catholic University of America under Pace and continued studies under Wundt in Leipzig. He received his doctorate in medicine from The Johns Hopkins University in 1913. In 1910 he began as an instructor in psychology at The Catholic University of America, becoming head of the department of psychology and psychiatry in 1939. In 1916 he founded a psychiatric clinic where training was offered to students in psychology, this becoming, under Moore and for the first time in America, a regular part of their curriculum. During 1918–19 Moore served in the U.S. Army as psychiatrist and chaplain.

A pioneer among Catholics in recognizing the value of scientific psychology, Moore became one of the first Catholic priests to win general recognition from fellow psychologists. The doctorate from his department was until 1959 the only one from a Catholic university with official approval of the American Psychological Association. He likewise understood the loss to psychology that came from ignoring man's religious dimension, and correcting this then-prevalent situation became a dominant feature of his life work.

With the idea of living the more deeply religious and liturgical life of a monk, and offering this to colleagues for vitalizing their scientific activities, he was a prime influence in founding the Benedictine Priory (now Abbey) in Washington in 1924, after making a year's novitiate in Scotland. He became prior in 1939.

In 1947, understanding that God was calling him to the hidden, solitary Carthusian life, he entered the Carthusians in Spain, returning to America in 1950 to help found the first American Charterhouse. He died in Spain, where he had returned in 1960, at the age of 91, living the Carthusian life faithfully to the end.

Bibliography: Works. Dynamic Psychology (Philadelphia 1924). Prayer (Westminster, Md. 1931). Principles of Ethics (Philadelphia 1935). Cognitive Psychology (Philadelphia 1939). The Nature and Treatment of Mental Disorders (New York 1943). Personal Mental Hygiene (New York 1944). The Driving Forces of Human Nature and Their Adjustment (New York 1950). The Home and Its Inner Spiritual Life (Westminster, Md. 1952). The Life of Man with God (New York 1956). Heroic Sanctity and Insanity (New York 1959). Source materials for Moore's life and work are the following: Archives of the Paulist Fathers (New York); the Benedictine Fathers, St. Anselm's Abbey (Washington, D.C.); the Charterhouse of Miraflores (Burgos, Spain); Newsletter of the American Catholic Psychological Association (Autumn 1969). b. neenan, Thomas Verner Moore: Psychiatrist, Educator, and Monk (New York 2000).

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