Saints in Advent – St John of the Cross
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St. John of the Cross was born at Hontoveros, Old Castile, on 24 June 1542 to a family of poor silk weavers and grew up knowing great hardship and poverty. His father, who was from a wealthy family but was disinherited after marrying beneath his rank, died at the prime of his youth and left his wife widowed with only her eldest son to assist her in providing the most basic necessities for her family. He was able to attend a Jesuit school, after the governor of the Hospital of Medina took him into his service. It was in that city that he entered the Carmelite Order and was told in prayer that he was to bring the Order back to its ancient perfection. After profession he obtained permission from his superiors to follow the primitive Carmelite rule, without the mitigations that had been granted by various Popes since its foundation in 1155. After meeting St. Teresa of Avila, he resolved to help her in establishing a priory of Carmelite friars who would live out the austerities of the primitive rule. These reformed friars came to be known as Discalced, because of their custom of going barefoot or wearing sandals instead of shoes. The reform spearheaded by Teresa and John spread rapidly but not without great suffering on John’s part, as he was imprisoned and greatly mistreated when he refused to give up the reformed way of life. He was able to resist the order of his provincial without disobedience, since he held his office of spiritual director and confessor to the Carmelite nuns in Avila not from the Order but from the Apostolic Delegate. St. John’s life of great austerity and mystical contemplation is a reminder to all Christians, and religious especially, that we need to be challenged, in the way we live our lives, to return to the evangelical counsels of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, since the Way of the Cross will not always bring us material comforts.
The painting of the Crucifixion above is by Salvador Dali and was inspired by a sketch made by St. John.
