John of the Cross

Life

He was born in Fontiveros, in the province of Ávila, Spain. His birth name was Juan de Yepes y Álvarez. His father, Gonzalo de Yepes, was disowned by his family for marrying Catalina Álvarez, a poor weaver. His father died young, and the family lived in deep poverty. He studied at the Jesuit school in Medina del Campo and entered the Carmelite Order in 1563. After continuing his studies in Salamanca, he was ordained a priest in 1567.

Around that time he met Teresa of Ávila, who was leading a reform of the Carmelite nuns, and agreed to join her in reforming the order. In 1568 he founded the first reformed house for men at Duruelo and took the religious name John of the Cross. In December 1577, Carmelite friars of the existing observance who opposed the reform seized him and confined him in a narrow cell in the priory at Toledo for nearly nine months. He escaped in August 1578. Thereafter he held major offices in the order, including that of prior, mainly in Andalusia in southern Spain. He died in Úbeda in 1591.

Ministry and Achievements

The reformed order emphasized strict asceticism (a life of restraining one's desires) and contemplation (prayer that gazes upon God in silence). The order is called the Discalced Carmelites because its members wear sandals rather than shoes. He is regarded, together with Teresa, as a founder of this order.

He wrote his books by first expressing his experiences in poetry and then adding theological commentary on those poems. His principal works are The Ascent of Mount Carmel, The Dark Night, The Spiritual Canticle, and The Living Flame of Love. He is said to have begun composing poetry while imprisoned in Toledo. He held that the soul passes through a purification of the senses and of the spirit before attaining union with God, and he depicted this process through the symbol of "night." The Dark Night popularized the expression "the dark night of the soul," which refers to the dryness and spiritual desolation that believers experience. His poetry is also regarded as one of the high points of Spanish literature.

The Catholic Church beatified him in 1675 and canonized him in 1726. In 1926 Pope Pius XI declared him a Doctor of the Church (a saint whose teaching is recognized as being of particular importance). He is also called the "Mystical Doctor," and his memorial in the Catholic liturgical calendar is December 14.

Influence on the Korean Church

In the Korean Catholic Church, his writings have been translated and are read as classics of spiritual theology. Among Protestants, he came to be cited frequently as a leading figure of the contemplative tradition after some pastors introduced the Renovaré movement and contemplative prayer to the Korean church around the 2000s. These pastors argued that the contemplative tradition could help transform a Korean church that had become preoccupied with outward growth.

In response, the Presbyterian Church in Korea (HapDong) resolved at its 96th General Assembly in 2011 that its members should have no association with contemplative prayer. The report of its theology committee judged that contemplative prayer was mixed with unsound mysticism, religious pluralism, and pagan influences, and that it therefore risked compromising the purity of the gospel. The Presbyterian Church in Korea (HapShin) adopted a resolution the same year prohibiting participation in the contemplative prayer movement. These resolutions addressed the contemplative prayer movement as a whole and did not render a separate judgment on John of the Cross.

Assessment

The Catholic Church esteems him highly as its foremost mystical theologian. Opinion among Protestants is divided. Those who emphasize spiritual theology believe that his concept of the "dark night" helps in understanding believers who are undergoing suffering and spiritual desolation. By contrast, some theologians and denominations in the Reformed tradition are wary of his spirituality, criticizing it as relying on subjective experience and mysticism outside of Scripture. Because of his work in the reformed order, he is also classified as a major figure of the Catholic Reformation that opposed the Protestant Reformation.