Carmelite · 1542–1591
John of the Cross
Carmelite reformer · Doctor of the dark night
John of the Cross joined Teresa of Ávila in reforming the Carmelite order, and paid for it with imprisonment, where — in the dark — he began to compose his luminous poetry. He is a Doctor of the Church, the great teacher of the apophatic way.
His teaching is severe and tender at once: God surpasses every image, feeling, and consolation, so the soul must be willing to let go even of its spiritual comforts (“nada, nada, nada”) and be carried, in bare faith, through the “dark night.”
But the night ends in union. In The Living Flame of Love he sings of a fire burning in the soul's “deepest center.” The whole long emptying was only ever making room for love.
St John of the Cross, attributed to Zurbarán, 1656 (public domain)
Ways to pray
with John of the Cross
