St. John of the Cross

This Thursday 14th December, is the Memorial of St. John of the Cross (1542 – 1591), a great mystic, poet and theologian. He was born in Fontiveros, Spain, into an impoverished noble family. After studying at the Jesuit college in Medina, in 1563 he joined the Carmelite order and went on to study theology at Salamanca, before being ordained a priest in 1567. It was shortly afterwards that he met St. Teresa of Avila, who persuaded him to join her reform movement within the Carmelite order. Teresa had already founded the Discalced order for nuns, and in 1586, John and for other friars founded the first men’s community. It was then that he took the name ‘John of the Cross.’ In 1571 he was appointed director of the new house of studies at Alcala, and in 1572, he began a five year service as confessor and spiritual director of the nuns at Avila, the mother house of Teresa’s reform. His work of spreading reform, brought him to the attention of the Carmelite leaders and the dissension between the two groups of the order reached such a height that in 1577, John was arrested and imprisoned at Toledo. The conditions in prison were harsh, yet it was there that he wrote some of his finest poems, including ‘The Dark Night of the Soul.’ He managed to escape nine months later, and soon afterwards the Discalceds were fully recognised. In 1582, the year of Teresa’s death, John became prior at Granada and then three years later, provincial of Andalusia. Throughout this time, he was occupied with the foundation of new houses, but then, the new order itself began to suffer serious internal dissension between moderates and extremists. John was a moderate but the extremists gained the ascendancy and so he was exiled, suffering humiliation and maltreatment. He soon fell sick and died on this day in 1591. His mystical works such as The Spiritual Canticle are amongst the most renowned in Christian literature, combining a profound poetic sensitivity and vision with a searching intellect and well-developed theology. He was canonised in 1726 and in 1926 named a Doctor of the Church.