[Return to Other Carmelite home]
Go backward to Contemporary Relevance of John of the Cross
Go up to CHAPTER ONE The Life and Times of John of the Cross
Go forward to John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila
[Return to Other Carmelite home]
Go backward to Contemporary Relevance of John of the
Cross
Go up to CHAPTER ONE
The Life and Times of
John of the Cross
Go forward to John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila
Catalina shared a house with her eldest son, Francisco, now twenty one, and his wife, Ana Izquierdo. Catalina decided to send John to one of Medina's Catechism Schools, boarding schools where orphans learned a trade and were generally fed and clothed by the endowment of one of the city's wealthy, in this case Don Rodrigo de Dueñas Hormaza. John worked as a carpenter, tailor, and painter, without much success. Eventually Alonso Alvarez de Toledo, administrator of the Plague Hospital, took an interest in John, who moved from the Catechism School to the Hospital de la Concepción, one of fourteen hospitals in Medina. John showed both ability and interest in the hospital ministry, dedicating himself to the patients in loving service, and to the institution in begging alms for its support. At 17, while continuing his work at the hospital, John received Don Alonso's permission to begin a course of studies at the Jesuit College near the hospital. John could already read and write; his attendance at the "colegio" inv olved four years of serious training in the humanities. He was very successful at his school work and loved to study, a characteristic that would remain with him throughout his life.
John's family continued to struggle and, despite their poverty, were exemplary Christians, caring for many orphans and always ready to share the little they had with others less fortunate.
Many people in Medina respected John and offered him positions at the end of his studies. The administrator of Plague Hospital recommended John for ordination and offered him the position of chaplain. Others offered him employment, and religious orders invited him to join them. One day in 1563, unknown to those interested in his future, John entered the Carmelite monastery, where he would be known as Brother John of St. Matthias. After what seems to have been a happy novitiate year, John was professed and soon obtained permission to observe the Primitive Rule of the Order. John was sent to the college of San Andrés, a Carmelite house of studies in Salamanca. He arrived in 1564, already a good student, and he studied at the university under some of the outstanding scholars of the day, including Luis de León. 3 The University of Salamanca was in its glory, with a student body of nearly seven thousand. John was an excellent student, appointed prefect of students, but also known for his piety and austerity.4
At the end of his third year of theology, John went to Medina del Campo to celebrate his first Mass with his family. In the late summer of 1567, he met Mother Teresa of Avila, to whom John had been recommended as a possible leader in the reform of the friars. 5 Teresa had received authorization to establish two houses of her reform for the Carmelite friars from the Master General, Juan Bautista Rubeo (Rossi), visiting Spain to encourage the reforms of the Council of Trent. John told Teresa he was considering transferring to the Carthusians, but she insisted that his desires for contemplation and penance could be fulfilled in her reformed Carmel.
John returned to Salamanca, concluded his studies, and was back in Medina by the summer of 1568. That July, Teresa arrived to encourage John and Antonio de Heredia to start the first reformed monastery for Carmelite friars in Duruelo, in a dilapidated farm house that Teresa had received from a benefactor in Avila. When permissions were obtained, John set out from Valladolid, where he had been helping Teresa with a new foundation, and where, she writes, "there was an opportunity to teach [him] about our way of life so that he would have a clear understanding of everything, whether it concerned mortification or the style of both our community life and the recreation we have together" ( Foundations, 13, 5). After this "second novitiate" at Teresa's hands, instead of going directly to Duruelo John went to Avila. There he spent some time with a layman, Francisco de Salcedo, one of the readers of Teresa's original autobiography, and a person she trusted.
When John left Avila for Duruelo he was accompanied by a stonemason, who helped in remodelling the old building that was to become the first monastery of the reformed friars. About two months after their arrival, on November 28, 1568, the First Sunday of Advent, John (now "John of the Cross"), Antonio (now "Anthony of Jesus"), and José de Cristo formally renounced the mitigation of Eugene IV and dedicated themselves to the primitive rule of the Carmelites as approved by Innocent IV. Mother Teresa was to visit Duruelo in the following March, and was delighted at the spirit she found. This first monastery of friars served the Teresian reform for only a year and a half, by which time it was already too small; it was abandoned on June 11, 1570, when the friars transferred to Mancera de Abajo, three miles away.