John of the Cross
Saint John of the Cross is the patron of mystics and contemplatives because no one has charted the soul’s inner journey more deeply: his treatises and poems — “The Ascent of Mount Carmel,” “The Dark Night of the Soul,” “The Spiritual Canticle” — map the painful purifications and the union with God that the contemplative undergoes, and the Church names him a Doctor of mystical theology. He is patron of Spanish poets because those same verses are reckoned among the supreme achievements of the Spanish language, the work of a true poet as much as a saint. Fittingly, the writings were forged in suffering: imprisoned and beaten by his own Carmelite brethren who opposed the reform he shared with Saint Teresa of Ávila, he composed his greatest poetry in a dark cell — the very “dark night” he made luminous for all who pray.
Saint John of the Cross was a Spanish Carmelite friar, mystic, and Doctor of the Church. Born in 1542, he joined Saint Teresa of Ávila in reforming the Carmelite Order. His mystical poetry and writings on the “Dark Night of the Soul” are among the greatest works of Christian spirituality and Spanish literature.
