Saint John of the Cross

Front matter

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PRESKNTI-D nV

SAINT JOHN^ OF THE CROSS

Chapter Second

BiKTH OF St. John of the Ceoss. His Childhood. The Mothek of God Pkesekves His Life.

In the year 1542, when Paul III was Pope and Charles V King of Spain, our holy father, Saint John of the Cross, was born in Hontiveros. Was he bom on the twenty-fourth of June, or the twenty-seventh of December? We do not know, but it must have been one or the other of these days, because he received the name John in baptism. It seems providential that we do not know which was his birthday or which his patron saint; for being, like the Baptist, the most perfect model of monks, and, like the Evangelist, the most sublime mystical writer, he resembles both in spirit as well as in name. As stated in the first volume of the extant baptismal record of the parish church of Hontiveros, a fire which reduced the church to ashes in July, 1546, consumed the book in which the baptism of our holy father was recorded.

Catalina Alvarez reared her children in utmost poverty, but with the greatest care and motherly affection. She taught them to invoke the most sweet name of Jesus, to keep always on their lips the holy name of Mary, to join their voices to the universal prayer of the

Church, to fear God, to venerate holy things, to shun evil and love virtue. To safeguard her children from all ideas less holy and pure than these, she worked by their side and made herself the companion of their play.

Blessed by Almighty God with such a mother, little John made wonderful progress. He seemed to have a natural inclination to piety* He was so meek, quiet and humble that his gentleness belied his age; while the flowers of his tender years gave promise of the seasoned fruits of his maturity. God formed in his youthful soul a most wonderful image of high perfection.

We have the following story to remind us of the signal favors bestowed on him from earliest childhood by his heavenly mother, the Blessed Virgin. One day little John with another child of his own age was playing beside a deep, muddy pool, throwing reeds into the water and recovering them when they rose again to the surface. Bending too far over the brink to catch his reed, little John fell into the pool and at once sank out of sight. But he immediately returned to the surface, like one of the reeds, and remained there without being injured or in the least disturbed. He was quite clear in his conviction that he had been saved from death by the queen of heaven. And now she appeared to him, stretching out her most pure hand and asking him to place his own in it that she might draw him from the pool. But John, seeing her so pure and heavenly, declined, for fear of sullying her. The queen repeated her request, and he made his excuses, in a serene and beautiful contest of courtesy, until a man in peasant garb came bearing a rod in his hand, stretched it to the child and drew him safely to the bank ; then went his way. Those who tell the tale favor the belief that this was none other than Saint Joseph.

The apparition filled the child with joy. The fervent devotion of that day never deserted him, and whenever he passed that place in after years he made a devout pilgrimage to the spot to renew with grateful tears his consecration of himself to the Mother of God. Pharaoh's daughter and Moses floating on the waters of the Nile are to us a feeble foreshadowing of this queen of heaven whose most pure hand was outstretched to save the future leader of God's chosen people, the great family of Carmel, from out the Egypt of this world, through the penitential life of the monastery, to the holy mountain of interior peace.

Chapter Third

The Blessed Child John is Attacked by the Devil. He Conquoks the Enemy With Religious Fiemness. His Devotion in Assisting AT Mass. He Enters the Hospital OF Medina del Campo. He is Saved Again BY THE Blessed Mother From Certain Death.

The devil was not pleased with the happy begiimiiigs of the life of John. He could see in them the loss he was destined to suffer through the servant of God. Always, from afar, the devil forecasts the Christian perfection of those who are called by God to eminent sanctity — how, we do not know. Perhaps he sees in the humors and qualities of their bodies a physical aptitude for virtuous living. Perhaps he is warned by the superior excellence and dignity of the guardian angels who are given to them. Perhaps he sees also some special signs of the extraordinary providence God bestows on them from the very moment of their creation. In whatever manner he may acquire this knowledge, whether by the natural sagacity of his powerful intellect, or by some special divine dispensation, one thing is certain, that from their earliest infancy the devil is accustomed to persecute the elect with terrific rage.

Seeing, therefore, in our saint, sncli a prompt disposition for every virtue, sucli extraordinaryfavors, including the personal protection of the Mother of God; seeing also, perhaps, together with all this, some very superior guardian angel assigned to care for him, and knowing these things to be signs of the wonderful sanctity and power which would war against him as his capital enemy, the devil wished to stop all in the very beginning by taking the child's life. Failing in this, he was determined to discourage and frighten him to such an extent that he would abandon his purpose to live virtuously. The venerable Francis de Yepes, brother of our saint, relates that when both were very small they were going in company with their good mother to Medina. Just before entering the city they had to pass a pool, probably the same from which our Lady had saved him, and there a large, fierce monster came out of it and attacked him, trying to swallow him up ; but he, without fear or distress, made the sign of the cross to defend himself, and immediately the horrible vision disappeared. Herein were symbolized all the troubles and persecutions by which the saint was afflicted during his life, and the triumphs our holy father achieved over the devil by the holy cross, making it a part of his name, and planting it firmly in the reformed Carmel.

18 PRAYERS, WORKS AND SUPFERINa'S

Our little Jolin was growing more rapidly in virtue than in years. His pious mother, wishing to guide him to well-rounded perfection, tried to induce him to learn some trade ; but the boy, so quick and intelligent at school, was too dull to learn any of those common in the city. Francis de Yepes says his holy brother was apprenticed in succession to the tailor's, carpenter's, engraver's and painter's trades. His ability to earn a living was tried in many ways, but he could not be taught. He did not seem to have the power of learning anything whatever. It was waste of time.

God had higher work for him, and made his mother send him to school. She cherished very much the idea of placing him in a good college, but her extreme poverty came in the way, and she had to be contented with a school in Medina where poor and orphaned children were educated. Here John remained some time attending to his studies and other exercises, especially those of prayer and devotion, in which he was a model to the other children. At this time he used to go early in the morning to the monastery of St. Mary Magdalene, of the Augustinian nuns. There he served mass with such recollection and devotion as to attract the notice of those who were present, and inspire them to serve God more faithfully.

Unalloyed virtue is so lovely in itself that the human heart cannot resist its beauty. Our blessed child had neither friends nor family nor riches, nor other natural gifts to attract affection, but his wonderful virtues, even in tenderest childhood, were irresistibly winsome. Poor and forsaken by all, his modesty, gentleness and prudence caused him to be universally admired and loved. Among those whom he attracted most was a gentleman from Toledo, Alonso Alvarez, who, weary of the world, devoted himself to the service of the poor and the sick. He had taken on himself the charge of the hospital of Medina. Knowing well the wonderful virtues of little John and his hopeless struggle to earn bread for himself and his mother, Senor Alvarez went to her and offered to take the boy into his service in the hospital.

John was twelve or thirteen years of age. His character had already in many respects attained majority. His new patron proposed that he should serve the poor, at the same time continuing his studies. Afterwards he intended to ordain him priest, and make him chaplain and superintendent of the large and flourishing institution. The offer was gladly accepted by mother and son, and Juan de Yepes became the servant of the poor in the public hospital of Medina.

Shortly afterwards, being at work in the court yard of the place, he fell into a well which had been left uncovered. The people who saw him fall made an outcry, thinking it was impossible to save him, for the well was deep and there was much water in it. Eescuers rushed into the court yard and looked into the well. There they saw the boy resting on the surface of the water, calm and unhurt. He answered their cries quietly and cheerfully. Having drawn him up by a rope, they asked him how it had happened. He replied with great simplicity that a beautiful lady had received him in her arms as he was falling and sustained him till they came and let down the rope.

The people wondered, and accounted the boy as one whom God was preserving for great things. Eecalling his already marvelous life, they looked at one another and repeated what was said of the great Baptist, precursor of Christ, *^What an one, think ye, shall this child be? For the hand of the Lord was with him." (St. Luke 1-66).

Chapter Fourth

His Chaeity foe the Pooe. His Studies. His Peayee axd Rigoeous Penance. Cheist OuE LoED is the Model of His Life and Actions. His Tendee Devotion to the Blessed Mothee.

Now tliat the hospital afforded him many occasions to practice virtues, they shone in him with new splendor. Forgetful of sleep and weariness, he watched day and night at the bed-side of the poor. He did not feel his own fatigues but only the pains of his dear patients, giving them medicines and care with more than motherly affection. Here our Lord commenced to show him the rich mines of the virtue of charity and he began to enrich himself with its treasures. He learned to sympathize with the poor sufferer confined to a painful bed whose only relief and consolation are the loving kindness of his nurse. He caressed the weak, encouraged the feeble, associated himself with the lonely, entertained and consoled the sorrowful and devoted himself with extreme diligence to^ the necessities of all.

Having fulfilled these obligations, he spent the rest of his time in study and prayer, paying to each of them so much attention that, with the grace of God and his brilliant mind, in a short time he made wonderful progress botli in prayer and learning. Abont his aptitude and love for studies, his brother, Francisco de Yepes, says, ^^He was placed by his mother during the first school years, in the College of Christian Doctrine. They taught him there to read and write, and in a very short time he learned both very well. ' ' Further on he says, ^ ^ Being there in the hospital, this gentleman, Don Alfonso Alvarez, asked him to make collections for the poor. This gentleman and all the other persons of the hospital loved him very much. They gave him leave to go and study Latin in the Jesuit college. His professor was Padre Bonifacio, who is still living. He was so clever in his studies that, with the aid of God, he progressed rapidly in a very short time. They related in the hospital that looking for him in the night, often they could not find him till at last they discovered him in the barn studying'' (Relaciones, Fol. 613).

In the Jesuit college he studied grammar and rhetoric, displaying exceptional capacity. Later on, in philosophy, his sagacity penetrated the most delicate subtilties of metaphysics. Beginning already at this time, he consecrated his learning to the knowledge of God and himself as related to God, which is the supremely legitimate use of learning. That part of philosophy which explains the nature and properties of the human soul he studied with greatest care, trying to understand well its functions and effects in our body, its faculties, the organs and senses through which it operates, and the manner of understanding in the present life, by means of the forms and likeness of things, called phantasms by the philosophers. He knew these studies would help him understand prayer and contemplation. His admirable writings, in which he makes use of rigid philosophical principles to explain with great preciseness the most intimate operations of the soul, both in ordinary prayer and in the highest supernatural communications with God, are a monument to his diligence as a student of philosophy.

"With the same eagerness and devotion he practiced mental prayer. From his earliest age our Lord began to visit him with divine communications, giving him a foretaste of heavenly sweetness and light. He went to prayer as to a divine school, where the Sovereign Master enlightened his mind and moved his will to love heavenly things and despise the perishable goods of earth, to know the beauty of virtue and the foulness of vice. It was in prayer that he learned to deny himself and mortify his senses ; to distrust every sensible affection, and to be ^ * sober, having on the breastplate of faith and charity, and, for a helmet, the hope of salvation '' (IThess. 5-8).

The effects of his wonderful spiritual development were manifest in his acts and manner of living. He chastised his body, though innocent, with vigils, fastings, disciplines and hairshirts. Not satisfied with the heavy work of assisting the sick at the hospital, and many hours of prayer, when night came he continued his efforts to pray. He struggled against the weakness of his body until he had thoroughly expelled drowsiness, in order that prayer might be prolonged. When he was at last overcome by sleep, he mortified this solace with the hardness of his bed, which consisted of a heap of twigs. This penitential custom was observed in him as early as his seventh year.

From the very moment of the use of his reason he offered himself to the Lord, presenting his body a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing unto God, his reasonable service, as St. Paul exhorts us (Eom. 12, 1). He practised from that tender age what he enjoined on others many years later in the Ascent of Mount Carmel, ' ^ First of all, have a constant care and desire of imitating Christ in everything, conforming yourself to his life, which you must study well to know how to follow it; behave in all things like Christ himself. '^ In this manner he printed in his soul the image of Christ our Lord, and in this divine and most brilliant mirror he studied how to order all his actions. At every step he questioned himself, **If Christ our Lord was doing what I am going to do, and was in my state in life, and represented my person and office, how would he behave ? How would he be and act on this occasion? How would he study? How would he attend holy mass? With what reverence and confidence would he devote himself to prayer? With what love and affection would he attend and nurse the sick?''

*^Be thou, Lord, my master," he used to say, * ^f or thou art my model and pattern. Teach me what to do and how to do it, that I may conform all my actions with thy divine actions.'*

Not with less confidence and affection did he consecrate himself to the Most Holy Virgin. Mindful of the favors he had received at her motherly hands, he tried to compensate her by unceasingly growing in devotion to her. He said the rosary and the little office daily on his knees, and remained long hours in her presence.

Chapter Fifth

The Lokd Coitsoles Him. His Ambitio^t to Become Peefect. He is Shown a Eevelation THAT He Will Help in the Reeoemation OF Caemel. He is Received in the Caemel OF Medina.

Wliile tlie only desire of John was to please the Lord, His Majesty was filling his soul with consolations and treasures, and the more mercies he received from God, so much the more he showed his gratitude by preparing himself for further graces.

When he was a young man of twenty years, he was as guileless as a child of two, and as prudent as a man of fifty. Never were seen in him the failings peculiar to twenty years; no levity, no restlessness or disorder whatever. He avoided frivolous company and worthless entertainments, and in this way he found much time for every virtuous exercise. What games ever distracted him from his study? What jokes from his earnestness? Profane spectacles did not attract his eyes, nor perishable goods his will. From the world he coveted nothing but its contempt. The school, the church, and the hospital were dearest to him. The prudence of his words, the modesty of his aspect, and the gentleness of his maimers made him amiable and venerable. It is enough to say that the enlogy of Tobias was verified in him, ^^And when he was younger than any of the tribe of Nephtali, yet did he no childish thing in his work'' (Tob. 1-4). The old monks gave to the great Macarius of Egypt the name Paidariogeron, which, translated to our language, means old-youth, or, as the Latin has it, puer centum annorum. Such was John, and such were not only the signs, but the evident proofs of the natural and supernatural gifts with which he was endowed.

Great and generous souls often show in their childhood a kind of vicious exuberance, sure signs of great capacity and natural talent for virtue and of the fruits which right education will develop in them. But our John did not manifest any youthful waywardness. He produced well-seasoned fruits of high perfection from the very first, and this we may consider evidence of his destiny, not only to be a model of the highest perfection, but also to establish, or re-establish, it in organized society.

In earnest of this, our Lord visited him with a marvelous vision. The devout young man was praying one day with his accustomed fervor and devotion, asking the Lord to guide him to the state of life in which he could serve him best, being entirely resigned to the divine will, saying with the psalmist, ^'I have put my trust in thee, Lord ; I said, ' Thou art my God, my lots are in thy hands' '' (Psalm 30 :15, 16). The Lord heard his prayer, and consoled him, saying, ^'Thou art to serve me in an order, the ancient perfection of which thou shalt help to bring back again. ' '

He understood that God wished him to become a religions, and he was content; but he could not understand that he was to do so great a work as to recover the former greatness of any order. He shrank from the task, and, so far as he could, banished the thought of it from his mind ; for he looked upon it as a snare and occasion of delusion to his soul. He confessed this at a later time to the saintly nun, the Venerable Anne of Jesus.

Hitherto he had no thought about religious life as possible for him, but from this time forth the desire to leave the world, into which he had never entered, grew very strong. The more he prayed, the more he longed to be a religious, but he was not inclined more towards one than another order ; he was equally indifferent to all and all were equally desired. In this uncertainty, he redoubled his prayers and penances, asking most humbly the divine Majesty to enlighten him in the choice of the order where he might concentrate himself entirely to God.

The Carmelites of the old observance had come to the city of Medina in the year 1560 and founded the convent of St. Anne. One day

John went to St. Anne^s, and at the sight of the Carmelite habit he was deeply moved. Never before had it made such an impression on him. By this he understood that he was called to Carmel. He was glad he had been poor all his life, and that he now could embrace poverty as his bride and give himself up to our Lord in his poverty.

He went into the house and begged to be received into the order. The friars were pleased, because he was well known in the city. Accordingly, he received the habit on the Feast of St. Mathias, February 24, 1563, being then in the twenty-first year of his age. He was delighted with his lot, reckoning himself as fortunate as St. Mathias, who was numbered with the twelve apostles ; and, therefore, he took that name, calling himself John of St. Mathias. He improved his surname later, when his own condition was changed for the better, by calling himself Father John of the Cross.

CHAPTEE SIXTH

His Feevor in the Novitiate. His Zeal and Peudence. His Pkofession. He K^eps the Primitive Eule of Carmel.

During his novitiate his regularity and obedience, his fervor and recollection, his austerities and penances, were a fountain of edification to all in the house.

Once his humility and prudence were severely tested in a crisis which novices can rarely, if ever, meet without some imperfection. He was with a father of the order who behaved somewhat carelessly in the presence of seculars. John of Mathias was the only religious who saw the fault committed. The historians have said it was not a serious fault, but merely unbecoming in a Carmelite. The novice reminded the father of his fault; and he did so with so much humility and discretion that the father not only was not offended, but, on the contrary, he corrected himself, and accepted the correction with joy.

In the following year, in 1564, John made his profession before Fra Angel de Salazar, the provincial of Castile. His great protector, Don Alonso Alvarez, was present at the ceremony. The record of his profession, signed by the saint, was preserved in the house as a precious relic. A special book, very ricMy bound, was made to keep it, and also a very precious casket was made for it. This document and the small cell in which our saint lived, converted into a chapel after his death, were kept in great veneration in that monastery, though the monastery itself never adopted the reform of St. Teresa. But the house ever afterwards retained traces of the saintly novice, John of St. Mathias, in the regular observance and edifying punctuality of the community in all its duties.

Seeing himself now a child of religion, whose mother and protector was the most holy mother of God, from whom he had received great favors, he found it hard to satisfy his fervor of gratitude towards God and the mother of Carmel; therefore, he began to consider anew the obligations of his state.

Giving continual thanks to God for having brought him into the safe sanctuary of our Lady of Mount Carmel, his first care was to study carefully the rule of his order with the purpose of keeping it perfectly. He found that the order, though professing the rule given by St. Albert, patriarch of Jerusalem, was not conformed to the rule as it was given to the ancient Carmelites, nor as it was approved by Innocent IV; but lived according to the mitigated rule approved by Eugenius IV, who had dispensed with its chief rigors and most heroic observances. Discovering all these things, he procured the rule in its primitive form, and, reading it carefully, he was inspired with an ardent desire of observing it in all its points. But, being a child of obedience, he would do nothing of his own will ; he had once given his will to his superiors, and would never resume it again. However, he could represent his wishes to them, and did so. They listened to him, perhaps with some misgiving, but they did not resist, lest they should put out a flame which our Lord had kindled. They gave him permission to observe the primitive rule, provided that no duty of the community be neglected and the present discipline of the house be maintained in everything.

He entered now on a life of penance, which, under existing conditions, was much more severe than the primitive rule required. He was present at all the exercises of the community in choir, chapter, and refectory, avoiding all appearance of singularity, and outwardly differing in nothing from the other friars of the house. Yet he was fasting from the feast of the Holy Cross in September till Easter in the following year, and abstaining wholly from flesh meat throughout the year, according to the primitive rule. But, as no special provision was made for him in the house, and he attended daily in the refectory where meat was served according to the dispensation of Eugenius IV, it was hard for him to disguise his own mortification and at the same time find food enough to support life. He had nothing in his cell, and he would not eat except at the appointed hours. He kept silence also, according to the primitive rule, and for that purpose used to retire to his cell the moment he was free from the duties he had to discharge in public. He labored also with his hands, as the ancient hermits did, making in his cell crosses, disciplines, and other instruments of penance; but his chief work was prayer, which is the true work of a friar of Carmel, for it is said in the rule, ^'Let all remain in their cells, or near them, meditating night and day in the law of the Lord. ' ' He loved this holy exercise more than all the rest, and it struck down into his heart very deep roots, producing the most excellent fruits of high contemplation and heroic sanctity. Nor did he forget the holy poverty recommended by the rule; and, therefore, he did not admit in his cell, bed, or dress, anything which was not absolutely necessary for the use of human life and the decency of the religious state. He procured a narrow, incommodious and poor cell, an old patched habit, and everything else in his personal use showed poverty and humility.

Chapter Seventh

His Studies and Austekities in Salamanca. He Refuses the Peiestly Dignity, but is BY Holy Obedience Obliged to Accept It. He is Confiemed in Geace Dueing His FiEST Mass.

The superiors of tlie order, discerning in John of St. Mathias great talents for theological studies, combined with sublime and rare virtues, determined to send him to their college in Salamanca, that by the help of learning he might become a laborer in the vineyard of the Lord. The college of the order in Salamanca was then known as the College of St. Andrew the Apostle, but later it was called St. Teresa's College. The school of theology in the university was celebrated throughout Europe. The Dominicans had given it professors of great names — Francis de Victoria, from the University of Paris; his famous pupil, Melchoir Cano, author of **De Locis Theologicis ; " the celebrated Dominic de Soto, who assisted at the Council of Trent, and others. To this great divinity school was sent John of St. Mathias in the year 1564.

He was most diligent in attending the schools, but his studies never interfered with the severities of his penitential life. The life he led in

Salamanca was not less admirable than the one he had begun in Medina. Not satisfied with the fastings, abstinences, silence, and perpetual prayer commanded by the primitive rule, he added to them most terrific penances. He dwelt in a very narrow and dark cell. All the light he had came through a little hole in the roof. A shallow box, more like a coffin than anything else, was his bed. In that coffin, without any covering other than his habit, and a block of wood for his pillow, Fra John took his rest at night. But there was a window in his cell looking into the church. Through this window he could see the tabernacle on the altar in which our Lord was dwelling. That sight comforted him more than anything the world could show him.

His cell, so poor and edifying, has always been held in great veneration, and is' now one of the chapels or side altars in the church of the monastery.

The primitive rule is austere enough even for souls athirst for penance, but for John of St. Mathias the burden was too light. He girt his loins with an iron chain studded with sharp points. Next to his body he wore a dress made of coarse grass, like a fisherman's net, the thick knots of which were as hard as stones ; this he covered with the habit of the order. He relieved the resultant unceasing distress by the use of the most cruel disciplines, the effects of which could not always be concealed from his companions and superiors.