Editing John of the Cross (section)

=== 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" />