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John Of The Cross

Saint John of the Cross
John of the Cross
Saint John of the Cross
Doctor of the Church
Birth 24 June 1542.
Fontiveros, Spain Flag: Spanish Empire
Deaths 14 December 1591 (49 years)
convent of Ubeda , Spain Flag: Spanish Empire
Nationality Spanish
Revered Segovia , Spain
Beatification 25 January 1675
by Clement X
Canonization 27 December 1726
by Benedict XIII
Revered by the Roman Catholic Church ,
the Anglican Church ,
Lutheran Church
Day December 14
Attributes said "Mystical Doctor" and "Doctor of spiritual theology" by Pius XI in 1926
Patron saint Contemplatives, mystics and Spanish poets
Servant of God Venerable Happy St.

Juan de Yepes Alvarez, known as John of the Cross in religion (in Spanish, Juan de la Cruz), was born in Fontiveros in 1542 and died in the convent of Ubeda in 1591 ), is a holy and mystical Spanish. It is often called the "Saint of Caramel."

Born into an aristocratic family of Spain, he studied and became a monk. Wanting to devote his life by becoming a Carthusian, that's when he met Teresa of Avila , reformer of the Carmelite Order , who asks him to reform the Carmelite Order of men, he agreed, basing the Order Discalced Carmelites. He accompanies spiritual sisters of the Carmelite Order , before being imprisoned by the authorities of Caramel who refuse the new reform. John of the Cross then developed a very strong mystical experience known as that of the dark night , he writes and develops throughout his life through treaties "Ascent," "The Dark Night," "The Living Flame of Love ", or" Spiritual Canticle, "where he wants to describe the path of souls to God. After being appointed prior of the convent of Carmelites Discalced different, it is at the end of her life ostracized from her community, where he died in December 1591.

After his death, he was soon regarded as a saint, and considered one of the greatest mystics of the sixteenth century Spanish, as well as Teresa of Avila. Catholic Church beatified in 1675 and then canonized in 1726. It is celebrated on December 14.

Disputes about the Enlightenment , however, lead to question his writings, but it is a recognition of his writings by Therese of Lisieux, which helps recognize the importance of his doctrine, he then proclaimed Doctor of the Church between two world wars, 24 August 1926.

The richness of his poetry leads to make one of the greatest Spanish poet, and some philosophers draw on his writings in order to conceptualize the detachment.

Since 1952 he is the patron saint of Spanish poets.

Summary

/ / Biography

Childhood and Education

Statue of John of the Cross at the Diocesan Museum of Valladolid , Spain

Gonzalo de Yepes and Catalina Alvarez got married and had one son Francis, when John de Yepes (later John of the Cross) was born in 1542 in Fontiveros in Old Castile . His father belongs to the Spanish nobility, he is a knight, but he was disinherited by his family because of her marriage with Catalina Alvarez . The family then saw the weaving , but soon his father, Gonzalo, died in 1545, and his brother Luis (who died in 1547) . These deaths will affect many young John of the Cross throughout his life. The rest of the family knows when exclusion, homelessness and poverty.

According to his mother, a child, John Yepes already behaved like an angel. When talking about the childhood of John de Yepes, often cited the story of the lagoon: John de Yepes drowns and the Virgin Mary appears. She holds out her hand to help them out. He refuses because he considers as his hands too dirty. It saves itself by its own means.

In 1551 , famine and drought prevail at Fontiveros. The family then moved to Medina del Campo , where she found work. John attended schools in the city, the brothers of the Doctrine, but the poverty of the family led John to have to work in order to provide for the family, he tried several jobs but it does not show very clever and should change, it is successively carpenter and tailor, and woodcarver, and painter . His mother sent temporarily to the convent of penance, where he is an altar, and a gentleman Alvarez de Toledo, who withdrew from the world to care for the poor to hospital Medina del Campo , makes the young person in his service to help the poor and be a nurse at the hospital . He obtained a license to follow the course of the college of Jesuits of Medina del Campo , and continues to work at the hospital .

Entrance to Caramel

At the age of 21 years, John of the Cross finished her studies in humanities, he learns the rules of prosody father Bonifacio . His mother and Alvarez de Toledo decided to make him the next chaplain of the hospital in Medina and send it to continue his studies . He entered the Carmelite convent of Medina in 1563 . He took the name of John of St. Matthias and professed. A year later he was sent to the convent of St. Andrew Salamanca annexed to the University of Salamanca . He studied three years of philosophy , the moral theology of Thomas Aquinas , which became one of the great spiritual master Jean de la Croix .

John of the Cross shows himself a brilliant student, he became prefect of studies in Salamanca . But John of the Cross has the certainty that God is in him, deep within himself . He then wants to devote his life to God and believes that only the religious order of the Charterhouse will enable it to achieve this aim . He then wants to return to the Chartreuse of Segovia . Ordained in 1567, when he said his first mass in the presence of her mother Catherine and Alvarez de Toledo benefactor .

Foundation of Carmelites Discalced with Teresa of Avila

Statues of John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila

Teresa of Avila, the Carmelite nun is trying to reform its religious order, which becomes the Discalced Carmelites, wants to lead the brothers in the Reform of the Carmelite Order. She hears talk of John of the Cross and wish to meet .

They meet him and Teresa of Avila expressed his desire to reform the order, and asked his help, he heads to the reform of the male order of Caramel, the Carmelites Discalced . The objective of the reform of Caramel is to return to the primitive practice of the Order. John of the Cross accepted but returned to the University of Salamanca to complete his studies .

Meanwhile, Teresa of Avila, who founded a new convent for reformed Valladolid receives a house that a man offered to found a new Carmelite . She decided to found the first convent of Discalced Carmelites. A year after their first meeting in September 1568, John of the Cross goes to Valladolid in order to know the uses of the new reform of Caramel Discalced, before leaving for Duruelo .

Arrive Duruelo, John of the Cross settles with two other companions and wears the Carmelite crafted by Teresa of Avila: A homespun restrained by a belt, scapular of the Order and a short white coat .

The early years were marked by a Duruelo radicalism important: John of the Cross by evangelize bare foot, and sometimes even snow, he preached the night and pray at night while sleeping very little and in very precarious conditions, the house n 'is not very well insulated from the cold . More John of the Cross practice high life mortification : he wears the cassock and required different types of mortification, such as fasting. He justifies this mortification by the need to restore it in order destroyed by sin, but also to make reparation for the other .

But soon this life of mortification caused problems, indeed a new Discalced Carmelite convent was founded in Pastrana . Novices were numerous, and are distinguished by an excess of mortification to emulate John of the Cross. John of the Cross then asks you to limit, in mortification, the only requirements of the Rule of Caramel . Following the establishment of Pastrana, many people want to come in barefoot Carmelites. John of the Cross founds also Mancera. In 1570, aged 28, he was appointed rector of the College that reform based in Alcala and continued his studies in theology .

Companion of the Carmelites in Avila

Portrait of John of the Cross of the seventeenth century by an anonymous

Teresa of Avila was appointed in 1571 by an apostolic visitor , member of the Church sent by the pope, prioress of the Monastery of the Visitation of Avila , the great convent where she had come to twenty years to introduce the Reformation . In 1572, she brought John of the Cross as the spiritual director of the nuns, with another Discalced Carmelite .

John of the Cross while living in solitude in a house near the convent, it remains alone except when he goes to the religious for spiritual direction . John of the Cross then develops his spiritual doctrine .

Silence is a way to get to God, since it allows for Jean de la Croix limited experience of the senses and reduces the activities of intelligence disordered . John of the Cross then fled reading other books than the Bible, and flees the feelings only try to live as pure faith . Through this research he discovered the experience he calls the night of faith .

Faced with this quest of God through faith, John of the Cross experimenting inner pain, which he interpreted as a result of sin suffering: the human faculties are not adapted to the discovery of God comes through faith . It then compares this suffering to the suffering described in the Gospels in the Passion of Christ .

Prisoner in Toledo

Portrait of John of the Cross of the seventeenth century, anonymous
Main article: Black night of the soul.

John of the Cross enjoyed the royal favor and protection of the Apostolic Nuncio and visitors . But the father Rubeo, member of Carmelite shod means that Discalced Carmelites , that implement the reform of Caramel, want more independence . The general chapter of the Order, which met all the superiors of the Carmelite Order, is held in Piacenza , Italy, decided to declare the Discalced Carmelites rebels, and accused John of the Cross as the leader of the rebellion .

On the night of 2 December 1577 John of the Cross is taken prisoner by an armed band, led by Father Moldonado, opposing the reform of the Carmelites Discalced, who enters his home, the troops took him to Toledo in a dungeon of the convent Carmelite shod .

This arrest marks an important change in the life of John of the Cross: he suffers physically: the cell does to see the day through the roof, the punitive regime of the cell is close to that of a young forced, it must face of heat, but also beaten by the jailers who consider rebel . This pain is accompanied by psychological distress: he hears exhortations to leave the reform and receives nothing from the outside . At Faith, John of the Cross suffers from what he defines as the " night of faith "apparent abandonment of God and all his work . This period is however one of the most intense spiritual life, especially in the writing of poems, including "The Spiritual Songs" . However, his stay in prison is "a time of birth itself, which has allowed him time to become fully creative," .

John of the Cross will remain nine months in Toledo , before escaping mysteriously August 17 1578 . In an attempt to calm the situation, the brothers of the Reformation send to Jaen in southern Spain. It also assists in his last Therese foundations. It still opens near the University of Baeza Carmelite college for young students of the Reformation.

The singer of Love

Altar dedicated to John of the Cross in the church of los Descalzos in Ecija

Once out of his prison of Toledo, John of the Cross moved into the convent of the Calvario, in the mountains of the Sierra Morena in Andalucia . Before arriving at the convent Calvario it passes through Beas de Segura and meets the top of Caramel Discalced Anne of Jesus, and that is he recites his "Spiritual Canticle" .

John of the Cross falls regularly Convent of the Carmelite convent at calvario barefoot at Beas de Segura, where he became a close relationship with the upper Caramel Anne of Jesus . At the request of Anne of Jesus, John of the Cross wrote a commentary on the "Spiritual Canticle" he dictated .

Members of the University of Baeza asked him to become president, he accepts . He wrote two treatises " Ascent "and" Dark Night "stages of the ascent of the soul to God, using the philosophy and theology . Some time later, at the request of one of his spiritual daughters, he wrote " The Living Flame of Love "in a fortnight Treaty stating his spiritual doctrine .

In 1581 he was appointed superior of the convent of Granada , where he remained for seven years, he spends most of his time to confess, consists of the Treaties, made statements and founded four monasteries . Here he reveals his gifts of spiritual teacher and writer, he wrote other poems and he wrote all his major writings, he also shows his talents as a senior communities of the Reformation. Always accompanied by a lay brother, donkey ordinarily, he travels extensively to encourage new convents of friars and nuns. In 1588 he was elected prior of the convent of Segovia .

During one of his orations, he contemplates a painting of Jesus crucified when he says a voice that asks, "John, what do you want for all the work you have endured for me? " . It then responds not want anything other than "suffer and be despised for you" . John of the Cross also stated in his commentary on the Canticle that "Suffering is the perfect way to go deeper into the delightful and profound wisdom of God," and criticizing those who refuse suffering "O Truth unknown, when can Does it make it clear that the depth of your wisdom and infinite riches of God is inaccessible to those who reject the suffering, those who do not want, and do not find solace in their souls? " .

Death of John of the Cross

Grave of John of the Cross at Caramel Segovia

While he was present at the start of the Reformation and he has assumed various responsibilities, except that of provincial superior, he ended up being marginalized again in 1591 , during the general chapter of the Discalced Carmelites themselves . The General Chapter will send the base communities in Mexico before lowering his status from that of simple religious, it is then sent to the convent of La Peuela Andalusia .

John of the Cross falls ill 10 August 1591, carrying a fever that never left him he can not stay in the convent of La Peuela . On 28 September he was sent into the nearest convent in Ubeda , for medical treatment, but there was received with great distrust .

Soon the superior of the Carmelites Discalced, between John of the Cross is investigating John of the Cross and rumors and slander are common in convents . The disease worsens and John of the Cross says the father Antoine, who accompanies being overwhelmed by suffering .

The disease continues, but John of the Cross says the father Antoine be more peaceful . On 13 December, he asked what he read the Song of Songs . He died on the night of 13 to 14 December 1591 .

Inheritance

Spiritual Doctrine of St. John of the Cross

The doctrine of St. John of the Cross is now referenced in the fields of moral and spiritual events related to the exercise of theological faith. By way of prayer, the spiritual over the trials and between the exercise of the theological virtues:

  • Faith. It is a white tunic protects against the demon.
  • Hope. It is a green tunic, to defend themselves against the world.
  • Charity. This red serge tunics gives grace to others and it is the soul toward God. It protects against the flesh.

One day a monk called Saint John of the Cross how to achieve perfection. The latter responded with four words (reference?)

  • Resignation. This is not to worry about what happens within the monastery.
  • Mortification. The goal is to work the monastery the monks, so that the souls there are proven.
  • The exercise of virtues. Task to be done, whether painful or not, it must be done for God. Everyone should always take the last spot.
  • Loneliness. Man must always be in prayer. Whatever the activity, it must remain in inner solitude.

Faith in the work of John of the Cross

Allegory of Faith by Luis Salvador Carmona at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando , 1752
Main article: Christian Faith.
The only measure of faith God

Insofar as God is for John of the Cross a pure spirit, it can not be known by our natural faculties of our senses perceive only the concrete things, and intelligence is only general ideas . Faith is then the only way to reach God for John of the Cross: "faith is the only way to clean and adequate for reaching God" , . John of the Cross says that it takes to make leaps of faith all the time, even in the case of extraordinary phenomena of God (apparition, miracles ...) because they are manifestations of God, not Himself even , .

Faith is night

John of the Cross defines faith as "an obscure but certain knowledge" , . In the Ascent of Mount Caramel, he says that "faith is a night" , , John of the Cross for our knowledge of God will never be perfect because God is beyond our faculties. So faith is beyond the intelligence and must submit it, faith is believing in a mystery . The darkness of faith is thus John of the Cross that faith goes beyond intelligence, and intelligence with no explanation lies in darkness, because of the glare of faith: "Faith is a habit of the soul, and some obscure at the same time. It is obscure because it makes us believe the truths revealed by God himself, who are above any natural light. Because they are infinite and divine, they excel incomparably the scope of human understanding ... So it is with faith. Its light, its excesses, oppress and dazzling light of our understanding " , . It was this glare of the understanding that leads to blindness and therefore darkness or night.

Faith is for John of the Cross a mystery to the person himself. In his book "The dark night", he describes the faith as span class = "quote"> "a secret staircase by which the soul enters into the depths of God" . Faith is also described by John of the Cross as "a white tunic that is the soul and without which it is impossible to please God" . For John of the Cross, faith is a way to be safe against all his enemies, who are the devil, the world and the flesh .

Faith as flaming torch

John of the Cross uses another analogy to describe faith, he described it as "torches" that the soldiers of Gideon wore but did not see in the book of Judges , . John of the Cross says that faith is the same thing, like a vessel that contains the light: the cup that prevents us from seeing the light, the envelope is obscure, and the content of faith, the light is God Himself . And intelligence can only reach the surface while the faith reached within the substance of God .

Faith enables to John of the Cross live with God, he asserts that "not a soul in the faith, the more it is united with God" , . He develops his argument based on the book of Hosea , which states that "It is in faith that God embraces the soul" , . It says so in his famous "Canticle" that faith with charity "is a real possession of God" , .

Hope and detachment

Allegory of Hope in the prison of Evelyn De Morgan
Main article: Hope (virtue).
The importance of Christian hope

John of the Cross considers hope as a central element that leads to God, the essential place of hope leads to the assertion that "You get as much as we hoped" , .

But hope is not naturally pure John of the Cross, it should be turned toward God . He draws in the Ascent a plan that leads to God, and describes all the paths that lead astray from God's earthly possessions, the only path to God is the nothing "to get to know everything, do have anything happen to be (...) for all, be sure to be nothing because nothing (...) to come from at all, we must renounce any at all " , . John of the Cross says that to reach God, so the danger is less then the sin that attaches to the voluntary things: "One of the shortcomings, if the soul is attached or has used, it causes as much damage to its advancement and progress in virtue, a host of imperfections and venial sins, which would not carry the habit of a vicious passion " , .

Barriers to hope
File: Christ of Saint John Of The Cross.jpg
Christ of Saint John of the Cross, Salvador Dali

John of the Cross in developing its treaties barriers that may prevent the soul to reach God by the lack of hope . John of the Cross says that it must rely only on God, and develops the various obstacles that lead to stray from the path. The first obstacle is the mind, although he does not deny the importance of intelligence, which even seem useful at first, it can be an obstacle when the mind refuses darkness painful Faith . The attachment to intellectual property are for him a potential barrier in the path to God .

The second source of difficulties come from the virtues themselves, again John of the Cross believes that one becomes virtuous by grace , God's help . However very quickly a person becomes virtuous as it was considered on its own merits, which leads to reject God as the source of all . The effort to acquire the virtues becomes the obstacle that denies God's action in the soul , .

other obstacles to John of the Cross, which he calls spiritual goods or sensitive or mystical graces . Again to John of the Cross they are gifts from God, but the person can hijack what to become arrogant and do a clean . Any person who relies on his spiritual life such property is so similar to "The fly that lands on the honey and can not steal the soul that seeks spiritual consolation to no longer free for contemplation" , .

All of these obstacles leads John of the Cross to see in the dark night an element of purification.

The detachment as outcome expectancy

John of the Cross says that the way to reach God is the detachment of the complete poverty that can be achieved by the dark night . While he does not deny the importance of books or sacraments, but they are only means . What he describes as the dark night is now a poverty of the whole person, which releases us from all . This is the total poverty that leads to John of the Cross to union with God . This deprivation then leads the soul to God "When the soul is so detached from everything, she is in complete destitution, it has, I repeat, doing everything depended on it, it is impossible God does not turn you need to connect to it, at least in the secret of silence " , . It is the poverty that we can receive God, as John of the Cross describes in one of his poems: "Then I humble myself so much and so much / That I was so high so high, / That I finally reach the goal " , .

Philosophy of John of the Cross

modern representation of John of the Cross at Beas de Segura (Spain)

detachment

Main article: Detachment (philosophy).

The writings and spiritual experiences of John of the Cross have been commented on by philosophers, some of which have seen a movement of surpassing Permanent . Jacques Paliard, professor of philosophy at Aix en Provence sees a movement of permanent dissatisfaction and anxiety about something else, something higher, which finds its satisfaction that when he has found God at its extent and in its Needs . It is movement that led to a movement of tolerance, which leads John of the Cross to want to detach any . John of the Cross is widely discussed by philosophers of the detachment , which makes it one of the major thinkers of the Christian detachment. Father Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus , Carmelite who is specialized in the study of the theology of John of the Cross, saw the movement is central to the spirituality of John of the Cross: "the breath of God in the soul that wants to go to God " .

To gain access to God, John of the Cross advocates a full detachment, which leads him to assert that "to get to know everything, do have anything happen to be (...) for all, make sure to be nothing because nothing (...) to come at all in all, we must give up any at all " .

Intelligence and will

Main article: Will (philosophy).

John of the Cross is studying the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas , and it takes up the two faculties called the soul, the intellect and will . But John of the Cross makes distinctions among its two faculties .

This section is empty, insufficiently detailed or incomplete. Your help is welcome!

Poetry and Literature of John of the Cross

Several poems of John of the Cross were set to music and performed by Peter Elias (The songs of mystic John of the Cross, 1999).

This section is empty, insufficiently detailed or incomplete. Your help is welcome!

Recognition by the Catholic Church

Reliquary of John of the Cross in Ubeda , Spain

Recognition by the Catholic Church of John of the Cross is quite fast, it is beatified as early as 1675 by Clement X , and then canonized in 1726 by Benedict XII .

In the seventeenth century, theological disputes, especially between Jacques Benignus Bossuet and Fenelon on the Enlightenment, led to consider the writings of John of the Cross as engendering the Enlightenment . The quarrel led to question the writings of John of the Cross.

However in 1891 several bishops call at the third centenary of the death of John of the Cross, John of the Cross proclaimed Doctor of the Church but this application is not successful .

It was the discovery of the writings of John of the Cross by Therese of Lisieux , who describes John of the Cross as one of its main guides: "At the age of 17 and 18 years old I had no other spiritual food " , it states that John of the Cross is "the Saint of Love par excellence" . The vision of Therese of Lisieux is changing the perception of John of the Cross. Rapid recognition by the Church of Therese of Lisieux and her great popularity, led to reconsider the writings of John of the Cross .

John of the Cross is thus proclaimed Doctor of the Church August 24, 1926, two years after his canonization, and a year after the canonization of Teresa of Lisieux . He wins the title of "Doctor of spiritual theology" and "Mystical Doctor" .

Publications

Works of John of the Cross

These comments of his poems, which describe and reflect theologically on the progress of the soul toward union with God. These texts are considered as one of the peaks of the mystical Christian. Other writings as possible, allow a thorough knowledge of his person and his message. His poetry composed in language Castilian , in the forms of time, is made of 999 verses. His major works are:

  • The spiritual songs, poems written during his imprisonment.
  • The Ascent of Mount Caramel, song from the research

of the beloved.

  • The Dark Night, a work written when he was in prison in Toledo.
  • The Living Flame of Love, written treaty in less than thirteen days after his visit to Toledo.

Translations

The first translation was made in Bordeaux in the 1610s by secular priests, but was not published. The first translations were published by the Rene Gaultier, the Grand Council during the 1620s, a French dated. They were immediately a great influence on the spiritual: Bishop Jean-Pierre Camus in 1624, the Jesuits Lallemant, Surin , Rigoleuc in 1629, etc.. The translation of Father Cyprian, ocd, in the years 1640-1660. More than a hundred others followed. The translation of Father Cyprian was updated by Father Lucien, ocd, in the years 1940-1960.


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