From The State:
The Rev. Francis Kline, the abbot of Mepkin Abbey and an influencial
spiritual force in the life of South Carolina, died Sunday after a three-year
battle with cancer. He was 57.
A Juilliard-trained organist, Father Francis was the longtime leader of the Trappist monastic community founded on the Cooper River at Moncks Corner in 1949. But the cerebral, soft-spoken monk was much more to those who claimed him as wise counselor and reverent friend.
“He was someone that just had a remarkable level of personal grace in the way he handled himself,” Gov. Mark Sanford said. “He was able to have this incredibly deep well of spirituality and the ability to look deeply at ideas of faith, and then this
ability to care what was happening in the world around him.”
