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NOTES

2. The family's struggles and the hardship of life in Spain at that time are described by Crisógono de Jesus, The Life of St. John of the Cross (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1958), pp. 2 8; and Federico Ruiz et al., God Speaks in the Night (Washington, DC: ICS Publications, 1991), chs. 1 2.

3. Among other lecturers in theology at Salamanca in John's time were Mancio de Corpus Christi (successor to Melchor Cano), Juan de Guevara, Gregorio Gallo, his successor Gaspar de Grajal, and Cristóbal Vela. According to the Carmelite legislation then in effect, besides the university courses John would also have attended classes at home in the monastery of the Carmelite college of San Andrés, on the great masters of the Order, John Baconthorpe and Michael of Bologna. See Bruno de Jésus-Marie,

St. John of the Cross (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1932), pp. 30 31; and Ruiz, et al., God Speaks, pp. 76 78, 90 91.

4. The few known details of John's life during his time in Salamanca are given in Crisógono, Life, pp. 37 40; Ruiz, et al., God Speaks, ch. 3.

5. Teresa refers to this meeting in The Book of Her Foundations, ch. 3.

6. Teresa will say, of his readiness this new life: "As for Father Fray John of the Cross, no trial was necessary. Even though he had lived among the calced friars, those of the cloth, he always lived a life of great perfection and religious observance" (

Foundations, 13, 1).

7. See Foundations, ch. 13.

8. A description of their way of life and penances is given in Foundations, ch. 14.

9. See Crisógono, Life, p. 64.

10. Stories of John's successes and struggles for acceptance at the Incarnation are found in Crisógono, Life, pp. 73 77; and Ruiz, et al.,God Speaks, ch. 5.

11. Crisógono de Jesus acknowledges that there were some grounds for the displeasure of the Ancient Observance. After all, they authorized the reform and supported its early ventures, but later they were ignored and bypassed, as different authorities began to prefer and support the discalced. See Crisógono,

Life, p. 87. For a sympathetic account of the position of the Carmelite Order in the face the excesses of the discalced and others, see especially Joachim Smet, The Carmelites: A History of the Brothers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, vol. 2, The Post Tridentine Period, 1550 1600 (Darien, IL: Carmelite Spiritual Center, 1976), chs. 1 4.

12. Teresa, who had been informed of the imprisonment of John soon after it occurred, wrote to Philip II on December 4, 1577 asking for his intervention. However, John's whereabouts was still a mystery to Teresa a month later. She continued to work for John's release, writing not only to Philip II, but also to anyone who could help, including Gracián, and Ana de los Angeles, prioress of the discalced nuns in Toledo.

13. For a detailed description of John's imprisonment, see Crisógono,

Life, ch. 9, and Ruiz, et al., God Speaks, ch. 6. For a correlation of those events with appropriate passages in John's writings, see Bruno, St. John of the Cross, ch. 13.

14. John was rector in Baeza from 1579 82. For the events of those years, including the death of John's mother, Catalina Alvarez, see Crisógono,

Life, pp.141 151; Ruiz, et al., God Speaks, ch. 7.

15. For a fine presentation of Nicolás de Jesus-Maria Doria, see chapter 18 in Bruno, St. John of the Cross, pp. 384 312. Like many religous leaders before him and since, Fr. Doria was a rigorist who thought his concentration of power would preserve the reform. Referring to his teachings, some listeners suggested that "not only the flock, but the shepherds themselves were frozen with terror." Others referred to "Doria's pharisaism." For a more sympathetic portrayal of Doria, see Joachim Smet, The Carmelites, vol. 2, The Post Tridentine Period, ch. 4.

16. Two of John's letters from this period give some idea of how he felt and with what resignation and good spirits he approached his mistreatment. See letter 25 to Ana de Jesus and letter 26 to Maria de la Encarnación, both dated July 6, 1591.

17. For a summary of the life and teachings of this dedicated follower of Teresa, see chapter 6, "Jeronimo Gracián," in E. Allison Peers,

Studies of the Spanish Mystics, vol. 2 (London: SPCK, 1960), pp. 117 148.

18. Besides Teresa's writings, our primary sources for biographical information on John of the Cross are the manuscripts and testimonies collected during the canonical processes leading to his beatification and canonization. Some of these documents are in the Vatican archives of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, and others in Madrid's National Library. Fr. Crisógono lists them and specifies the content of each in his

Life, pp. 314 318.

19. The best description of John of the Cross's appearance and personality comes from Fr. Eliseo de los Mártires, who knew John for many years and lived with him for several years at Granada. Crisógono presents and expands on this verbal portrait in his

Life, ch. 21.

20. Compare Segundo Galilea,

The Future of Our Past: The Spanish Mystics Speak to Contemporary Spirituality (Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 1985); Leonard Doohan, "The Contemporary Significance of the Life and Works of John of the Cross," Studies in Formative Spirituality 13 (1992): 9-17.

21. These are probably not John's first writings, but they are the first that survive. Some witnesses refer to compositions, now lost, from the early periods of John's novitiate in Medina del Campo, his university studies in Salamanca, his time in Duruelo when the first constitutions of the discalced friars were drawn up, and his term as chaplain at the Incarnation in Avila.

22. John read and studied a lot. Witnesses speak of his interest in St. Augustine, his constant use of the monasteries' libraries, and of course his absorbing interest in and dedication to the Bible. He was a fine and valued theologian. John explicitly quotes or mentions Aristotle, Ovid, Dionysius the Areopagite, Augustine, Gregory the Great, Thomas Aquinas, Bernard, Boethius, Boscán, and Teresa of Avila. Elsewhere he seems indirectly influenced by Baconthorpe, Tauler, Ruysbroeck, and popular songs and poems of his day. See Crisógono,

Life, p. 227.

23. This is also true of his prose style. Kavanaugh observes that "it is not apparent that he took pains to polish his prose. His sentences can get complicated, repetitious, and cluttered. Not infrequently, however, the inspiration of his poetry overflows into his prose, offering passages of literary power, originality, and beauty." See "General Introduction" to the 1991 revised edition of the

Collected Works, p. 34.

24. For a fine approach to John's use of Scripture and his theological insight, see John of the Cross: Selected Writings, ed. Kieran Kavanaugh (New York: Paulist Press, 1987), pp. 24 34.

25. If John is to speak to us today we must reinterpret his writings in the light of Vatican II, and not from an older Jansenistic perspective as damaging to his vision as it is inaccurate. Like all mystics, John's work needs an appropriate hermeneutic to make it accessible and challenging to modern seekers for union with God.

26. In addition to the speech of Menéndez Pelayo, quoted above, see Dámaso Alonso, La Poesia de San Juan de la Cruz (Madrid: Aguilar, 1942).

27. Both John and Teresa have a poem on the same theme, "I live, but not in myself." This could be an example of such devotional competitions.

28. See Gerald Brenan, St. John of the Cross: His Life and Poetry (Cambridge: University Press, 1973), pp. 104 111; also Bernard McGarty, "Images from Nature in the Spiritual Canticle of St. John of the Cross," Spiritual Life 25 (1979): 166 175.

29. As mentioned above, Teresa of Avila wrote a poem with the same first line and similar themes. If these are two independent poems and not the product of devotional competition nor the result of later copyists' confusion, then Teresa possibly wrote hers seven years earlier.

30. See George M. Anderson, "Maxims as a Source for Prayer," Contemplative Review 14 (Summer 1981): 10 13.

31. See the facsimile edition available in San Juan de la Cruz, Dichos de Luz y Amor: Edición facsimil (Codice de Andujar), ed. José Vicente Rodriguez (Madrid: Editorial de Espiritualidad, 1976).

32. See Judy B. McInnis, "Eucharistic and Conjugal Symbolism in The Spiritual Canticle of Saint John of the Cross," Renascence 36 (1984): 118 138.

33. See Kavanaugh's detailed outline of both works, together with the introductory notes, on pages 101 109 and 353 357 of the 1991 revised ICS edition of John's

Collected Works.

34. In the Spiritual Canticle treatise, John fulfills his promise (Prologue, 4) to develop the commentary stanza by stanza and verse by verse. Elsewhere he is not so consistent. The Ascent, for example, begins as a commentary on the "Dark Night" poem, devoting 13 chapters to the first line, chapter 14 to the second line, and chapter 15 to the rest of the first stanza. Book II announces the second stanza, but then John makes no further references to the poem in the rest of the Ascent. The Dark Night treatise takes a similar approach to the first two stanzas of the same poem, but simply presents the third stanza and comments on its first line before breaking off abruptly, leaving the other five stanzas without commentary.

35. John made numerous breviary-sized copies of the helpful diagram that precedes the Ascent, though all of them have been lost except a notarized copy of the one used by Magdalena del Espiritu Santo, which differs significantly from later stylized versions used in printed editions of John's works. This has led to some debate about the details of the sketch. Does John mean to suggest, for example, that the side paths are complete dead-ends (as one might conclude from the copy of Magdalena del Espiritu Santo), or does he believe that they do eventually reach the summit, albeit by a circuitous route (as in some artists' renderings, possibly influenced by other original copies now lost)? For more on the sketch of the Mount, see E. W. Trueman Dicken, The Crucible of Love: A Study of the Mysticism of St. Teresa of Jesus and St. John of the Cross (New York: Sheed & Ward, 1963), pp. 237 244; Ruiz, et al., God Speaks, pp. 213 215.

36. For a recent English-language discussion of the two versions of the poem and its commentary, see Colin P. Thompson,

The Poet and the Mystic: A Study of the Cántico Espiritual of San Juan de la Cruz (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977).

37. Many commentators consider the Spiritual Canticle the most suitable book to give first-time readers of John. See Michael Dodd, "Beginners and the Spiritual Canticle: a Reflection," Spiritual Life 29 (1983): 195 208.

38. For more on the Living Flame and Doña Ana de Peñalosa, see Ruiz, et al.,God Speaks, pp. 246-249, 278-281, 323-325.

39. See Barnabas Ahern, "The Use of Scripture in the Spiritual Theology of John of the Cross," Catholic Biblical Quarterly 14 (1952): 6 17.

40. Note that, in the terminology of that time, "mystical theology" refers to the contemplative experience of God in prayer, not to the academic study of mysticism.

41 See chapter 9 in Brenan, St. John of the Cross, especially pp. 118 137.

42. See Capistran J. Haas, "Saint John of the Cross: Poet," Spiritual Life 28 (1982): 219 225.

43. All of John's poems, except the romances and "A lone young shepherd," begin in the first person. They are all in some sense autobiographical, even the dialogue in the "Spiritual Canticle."

44. See Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, St. John of the Cross: Doctor of Divine Love and Contemplation (Westminster, MD: Newman Press, 1954), p. 1, where the author, summarizing John's teaching as "the way of love," speaks about "the profound unity of the work of St. John of the Cross," identifying "a single doctrinal line running through all his works," and suggesting that "the Saint has done nothing else but mark out for us the road which leads to the perfection of the life of love."

45. The bulk of St. Teresa's teaching on prayer is found in her three most famous works. The Way of Perfection describes for her nuns the fundamental virtues needed for the spiritual journey, and focuses especially on the early stages of prayer. Written for her spiritual director to give an account of her own journey and unusual prayer experiences, the Book of Her Life deals more extensively with growth in contemplation; in chapters 11-22, Teresa interrupts the narrative of her life with a long digression on four successive stages of prayer (which she calls meditation, prayer of quiet, sleep of the faculties, and union) compared allegorically with four ways of watering a garden (the classic "four waters"). But the Saint's most mature presentation is found in the Interior Castle, where she describes the spiritual journey in terms of an inner pilgrimage through seven progressively more interior "dwelling places" to the center of one's soul, where God alone dwells. In any case, Teresa's teaching on the stages of prayer is in some ways more difficult to systematize than John's, since she rethinks some of her distinctions and terminology from work to work as her experience grows.

46. See Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, "The Demands of Love," in

St. John of the Cross, pp. 21 43.

47. Closely linked to this patience is gentleness. See Thomas Kane, "Gentleness in John of the Cross," Parts 1 3, Contemplative Review 14 (Winter 1981): 1 8; 15 (Spring 1982): 20 24; 15 (Summer 1982): 14 19.

48. This journey can be seen as the Christian participation in the the cross of Christ, so well explained by Edith Stein (Sr. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross), the Carmelite nun of Jewish ancestry killed in the gas chambers of Auschwitz in early August, 1942. See Edith Stein,

The Science of the Cross: A Study of St. John of the Cross (London: Burns and Oates, 1960).

49. The focus of John's work is conditioned by the people he encounters in his own ministry, frequently nuns of the reform who had already dedicated themselves to the spiritual journey; he could challenge them perhaps more vigorously than he would true beginners. Demanding on himself, John was very senstitive to others and gentle with their struggles.

50. For an overview of these two nights and the relationship of love and suffering during this experience, see Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, "The Sufferings of Love," in

St. John of the Cross, pp. 44 67.

51. For more on the nature of contemplation and the spiritual director's task in helping directees attain it, see Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, "Acquired Contemplation," in

St. John of the Cross, pp. 100 124; see also Joel Giallanza, "Spiritual Direction According to St. John of the Cross," Contemplative Review 11 (Fall 1978): 31 37.

52. Here I have combined the slightly different versions of the classic "three signs" that John presents in chapters 13 to 15 of Book Two of the Ascent, chapter 9 of Book One of the Night, and

Sayings, 119. For more on the "three signs," see Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalene, The Spiritual Director According to the Principles of St. John of the Cross (Westminster, MD: Newman Press, 1951) pp. 51 53; Trueman Dicken, Crucible of Love, pp. 145 152, 159 161.

53. See David Center, "Christian Freedom and The Nights of St. John of the Cross,"

Carmelite Studies 2 (1982): 3 80.

54. Compare Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II),

Faith According to St. John of the Cross (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1981); "The Question of Faith in St. John of the Cross," Carmelite Studies 2 (1982): 223 273.

55. For further clarification of the individual's feelings at this time, see Joel Giallanza, "Weariness in the Spiritual Life," Spiritual Life 29 (1983): 10 17; Denys Turner, "St. John of the Cross and Depression," Downside Review 106 (1988): 157 180; and Maria Edwards, "Depression Or Dark Night?" Contemplative Review 18 (1985): 34 37.

56. John's view of the relationship between night and light has a paschal dimension: he sees the spiritual life as a true exodus. See John Sullivan, "Night and Light: The Poet John of the Cross and the Exultet' of the Easter Liturgy," Ephemerides Carmeliticae 27 (1976): 453 488.

57. See Leonard Doohan, "Personal Fulfillment in the Life and Teachings of St. John of the Cross,"

Living Prayer (1988): 28 32.

58. See Stein, Science of the Cross, pp. 140 207.

59. See Paul T. Russell, "The Humanity of Christ in St. John of the Cross," Spiritual Life 30 (1984): 143 156.

60. Russell, p. 155, says: "In John of the Cross, the Humanity of the Word- Made-Flesh is not a concession which mystics are forced to make to orthodoxy. On the contrary, it is the Door by which we shall receive those special goods in the day of eternal bliss."

61. See "Anthropology," in St. John of the Cross: Selected Writings, ed. Kieran Kavanaugh, pp. 34 37.

62. For John's positive approach to all creation, see Camille Anne Campbell, "Creation-Centered Carmelites: Teresa and John,"

Spiritual Life 28 (1982): 15 25; and Leslie Lund, "Carmel and World Transformation," Spiritual Life 29 (1983): 97 105.

63. While John insists that nothing should come between ourselves and God, he believes that every positive human value should be integrated into a God- centered life. As an example of his approach, see Michael Dodd, "Saint John of the Cross and Friendship,"

Spiritual Life 26 (1980): 194 204.

64. See Joel Giallanza, "Myths of Detachment," Spiritual Life 27 (1981): 210 218.

65. For John's understanding of desire, see Leslie Lund, "Desire in St. John of the Cross," Spiritual Life 31 (1985): 83 100.

66. See Michael Dodd, "Divinization in John of the Cross," Spiritual Life 24 (1978): 258 263.

67. See Mary Pellicane, "The Spiritual Journey," Contemplative Review 9 (1976): 17 21.

68. See Richard P Hardy, "Fidelity to God in the Mystical Experience of Fray Juan de la Cruz," Eglise et Théologie 11 (1980): 57 75.

69. See Deirdre Green, "St. John of the Cross and Mystical Unknowing," Religious Studies 22 (1986): 29 40.

70. For an analysis of John's appreciation of emptiness and solitude, see Richard P. Hardy, "Solitude: A Sanjuanist Perspective," Eglise et Théologie 6 (1975): 5 23.

71. In chapters 18 to 20 in Book Two of the Dark Night, borrowing the image of a mystical ladder from earlier authors, John describes ten steps in God's purification of a person's life through love, ten steps that lead to the redirection of life under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. See Michael Griffin, "The Ladder of Love of St. John of the Cross," Spiritual Life 29 (1983): 3 9.

72. See Gilbert Padilla, "The Hidden Beloved One," Spiritual Life 30 (1984): 174 176.

73. See Mary Paul Cutri, "The Touch of God: Human/Divine Intimacy," Spiritual Life 30 (1984): 157 162.

74. See Leonard Doohan, "John of the Cross and the Laity," Spiritual Life 39 (1993): 164 174.