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John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila

Their initial conversation in Medina de Campo focused on plans for John's involvement in Teresa's reform of the friars, but John must have kept this secret from his Carmelite superiors. Teresa had discussed her plans with at least two other Carmelite friars without finding the leadership she wanted. At this first meeting Teresa concluded John was the person she sought. 6

They met again in July 1568, at which time the plans to open the monastery at Duruelo were finalized.7 After Teresa's first meeting with John, she rejoiced; and when she sent John to stay awhile with Francisco de Salcedo, she could say of John: "we have never seen an imperfection in him." Teresa was a strong-willed individual, but John, too, was both courageous and firm in his opinions. In fact, Teresa acknowledges their disagreements in business matters, and confesses being annoyed with John on several occasions. He was intensely committed to the reform, starting the new life as soon as he arrived in Duruelo, a fact that disappointed Antonio de Heredia, who felt John should have waited for him. When Teresa visited Duruelo in March, 1569, she warned the friars there against excesses in penance, but they did not decrease the intensity of their life.8

Teresa's second community of friars began with two hermits already living in Pastrana, who wished to join a religious order, following the encouragement of the Council of Trent. The monastery of San Pedro de Pastrana was officially established on July 13, 1569. As in Mancera, novices came to Pastrana, and their formation became a critical issue, especially since (unlike John) the original two hermits were not steeped in the Teresian spirit. John of the Cross, the novice master in Mancera, was sent to Pastrana around the middle of October 1570 to organize the novitiate there. John stayed only a month, focusing on the essentials of the spirit of Carmel and preparing an acting novice master. By November, John was back in Mancera, where he met Teresa, who was on her way to Salamanca, accompanied by a group of sisters and one young novice, Anne of Jesus, to whom John would later dedicate the Spiritual Canticle.

In April 1571, John was chosen as rector of the discalced Carmelite house of studies in Alcalá de Henares, where his prime responsibility was the students' spiritual growth. Some accused John of encouraging excessive mortification, but the Apostolic commissioner, a Dominican, called to resolve the issue, was strong in his support of John and the quality of formation he was giving. 9 When, a short time later, John was asked to intervene in a dispute between frustrated novices in Pastrana and their excessive novice master, John, stressing that penance was a means and not the end of spiritual training, urged moderation, and was supported by both Teresa and the great theologian, Domingo Báñez.

In 1571, Teresa was appointed prioress of the convent of the Incarnation in Avila. She had entered the Carmel of the Incarnation in 1535, and spent 27 years there before inaugurating her reform. The original foundation inside the city walls of Avila had been intended for 14 beatas; later, a spacious new monastery was built outside the walls and the numbers rose to about 200 by 1565. A few years earlier, when Teresa made her first foundation of the reform, few nuns from the Incarnation were interested in accompanying her. "This Babylon," as Teresa referred to the Incarnation in a letter to her friend Doña Luisa de la Cerda, included many women who did not want to be there, but whose families were unable to find suitable husbands or provide marriage dowries.

Now 56 years old, Teresa was escorted by the Carmelite provincial, the mayor of Avila, some of the city police, and several curious onlookers who expected an entertaining event. The provincial, finding the main door barred, tried to enter through the choir but was blocked again by disgruntled nuns, claiming their canonical rights to elect a prioress. Meanwhile, some of Teresa's supporters intoned the Te Deum. The noise of 130 protesting nuns could be heard from the city walls, half a mile away!

The first weeks were oppressive for Teresa, who also became quite ill. She requested that John of the Cross should be appointed confessor to the Incarnation. The request was not without problems; the nuns as the Incarnation were not part of the Teresian reform, not "discalced" like Teresa and John, nor were the previous Carmelite chaplains. Moreover, Teresa's own tumultuous arrival was still fresh in people's minds. The apostolic commissary took the risk and appointed John vicar for the Incarnation; John and another "discalced" friar, along with some friars of the nearby Carmelite monastery, were to serve as confessors for the nuns. Eventually John became, along with Teresa, one of the two principal spiritual guides of the Incarnation, and by the end of 1572 peace and renewal were coming to the convent. 10

At various times in her life, Teresa had consulted several spiritual directors. The two reformers were together in Avila for several years and Teresa greatly valued John's direction. In 1572 Teresa attained the fullness of the mystical life, reaching the state of "mystical marriage," generally thought to have begun on November 18, 1572, as John gave her communion. While at the Incarnation, John's reputation as spiritual guide grew, and others outside the convent entrusted extremely difficult discernment cases to him.

John was in his early thirties, but already a theologian, reformer, novice master, rector, confessor, exorcist, and visionary. The Lord continued to enrich John's mature spiritual life with deeper experiences, some of which he narrated to others, as when he gave Sister Ana Maria de Jesus an ink sketch of Christ crucified, the result of a vision. There are documents describing several occasions of deep faith-sharing between John and Teresa.

John made several short journeys while based in Avila, one of them to Segovia to open a new convent on March 19, 1574. Although the initial experience ended in an unpleasant clash with the vicar general of the diocese, who had not been informed of her foundation (though the bishop had given oral permission), Segovia was eventually to be intimately connected with John of the Cross, and his tomb is there today.