Editing John of the Cross (section)

== Life ==
=== Early life and education ===
[[File:Monumento a San Juan de la Cruz en Fontiveros.JPG|thumb|left|upright|Statues in Fontiveros of John of the Cross, erected in 1928 by popular subscription by the townspeople]]
{{Christian mysticism}}

He was born '''Juan de Yepes y Álvarez''' at [[Fontiveros]], [[Old Castile]], into a "[[New Christian]]" family of ''[[Converso]]'' origins (descendants of [[Sephardic Bnei Anusim|Iberian Jewish]] [[Conversion to Christianity|converts to Roman Catholicism]]) in Fontiveros, near [[Ávila, Spain|Ávila]], a town of around 2,000 people.<ref>{{cite book |last=Rodriguez|first=Jose Vincente|title=God Speaks in the Night. The Life, Times, and Teaching of St. John of the Cross'|year=1991|publisher=ICS Publications|location=Washington, DC|pages=3}}</ref>{{sfn|Thompson|2002|p=27}}<ref>Roth, Norman. ''Conversos, Inquisition, and the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain'', Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1995, pp. 157, 369</ref> His father, Gonzalo, was an accountant to richer relatives who were silk merchants. In 1529 Gonzalo married John's mother, Catalina, an orphan of humble origins; he was rejected by his family and forced to work with his wife as a weaver.{{sfn|Tillyer|1984|p=4}} John's father died in 1545, when John was around three years old.<ref>Gerald Brenan, ''St John of the Cross: His Life and Poetry'' (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973), p. 4</ref> Two years later, John's older brother, Luis, died, probably from malnourishment due to the family's poverty. John's mother Catalina moved with John and his surviving brother Francisco, first to Arévalo in 1548, and then in 1551 to [[Medina del Campo]], where she was able to find work.<ref name=Kavanaugh>{{cite book |last=Kavanaugh |first=Kieran |title=The Collected Works of St John of the Cross |year=1991 |publisher=ICS Publications |location=Washington |isbn=0-935216-14-6 |chapter=General Introduction: Biographical Sketch |pages=9–27 |editor=Kieran Kavanaugh}}</ref><ref name="impact">{{cite book
|last=Matthew
|first=Iain
|title=The Impact of God, Soundings from St John of the Cross.
|pages=3
|publisher=Hodder & Stoughton
|year=1995
|isbn=0-340-61257-6}}</ref>

In Medina, John entered a school for 160{{sfn|Thompson|2002|p=31}} poor children, mostly orphans, to receive a basic education, mainly in Christian doctrine. They were given some food, clothing, and lodging. While there, he was chosen to serve as an altar boy at a nearby convent of [[Augustinians|Augustinian]] nuns.<ref name="Kavanaugh" /> Growing up, John worked at a hospital and studied the humanities at a [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit]] school from 1559 to 1563. The Society of Jesus was at that time a new organization, having been founded only a few years earlier by the Spaniard St. [[Ignatius of Loyola]]. In 1563 he entered the Carmelite Order, adopting the name '''John of St. Matthias'''.<ref>Kavanaugh (1991) names the date as 24 February. However, E. Allison Peers (1943), p. 13, points out that although the Feast Day of St. Matthias is often assumed to be the date, Father Silverio proposes a date in August or September for John's postulancy.</ref><ref name="Kavanaugh"/>

In 1564, he made his [[religious vows|first vows]] and enrolled in [[University of Salamanca|Salamanca University]], where he studied theology and philosophy.<ref>He entered Salamanca University probably between 21 May and October. See E. Allison Peers, ''Spirit of Flame: A Study of St John of the Cross'' (London: SCM Press, 1943), p. 13</ref> There he met [[Luis Ponce de León|Fray Luis de León]], who taught biblical studies ([[Exegesis]], [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]], and [[Aramaic]]) at the university.

=== Joining the Reform of Teresa of Ávila ===
[[File:S. Juan de la Cruz y Santa Teresa.JPG|thumb|left|Statues representing John of the Cross and [[Teresa of Ávila]] in [[Beas de Segura]], Spain]]
John was [[Holy Orders|ordained]] as a priest in 1567. He subsequently considered joining the strict [[Carthusian]] Order, which appealed to him because of its practice of solitary and silent contemplation. His journey from Salamanca to [[Medina del Campo]], probably in September 1567, became pivotal.<ref>E. Allison Peers (1943, p. 16) suggests that the journey was to visit a nearby Carthusian monastery; Richard P. Hardy, ''The Life of St John of the Cross: Search for Nothing'' (London: DLT, 1982), p. 24, argues that the reason was for John to say his first mass</ref> In Medina he met the influential Carmelite nun [[Teresa of Ávila]]. She was in Medina to found the second of her new convents.<ref>E. Allison Peers, ''Spirit of Flame: A Study of St John of the Cross'' (London: SCM Press, 1943), p. 16</ref> She told him about her reform projects for the Order, which sought to restore the purity of the Carmelite Order by reverting to the observance of its "Primitive Rule" of 1209, which had been relaxed by [[Pope Eugene IV]] in 1432.

Under the Rule, much of the day and night was to be divided between the recitation of the [[Liturgy of the Hours]], study and devotional reading, the celebration of Mass, and periods of solitude. In the case of friars, time was to be spent evangelizing the population around the monastery.{{sfn|Tillyer|1984|p=8}} There was to be total [[abstinence]] from meat and a lengthy period of [[fasting]] from the [[Feast of the Cross#September 14|Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross]] (14 September) until Easter. There were to be long periods of silence, especially between [[Compline]] and [[Prime (liturgy)|Prime]]. Simpler, coarser, and shorter habits were to be adopted.{{sfn|Hardy|1982|p=27}} There was also an [[injunction]] against wearing covered shoes (also previously mitigated in 1432). That particular observance distinguished the "[[discalced]]", i.e., barefoot, followers of Teresa from traditional Carmelites, and they would be formally recognized as the separate Order of [[Discalced Carmelites]] in 1580.

Teresa asked John to delay his entry into the Carthusian order and to follow her. Having spent a final year studying in Salamanca, in August 1568 John traveled with Teresa from Medina to [[Valladolid]], where Teresa intended to found another convent. After a spell at Teresa's side in Valladolid, learning more about the new form of Carmelite life, John left Valladolid in October 1568 accompanied by Fray {{ill|Antonio de Jesús de Heredia|es|Antonio de Jesús (carmelita)|fr|Antoine de Heredia}}, intending to found a new monastery for Carmelite friars — the first to follow Teresa's principles. They were given the use of a derelict house at [[Duruelo]], which had been donated to Teresa. On 28 November 1568, the monastery was established,<ref>The monastery contained three men, according to E. Allison Peers (1943), p. 27; or five, according to Richard P. Hardy, ''The Life of St John of the Cross: Search for Nothing'' (London: DLT, 1982), p. 35.</ref> and on that same day, John changed his name to "John of the Cross."

Soon after, in June 1570, the friars moved to the nearby town of [[Mancera de Abajo]], midway between Ávila and Salamanca. John moved from the first community to set up a new community at [[Pastrana, Spain|Pastrana]] in October 1570, and then another community at [[Alcalá de Henares]], as a house for the academic training of the friars. In 1572 he arrived in Ávila, at Teresa's invitation. She had been appointed [[prior (ecclesiastical)|prioress]] of the Convent of the Incarnation there in 1571.<ref>The month generally given is May. [[Edgar Allison Peers]], ''Complete Works'' Vol. I (1943, xxvi), agreeing with [[Silverio of Saint Teresa|P. Silverio]], thinks it must have been substantially later than this, though certainly before 27 September.</ref> John became the [[spiritual director]] and [[confessor]] of Teresa and the other 130 nuns there, as well as for a wide range of laypeople in the city.<ref name="Kavanaugh" /> In 1574, John accompanied Teresa for the foundation of a new religious community in [[Segovia]], returning to Ávila after staying there a week. Aside from the one trip, John seems to have remained in Ávila between 1572 and 1577.{{sfn|Hardy|1982|p=56}}

[[File:John of the Cross crucifixion sketch.jpg|thumb|upright|Drawing of the crucifixion by John of the Cross]]
Some time between 1574 and 1577, while praying in a loft overlooking the sanctuary in the Monastery of the Incarnation in Ávila, John had a vision of [[Crucifixion of Jesus|the crucified Christ]], which led him to create his drawing of Christ "from above". In 1641, this drawing was placed in a small [[monstrance]] and kept in Ávila. This same drawing inspired the artist [[Salvador Dalí]]'s 1951 work ''[[Christ of Saint John of the Cross]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2017-09-22|title=Discover the crucifix drawn by St. John of the Cross after a mystical vision|url=https://aleteia.org/2017/09/22/discover-the-crucifix-drawn-by-saint-john-of-the-cross-after-a-mystical-vision/|access-date=2021-05-11|website=Aleteia — Catholic Spirituality, Lifestyle, World News, and Culture|language=en}}</ref>

=== Height of Carmelite tensions ===
The years 1575–77 saw a great increase in tensions among Spanish Carmelite friars over the reforms of Teresa and John. Since 1566 the reforms had been overseen by [[canonical visitation|Canonical Visitors]] from the [[Dominican Order]], with one appointed to Castile and a second to [[Andalusia]]. The Visitors had substantial powers: they could move members of religious communities from one house to another or from one [[ecclesiastical province|province]] to the next. They could assist [[religious superior]]s in the discharge of their office, and could delegate superiors between the Dominican or Carmelite orders. In Castile, the Visitor was Pedro Fernández, who prudently balanced the interests of the Discalced Carmelites with those of the nuns and friars who did not desire reform.<ref>He is possibly the same Pedro Fernández who became the [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Ávila#Leadership|Bishop of Ávila]] in 1581. He who appointed Teresa as prioress in Ávila in 1571, while also maintaining good relations with the Carmelite [[provincial superior|Prior Provincial]] of Castile.</ref>

In Andalusia to the south, the Visitor was Francisco Vargas, and tensions rose due to his clear preference for the Discalced friars. Vargas asked them to make foundations in various cities, in contradiction to the express orders from the Carmelite [[Superior general|Prior General]] to curb expansion 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 getting out of hand. It concluded by ordering the total suppression of the Discalced houses.<ref>Kavanaugh (1991) states that this was all the Discalced houses founded in Andalusia. E. Allison Peers, ''Complete Works'', Vol. I, p. xxvii (1943) states that this was all the Discalced monasteries but two.</ref>

That measure was not immediately enforced. [[Philip II of Spain|King Philip II of Spain]] was supportive of Teresa's reforms, and so was not immediately willing to grant the necessary permission to enforce the ordinance. The Discalced friars also found support from the papal [[nuncio]] to Spain, {{Interlanguage link multi|Nicolò Ormaneto|it}}, [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Padua|Bishop of Padua]], who still had ultimate power to visit and reform religious orders. When asked by the Discalced friars to intervene, Nuncio Ormaneto replaced Vargas as Visitor of the Carmelites in Andalusia with [[Jerónimo Gracián]], a priest from the [[University of Alcalá]], who was in fact a Discalced Carmelite friar himself.<ref name="Kavanaugh" /> The nuncio's protection helped John avoid problems for a time. In January 1576, John was detained in Medina del Campo by traditional Carmelite friars, but through the nuncio's intervention, he was soon released.<ref name="Kavanaugh" /> When Ormaneto died on 18 June 1577, John was left without protection, and the friars opposing his reforms regained the upper hand.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

=== Foundations, imprisonment, torture and death ===
[[File:El Greco - View of Toledo - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright|[[El Greco]]'s landscape of Toledo depicts the priory in which John was held captive, just below the old ''[[Alcázar of Toledo|alcázar]]'' (fort) and perched on the banks of the Tajo on high cliffs.]]
On the night of 2 December 1577, a group of Carmelites opposed to reform broke into John's dwelling in Ávila and took him prisoner. John had received an order from superiors, opposed to reform, to leave Ávila and return to his original house. John had refused on the basis that his reform work had been approved by the papal nuncio to Spain, a higher authority than these superiors.<ref name="ascent">{{cite web
|url=https://archive.org/details/ascentofmountcar00johnuoft
|title= Ascent of Mt. Carmel, introductory essay THE DEVELOPMENT OF MYSTICISM IN THE CARMELITE ORDER
|access-date=11 December 2009
|author = Bennedict Zimmermann
|publisher= Thomas Baker and Internet Archive}}
|pages = 10,11</ref> The Carmelites therefore took John captive. John was taken from Ávila to the Carmelite monastery in [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]], at that time the order's leading monastery in Castile, with a community of 40 friars.{{sfn|Thompson|2002|p=48 |ps=.  Thompson points out that many earlier biographers have stated the number of friars at Toledo to be 80, but this is simply taken from Crisogono's Spanish biography. Alain Cugno (1982) gives the number of friars as 800 — which Thompson assumes this must be a misprint. However, as Thompson details, the actual number of friars has been reconstructed from comparing various extant documents that in 1576, 42 friars belonged to the house, with only about 23 of them resident, the remainder being absent for various reasons. This is done by J. Carlos Vuzeute Mendoza, 'La prisión de San Juan de la Cruz: El convent del Carmen de Toledo en 1577 y 1578', A. García Simón, ed, ''Actas del congreso internacional sanjuanista'', 3 vols. (Valladolid: Junta de Castilla y León, 1993) II, pp. 427–436 }}<ref>Peter Tyler, ''St John of the Cross'' (New York: Continuum, 2000), p. 28. The reference to the El Greco painting is also taken from here. The priory no longer exists, having been destroyed in 1936 — it is now the Toledo Municipal car park.</ref>

John was brought before a court of friars, accused of disobeying the ordinances of Piacenza. Despite his argument that he had not disobeyed the ordinances, he was sentenced to a term of imprisonment. He was jailed in a monastery where he was kept under a brutal regime that included public lashings before the community at least weekly, and severe isolation in a tiny stifling cell measuring barely {{Convert|10 by 6|ft}}. Except when rarely permitted an oil lamp, he had to stand on a bench to read his [[breviary]] by the light through the hole into the adjoining room. He had no change of clothing and a penitential diet of water, bread and scraps of salt fish.{{sfn|Tillyer|1984|p=10}} During his imprisonment, he composed a great part of his most famous poem, ''[[Spiritual Canticle]]'', as well as a few shorter poems. The paper was passed to him by the friar who guarded his cell.<ref>''Dark night of the soul''. Translation by Mirabai Starr. {{ISBN|1-57322-974-1}} p. 8.</ref> He managed to escape eight months later, on 15 August 1578, through a small window in a room adjoining his cell. (He had managed to pry open the hinges of the cell door earlier that day.){{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

After being nursed back to health, first by Teresa's nuns in [[Toledo, Spain|Toledo]], and then during six weeks at the Hospital of Santa Cruz, John continued with the reforms. In October 1578 he joined a meeting at [[Almodóvar del Campo]] of reform supporters, better known as the Discalced Carmelites.<ref>Peter Tyler, ''St John of the Cross'' (New York: Continuum, 2000), p. 33. The Hospital still exists, and is today a municipal art gallery in Toledo.</ref> There, in part as a result of the opposition faced from other Carmelites, they decided to request from the Pope their formal separation from the rest of the Carmelite order.<ref name="Kavanaugh"/>

At that meeting John was appointed superior of El Calvario, an isolated monastery of around thirty friars in the mountains about {{Convert|6|mi}} away{{sfn|Thompson|2002|p=117}} from [[Beas, Spain|Beas]] in Andalusia. During that time he befriended the nun [[Ana de Jesús]], superior of the Discalced nuns at Beas, through his visits to the town every Saturday. While at El Calvario he composed the first version of his commentary on his poem ''The Spiritual Canticle'', possibly at the request of the nuns in Beas.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

In 1579 he moved to [[Baeza, Spain|Baeza]], a town of around 50,000 people, to serve as [[rector (academic)|rector]] of a new college, the Colegio de San Basilio, for Discalced friars in Andalusia. It opened on 13 June 1579. He remained in post until 1582, spending much of his time as a spiritual director to the friars and townspeople.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

1580 was a significant year in the resolution of disputes between the Carmelites. On 22 June, [[Pope Gregory XIII]] signed a decree, entitled ''Pia Consideratione'', which authorised the separation of the old (later "calced") and the newly reformed, "Discalced" Carmelites. The Dominican friar [[Roman Catholic Diocese of Ávila#Leadership|Juan Velázquez de las Cuevas]] was appointed to oversee the decision. At the first General Chapter of the Discalced Carmelites, in [[Alcalá de Henares]] on 3 March 1581, John of the Cross was elected one of the "Definitors" of the community, and wrote a constitution for them. By the time of the Provincial Chapter at Alcalá in 1581, there were 22 houses, some 300 friars and 200 nuns among the Discalced Carmelites.{{sfn|Thompson|2002|p=119}}

[[File:Sepulcro-de-san-juan-de-la-cruz-02.jpg|thumb|upright|Saint John of the Cross' shrine and reliquary, Convent of Carmelite Friars, Segovia]] [[File:JohnCrossRelicsUbeda.jpg|thumb|Reliquary of John of the Cross in Úbeda, Spain]]

In November 1581, John was sent by Teresa to help Ana de Jesús to found a convent in [[Granada]]. Arriving in January 1582, she set up a convent, while John stayed in the monastery of Los Mártires, near the Alhambra, becoming its prior in March 1582.{{sfn|Hardy|1982|p=90}} While there, he learned of Teresa's death in October of that year.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

In February 1585, John travelled to [[Málaga]] where he established a convent for Discalced nuns. In May 1585, at the General Chapter of the Discalced Carmelites in [[Lisbon]], John was elected Vicar Provincial of Andalusia, a post which required him to travel frequently, making annual visitations to the houses of friars and nuns in Andalusia. During this time he founded seven new monasteries in the region, and is estimated to have travelled around 25,000&nbsp;km.{{sfn|Thompson|2002|p=122 |ps=. This would have been largely by foot or by mule, given the strict rules which governed the way in which Discalced friars were permitted to travel.}}

In June 1588, he was elected third Councillor to the Vicar General for the Discalced Carmelites, Father Nicolas Doria. To fulfill this role, he had to return to Segovia in Castile, where he also took on the role of prior of the monastery. After disagreeing in 1590–1 with some of Doria's remodelling of the leadership of the Discalced Carmelite Order, John was removed from his post in Segovia, and sent by Doria in June 1591 to an isolated monastery in Andalusia called La Peñuela. There he fell ill, and travelled to the monastery at [[Úbeda, Spain|Úbeda]] for treatment. His condition worsened, however, and he died there of [[erysipelas]] on 14 December 1591.<ref name="Kavanaugh" />