Born in 1542, St. John of the Cross was a Spanish Roman Catholic priest. He is a major figure of the Counter-Reformation in Spain; the reformation in Spain was born because of him, and he is one of the 37 Doctors of the Church. He teamed wth Teresa of Ávila, who is also a saint in the Catholic church, to found the Carmelite order. He was tortured and killed in 1591. He was canonized by Benedict XIII in 1726, and his feast day is December 14. He was declared a Doctor of the Catholic church in 1926 by Pope Pius XI. Do you think it was a good thing that St. John of the Cross was born
Born to be Great: St. John of the Cross Biography
John was born in Castile, near Ávila, a town of around 2,000 people. His father, Gonzalo, was an accountant. In 1529, Gonzalo married John’s mother. John’s father died in 1545, shortly after John was born. Two years later, John’s older brother, Luis, died, probably as a result of malnourishment due to the poverty to which the family had been reduced. As a result, 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.
In Medina, John entered a school for 160 poor children to receive a Christian doctrine. While studying there, he was chosen to serve as an altar boy at a nearby monastery of Augustinian nuns. Growing up, John worked at a hospital and studied the humanities at a Jesuit school from 1559 to 1563. In 1563, he entered the Carmelite Order. In the following year, he made his first vows and enrolled in Salamanca University, where he studied theology and philosophy. There he met Fray Luis de León, who taught biblical studies at the university. John was ordained as a priest in 1567.
Ties to St. Teresa of Avila
After his ordination, he thought about joining the strict Carthusian Order. However, Medina met the influential Carmelite nun Teresa of Ávila, who was born around the same time as him. She was staying in Medina to found the second of her new convents. She talked to him about her reformation projects for the Order: she was seeking 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.
Teresa asked John to delay his entry into the Carthusian order and to follow her. 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, intending to found a new monastery for Carmelite friars, the first to follow Teresa’s principles. Hence, the Carmelite order was born.
Soon after, in June 1570, John moved from the first community to set up a new community at Pastrana, Spain, in October 1570, and then a further community at Alcalá de Henares. In 1572, he arrived in Ávila, at Teresa’s invitation. She had been appointed prioress of the Convent of the Incarnation there in 1571.] In 1574, John accompanied Teresa in the foundation of a new religious community in Segovia.
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 the crucified Christ, which led him to create his drawing of Christ “from above.” On the night of December 2, 1577, a group of Carmelites opposed to reform broke into St. John of the Cross’s dwelling in Ávila and took him prisoner.
John was accused of disobeying the ordinances of Piacenza. 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 cell measuring 10 by 6 feet.
John was nursed back to health by Tresa and her sisters, but his health never recovered fully. In June 1591, he fell ill and travelled to the monastery at Úbeda for treatment. His condition worsened, however, and he died there of erysipelas on December 14, 1591
Conclusion
St John of the Cross was born to be great. He became a Spanish Priest and helped found the Carmelite order. He was a prolific writer who wrote poetry, and he was declared a Doctor of the Catholic church. He has been a Saint for almost 300 years. He is worthy of study and emulation.
