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John of the Cross John of the Cross This article is about the Spanish saint. For the national personification of the Philippines, see Juan dela Cruz. Saint John of the Cross, O.C.D. (Spanish: San Juan de la Cruz; 1542[1] – 14 December 1591), was a major figure of the Counter-Reformation, a Spanish mystic, a Roman Catholic saint, a Carmelite friar and a priest who was born at Fontiveros, Old Castile. John of the Cross was a reformer of the Carmelite Order and is considered, along with Saint Teresa of Ávila, as a founder of the Discalced Carmelites. He is also known for his writings. Both his poetry and his studies on the growth of the soul are considered the summit of mystical Spanish literature and one of the peaks of all Spanish lit- erature. He was canonized as a saint in 1726 by Pope Benedict XIII. He is one of the thirty-five Doctors of the Church. 1 Life 1.1 Early life and education Statues in Fontiveros of John of the Cross, erected in 1928 by He was born Juan de Yepes y Álvarez[3] into a converso popular subscription by the townspeople. family (descendents of Muslim or Jewish converts to Christianity) in Fontiveros, near Ávila, a town of around 2,000 people.[4][5] His father, Gonzalo, was an accoun- Spaniard St. Ignatius of Loyola. In 1563[11] he en- tant to richer relatives who were silk merchants. How- tered the Carmelite Order, adopting the name John of ever, when in 1529 he married John’s mother, Catalina, St. Matthias.[8] who was an orphan of a lower class, Gonzalo was re- The following year (1564)[12] he professed his religious jected by his family and forced to work with his wife as vows as a Carmelite and travelled to Salamanca, where [6] a weaver. John’s father died in 1545, while John was he studied theology and philosophy at the prestigious Uni- [7] still only around seven years old. Two years later, John’s versity there (at the time one of the four biggest in Europe, older brother Luis died, probably as a result of insufficient alongside Paris, Oxford and Bologna) and at the Cole- nourishment caused by the penury to which John’s fam- gio de San Andrés. Some modern writers claim that this ily had been reduced. After this, John’s mother Catalina stay would influence all his later writings, as Fray Luis took John and his surviving brother Francisco, and moved de León taught biblical studies (Exegesis, Hebrew and first in 1548 to Arévalo, and then in 1551 to Medina del Aramaic) at the University: León was one of the foremost [8][9] Campo, where she was able to find work weaving. experts in Biblical Studies then and had written an impor- In Medina, John entered a school for around 160[10] poor tant and controversial translation of the Song of Songs children, usually orphans, receiving a basic education, into Spanish. (Translation of the Bible into the vernacu- mainly in Christian doctrine, as well as some food, cloth- lar was not allowed then in Spain.) ing and lodging. While studying there, he was chosen to serve as acolyte at a nearby monastery of Augustinian nuns.[8] Growing up, John worked at a hospital and stud- 1.2 Joining the Reform of Teresa of Jesus ied the humanities at a Jesuit school from 1559 to 1563; the Society of Jesus was a new organization at the time, John was ordained a priest in 1567, and then indicated his having been founded only a few years earlier by the intent to join the strict Carthusian Order, which appealed 1 2 1 LIFE and on that same day John changed his name to John of the Cross. Soon after, in June 1570, the friars found the house at Duruelo too small, and so moved to the nearby town of Mancera de Abajo. After moving on from this commu- nity, John set up a new community at Pastrana (Octo- ber 1570), and a community at Alcalá de Henares, which was to be a house of studies for the academic training of the friars. In 1572[18] he arrived in Ávila, at the in- vitation of Teresa, who had been appointed prioress of the Monastery of the Visitation there in 1571.[19] John became the spiritual director and confessor for Teresa and the other 130 nuns there, as well for as a wide range of laypeople in the city.[8] In 1574, John accompanied Teresa in the foundation of a new monastery in Segovia, Statues representing John of the Cross and Teresa of Ávila in Beas de Segura returning to Avila after staying there a week. Beyond this, though, John seems to have remained in Ávila between 1572 and 1577.[20] to him because of its encouragement of solitary and silent contemplation. A journey from Salamanca to Medina del Campo, probably in September 1567, changed this.[13] In Medina he met the charismatic Carmelite nun Teresa of Jesus. She was in Medina to found the second of her con- vents for women.[14] She immediately talked to him about her reformation projects for the Order: she was seeking to restore the purity of the Carmelite Order by restarting observance of its “Primitive Rule” of 1209, observance of which had been relaxed by Pope Eugene IV in 1432. Under this Rule, much of the day and night was to be spent in the recitation of the choir offices, study and de- votional reading, the celebration of Mass and times of solitude. For the friars, time was to be spent evangelizing the population around the monastery.[15] Total abstinence from meat and lengthy fasting was to be observed from the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross (September 14) until Easter. There were to be long periods of silence, es- pecially between Compline and Prime. Coarser, shorter habits, more simple than those worn since 1432, were to be worn.[16] They were to follow the injunction against the wearing of shoes (also mitigated in 1432). It was from this last observance that the followers of Teresa Drawing of the crucifixion by John of the Cross, which inspired among the Carmelites were becoming known as “dis- Salvador Dalí calced”, i.e., barefoot, differentiating themselves from the non-reformed friars and nuns. One day at some point between 1574 and 1577, while praying in the Monastery of the Incarnation in Ávila, in Teresa asked John to delay his entry into the Carthusians a loft overlooking the sanctuary, John had a vision of the and to follow her. Having spent a final year studying in crucified Christ, which led him to create his famous draw- Salamanca, in August 1568 John traveled with Teresa ing of Christ “from above”. In 1641, this drawing was from Medina to Valladolid, where Teresa intended to placed in a small monstrance and kept in Ávila. This found another monastery of nuns. Having spent some drawing inspired the artist Salvador Dalí's 1951 work time with Teresa in Valladolid, learning more about this Christ of Saint John of the Cross. new form of Carmelite life, in October 1568, accompa- nied by Friar Antonio de Jesús de Heredia, John left Val- ladolid to found a new monastery for friars, the first for 1.3 The height of Carmelite tensions men following Teresa’s principles. They were given the use of a derelict house at Duruelo (midway between Ávila The years 1575-77, however, saw a great increase in the and Salamanca), which had been donated to Teresa. On tensions among the Spanish Carmelite friars over the re- 28 November 1568, the monastery[17] was established, forms of Teresa and John. Since 1566 the reforms had 1.4 Imprisonment, writings, torture, death and recognition 3 been overseen by Canonical Visitors from the Dominican Order, with one appointed to Castile and a second to Andalusia. These Visitors had substantial powers: they could move the members of religious communities from house to house and even province to province. They could assist religious superiors in their office, and could depute other superiors from either the Dominicans or Carmelites. In Castile, the Visitor was Pedro Fernández, who prudently balanced the interests of the Discalced Carmelites against those of the friars and nuns who did not desire reform.[21] In Andalusia to the south, however, where the Visitor was Francisco Vargas, tensions rose due to his clear prefer- ence for the Discalced friars. Vargas asked them to make foundations in various cities, in explicit contradiction of orders from the Carmelite Prior General against their ex- pansion in Andalusia. As a result, a General Chapter of the Carmelite Order was convened at Piacenza in Italy in May 1576, out of concern that events in Spain were get- ting out of hand, which concluded by ordering the total [8] suppression of the Discalced houses. El Greco's landscape of Toledo depicts the priory in which John This measure was not immediately enforced. For one was held captive, just below the old Muslim alcázar and perched on the banks of the Tajo on high cliffs thing, King Philip II of Spain was supportive of some of Teresa’s reforms, and so was not immediately willing to grant the necessary permission to enforce this ordinance. Moreover the Discalced friars also found support from lived.[23][24] John was brought before a court of friars, the papal nuncio to King Philip II, Nicolò Ormaneto (it), accused of disobeying the ordinances of Piacenza. De- Bishop of Padua, who still had ultimate power as nun- spite John’s argument that he had not disobeyed the ordi- cio to visit and reform religious Orders.
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