St John of The Cross

San Juan de la Cruz (St. John of the Cross), born Juan de Yepes y Álvarez on June 24, 1542, in Fontiveros, Spain, was a significant figure in the Catholic Counter-Reformation and a renowned mystic. He is recognized as one of the thirty-seven Doctors of the Church. Of converso origin, John’s early life was marked by poverty after the early death of his father, Gonzalo, and older brother, Luis.

John’s formative years included basic education in Christian doctrine at a school for impoverished children in Medina, where he also served as an altar boy at an Augustinian nuns’ associated monastery. He later worked at a hospital, and studied humanities at a Jesuit school from 1559 to 1563. In 1563, he entered the Carmelite Order and subsequently studied theology and philosophy at Salamanca University, where he encountered Fray Luis de León.

Ordained as a priest in 1567, John met Teresa of Ávila, who influenced him to join her Carmelite reform effort, focusing on a return to the Order’s primitive rule. He became instrumental in founding new convents and monasteries adhering to this reform. In 1568, he changed his name to John of the Cross.

John’s later years were tumultuous, marked by tensions within the Carmelite Order over the aforementioned reforms. He faced imprisonment and torture, by Carmelites opposed to them, in 1577, but escaped their clutches in 1578. He continued his reformative work, establishing several new communities.

San Juan de la Cruz’s writings, comprising poems like the “Spiritual Canticle” and “Dark Night of the Soul” and commentaries on these poems, are celebrated for their depth and mystical insight. He died on December 14, 1591, in Úbeda, Spain. His works have profoundly influenced both religious and secular literature. Canonized in 1726 and declared a Doctor of the Church in 1926, his legacy endures in the realms of theology, philosophy, and the arts.

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