John of the Cross was a great saint who was a reformer, a mystic and one of the great Spanish poets. He has inspired many other holy men and women to pursue God into the mysterious heights and depths of divine love.

John was born in Spain in 1542. John's father died when he was only a toddler and his mother moved with him and his siblings to different towns to look for work. His family suffered from hunger and mostly lived in poverty. As an adolescent, John worked with patients in a hospice while he studied at a Jesuit school.

As a young man, John joined the Carmelite order and studied at the University of Salamanca. He was ordained a priest in 1567, and, dissatisfied with the more lenient living practices of the Carmelites at the time, he looked for a more rigorous discipline of religious life. He desired a life of greater dedication to prayer. John wanted to become a Carthusian, to pursue silence and meditation whole-heartedly. As he was about to leave, however, he met the great Teresa of Avila, who was reforming the Carmelite sisters. Teresa encouraged John not to leave the Carmelites, but to join her effort to reform the order from within, and he did, changing his name to John of the Cross.

John founded several small communities of friars that began to grow almost immediately. Then, he moved to Ávila to become the spiritual director for the community of Carmelite nuns there.

There were very heated tensions between the Calced (the more traditional Carmelite order) and the Discalced (the Reformed order) Carmelites, which were fomented by various ecclesial politics. In December of 1577, John was kidnapped in Avila by a group of Calced Carmelites. They brought John to the Carmelite monastery in Toledo and held him prisoner in a tiny cell, six feet by ten feet, with only a small window to let in light. John was beaten at least once a week in front of the community, and forced to live on small scraps of food, yet, in his captivity, he began to write some of his most beautiful poems and spiritual treatises.

John wrote of the marvelous, ineffable eternity of Christ:

"We must then dig deeply in Christ. He is like a rich mine with many pockets containing treasures: however deep we dig we will never find their end or their limit. Indeed, in every pocket new seams of fresh riches are discovered on all sides." At the same time, John saw that the way to this ineffable, limitless love was guarded by suffering:

"Would that men might come at last to see that it is quite impossible to reach the thicket of the riches and wisdom of God," he wrote, "except by first entering the thicket of much suffering, in such a way that the soul finds there its consolation and desire. The soul that longs for divine wisdom chooses first, and in truth, to enter the thicket of the cross. [...] The gate that gives entry into these riches of his wisdom is the cross; because it is a narrow gate, while many seek the joys that can be gained through it, it is given to few to desire to pass through it."

John's famous long poem "Spiritual Canticle," a dialogue between the bridegroom Christ and the bride of the soul, was also written in the stifling, inhumane conditions of his imprisonment. An excerpt of it appears here:

Quench my troubles,
For no one else can soothe them;
And let my eyes behold You,
For You are their light,
And I will keep them for You alone.

After nine months, John escaped from his terrible living situation by unscrewing the lock on his cell door and creeping past the guard. Carrying only the poetry he wrote, John climbed out a window using a rope made of blanket strips. When he lighted on the ground, he had no idea where he was, and, in order to find his way, he followed a dog to a nearby town.

John continued writing and studying the spiritual life, acting as a spiritual director to Carmelite communities and lay men and women, and served as a guide to all who sought God. Many of his works remain important to our understanding of Christian spirituality today, including “the dark night of the soul," which became a motif of his poetry, such as in the excerpt below:

O guiding night!
O night more lovely than the dawn!
O night that has united
the Lover with his beloved,
transforming the beloved in her Lover.

As a Carmelite leader, John continued to found communities of Discalced Carmelites. Despite his work, John continued to face opposition within his own Carmelite community, and John died of a fever in the midst of continued attacks on his character in December of 1591. John was named a Doctor of the Church—a title given to thirty-seven saints who are known for elucidating the faith by their words or example—for his invaluable contributions to Christian spirituality.

Some of John's relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart here on Notre Dame's campus. John's story and image are used by high school students who come to campus for a summer conference through the Notre Dame Vision program. These students learn about John of the Cross through the illustration by Julie Lonneman pictured above (used with permission).

St. John of the Cross, who overcame intense persecution through the mystical love of God—pray for us!

To learn even more about Saint John of the Cross, watch this video lecture from the McGrath Institute for Church Life at the University of Notre Dame.