Saint John of the Cross, Confessor & Doctor
S. Ioannis a Cruce Confessoris et Ecclesiae Doctoris
Saint John of the Cross, Spanish Carmelite, mystic, and Doctor of the Church, is honoured as the great teacher of the soul’s purifying ascent to union with God and as co-reformer, with Saint Teresa of Avila, of the Carmelite Order.
Saint John of the Cross was born at Fontiveros in Spain in the year 1542, of a poor family, and entered the Carmelite Order as a young man. Ordained a priest, he longed for a stricter and more hidden life of prayer, and Providence brought him into the company of Saint Teresa of Avila, who had begun to restore the primitive observance of Carmel. With her he undertook the reform among the friars, becoming the first to embrace the renewed manner of life from which the Discalced Carmelites took their origin.
Suffering and the dark night
The work of reform met with great opposition, and John endured much. For a time he was imprisoned by those who resisted the renewal, confined in a narrow cell and treated harshly; yet in this darkness his soul was filled with light, and there he composed some of his most luminous verses. From his own experience and his profound knowledge of Holy Scripture and of the spiritual masters, he wrote the works that have made him a sure guide for souls: the Ascent of Mount Carmel, the Dark Night of the Soul, the Spiritual Canticle, and the Living Flame of Love. In these he teaches that the soul must be purified of every disordered attachment, passing through a “dark night” of faith, in order to be united with God in pure love.
Death and honours of the Church
Worn out by labours and penances, and bearing his final sufferings with serenity, John died at Ubeda on the night of the thirteenth to fourteenth of December in 1591. He was canonised by Pope Benedict XIII in 1726, and in 1926 Pope Pius XI declared him a Doctor of the Universal Church, by the title of Doctor Mysticus, the Mystical Doctor. His writings remain among the surest treasures of Catholic spiritual doctrine, leading the soul, through detachment and the night of faith, to the love and contemplation of God.
The Collect
O God, who didst make blessed John, Thy Confessor and Doctor, an eminent lover of perfect self-denial and of the Cross: grant that, ever cleaving to the imitation of him, we may attain to everlasting glory. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end.
Deus, qui sanctum Ioannem Confessorem tuum atque Doctorem perfectae sui abnegationis et crucis amatorem eximium effecisti: concede; ut, eius imitationi iugiter inhaerentes, gloriam assequamur aeternam. Per Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum, Filium tuum: qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum.
Patronage
He is venerated as the Mystical Doctor and is honoured as a patron of contemplatives, mystics, and Spanish poets.
In the Modern Calendar
In the modern calendar this feast is observed on 14 December, the day of his death, as an obligatory memorial.
Common Questions
When is the feast of Saint John of the Cross?
In the calendar of the 1962 Roman Missal his feast is kept on 24 November, as a Third Class feast. In the modern calendar it is observed on 14 December.
Who was Saint John of the Cross?
He was a sixteenth-century Spanish Carmelite priest and mystic who, with Saint Teresa of Avila, reformed the Carmelite Order. A Doctor of the Church, he is celebrated for his writings on the soul’s purifying ascent to union with God.
Why is he called the “Mystical Doctor”?
Pope Pius XI gave him the title Doctor Mysticus because his works — such as the Dark Night of the Soul and the Ascent of Mount Carmel — are among the Church’s surest guides to contemplative prayer and union with God through faith and detachment.
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