Charles Wright

This article examines the conception of spiritual fatherhood developed by Dom André Louf, a Trappist abbot and major figure of twentieth-century Western monasticism. Charles Wright, his biographer, offers a study grounded in a thorough knowledge of this monk's work and practice, analyzing the way in which he articulated the tradition of the Desert Fathers with the contributions of modern psychology in spiritual accompaniment. The central idea is that Dom André Louf did not set the patristic heritage against the human sciences, but integrated them into a coherent synthesis in the service of the guidance of souls. The contribution of the article lies in the light it sheds on a bridging figure between Eastern and Western monastic spirituality, thereby contributing to contemporary reflection on the anthropological foundations of spiritual fatherhood.