John of the Cross
A Spanish Carmelite, whose family name was Juan de Yepes y Alvarez, became one of the greatest Christian mystics and poets, a reformer of Spanish monasticism, and cofounder of the contemplative order of Discalced Carmelites. His spirituality is one of the most extreme renunciation. He warns against delight in the senses, and even of many varieties of spiritual delight. For him the highway to God is through abnegation, the "dark night of the soul." E. Allison Peers gives a more positive interpretation of his characteristics, in the introduction to her translation. A chronological outline of the saint's life is also given below; also, an introduction to the Ascent. and the text of the poem "On a dark night"
Juan de Yepes joined the Carmelite order at Medina del Campo, Spain, in 1563 and was ordained priest in 1567. St. Teresa of Avila, the celebrated mystic, enlisted his help (1568) in her restoration of Carmelite life to its original observance of austerity. A year later, at Duruelo, he opened the first Discalced Carmelite monastery. Reform, however, caused friction within the order and led to his imprisonment, first in 1576 and again in 1577 at Toledo, where he wrote some of his finest poetry. Escaping in August 1578, he later won esteem within the order, becoming vicar provincial of Andalusia from 1585 to 1587. Near the end of his life the Discalced Carmelites were again troubled by dissension, and he withdrew to absolute solitude.
John schematised the steps of mystical ascenta self-communion that in quietude leads the individual from the inharmonious distractions of the world to the sublime peace of reunion between the soul and God. John's schematisation combines a poetic sensitivity for the nuances of mystical experience with a theological and philosophical precision guided by his study of St. Thomas Aquinas. By virtue of his intense poems, "Cantico espiritual" (The Spiritual Canticle), "Noche obscura del alma" (The Dark Night of the Soul), and "Llama de amor viva" (The Living Flame of Love), he achieves preeminence in Spanish mystical literature, expressing the experience of the mystical union between the soul and Christ.
In "Noche," perhaps his best known work, he describes the process by which the soul sheds its attachment to everything and eventually passes through a personal experience of Christ's Crucifixion to his glory. The lyric consists of eight stanzas "in which the soul sings of the fortunate adventure that it had in passing through the dark night of faith . . . to union with the Beloved."