Paperback: The great Spanish mystic St John of the Cross became a Carmelite monk in 1563 and helped St Teresa of Ávila to reform the Carmelite order - enduring persecution and imprisonment for his efforts.
Both in his writing and in his life, he demonstrated eloquently his love for God. His written thoughts on man's relationship with God were literacy endeavours that placed him on an intellectual and philosophical level with such great writers as St Augustine and Thomas Aquinas.
In Dark Night of the Soul, a spiritual masterpiece and classic of Christian literature and mysticism - he addresses several subjects, among them pride, avarice, envy and other human imperfections. His discussion of the "dark night of the spirit," which considers afflictions and pain suffered by the soul, is followed by an extended explanation of divine love and the soul's exultant union with God.
Dark Night of the Soul (Noche obscura del alma) - first appeared at Barcelona in 1619 - is probably the best known work of St John of the Cross. This Dover edition is first published in 2003 and is translated from the Spanish by E Allison Peers.
About the author: Juan de Yepes y Álvarez, later to be known as Juan de la Cruz (John of the Cross), was born to an impoverished but love-rich couple in the small town of Fontiveros, Spain on 24 June 1542. His father came from a wealthy family but - after being disowned when he married Catalina Avarez, a humble weaver - took up his wife's trade. Juan's father died when Juan was only seven, and Catalina was left without even the bare necessities of life for herself and her two sons. Juan became an attendant at a smallpox hospital - whose director, impressed by the boy's compassion, offered to pay for his religious education. Juan studied with the Jesuits and then entered the Carmelite order. He finished his education at the University of Salamanca, where he began teaching while still a student, and was ordained at twenty-five. Soon after, he met Teresa of Ávila, a great mystic who took a liking to the young priest and enlisted him in her attempts to reform the Carmelite order. She believed that religious practitioners must embrace poverty, and therefore her branch of the Carmelites became known as "Discalced," or shoeless. Juan first moved to a Discalced nunnery as its confessor, and in 1568 moved to a tiny farmhouse where he established the first monastery of the reformed Carmelites.
In 1575, however, the traditional Carmelites virtually outlawed the Discalced sect, and two years later, they seized Juan and took him to Toledo as their prisoner. When he refused to recant, he was imprisoned in a windowless cell. Three times a week they let him out to eat his daily meal of bread and water, after which he was whipped for his continuing obstinacy. He wrote some of his finest poetry during this imprisonment. After nine months, he broke out by scaling the walls and found refuge with nearby nuns.
His persecution ended in 1578 with the death of the superior general of the traditional Carmelites, and he wrote the majority of his works (most of which remained unfinished) during the next nine years. A few years after Teresa's death (in 1582), the Discalced Carmelites were again troubled by dissension, and Juan was stripped of his offices and forbidden any kind of activity in the order. Juan received this as a blessing because it allowed him to return to a life of solitary contemplation. He died on 14 December 1591 in Úbeda, Spain, and was beatified in 1675, canonized in 1726 and named a doctor of the church in 1926.
No comments:
Post a Comment