Born Joseph David Flanagan in 1903, he grew up in Massachusetts. He joined the Jesuits in 1920, teaching at Holy Cross College from 1927 to 1930 and later serving as retreat master. In 1936, he joined the Order of the Cistercians of the Strict Observance (Trappists) at the cloister of the Abbey of Our Lady of Gethsemane in Kentucky where he received the name he is most know by today, Fr. Mary Raymond. He wrote twenty-two books as a Trappist, many dealing with the subject of how the laity could achieve sanctity.
