Dag Hammarskjold

The plane in which Dag Hammarskjold (1905-1961) was traveling crashed in 1961, claiming all sixteen passengers on board. Debate continues to this day whether the accident was the result of pilot error or the work of assassins to thwart his peace-keeping mission. Dag’s private journal, a diary he began in college, was found in his New York apartment. His last entry was made only a few weeks before his untimely death. He tucked a note in his journal addressed to a friend, “If you find this worth publishing, you have my permission to do so, as a sort of white book concerning my negotiations with myself—and with God.” While this Secretary General of the United Nations lived a very public life, he managed to keep his private life private. The publication of his journal, Markings, was a window into the soul of this intensely private spiritual believer. It turns out this man of action was also a Christian contemplative. One entry in his journal supplies a clue, “The road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.” He often reflected on his battle with loneliness in writing. As a young man, Dag lost the woman he deeply loved to another man. It was a wound that never left him. He never dated or pursued marriage again. He longed to be married, but it never happened. He wrote poems about loneliness and expressed his longings in prayer. He wrote in his journal as a note to himself, “Pray that loneliness will spur you into something to live for, great enough to die for.” A copy of the New Testament was found in his briefcase at the crash site, which he carried with him every time he traveled. His life of prayer was evident through written prayers in his journal. Here’s one: