St. Juan de la Cruz
St. John of the Cross (also known as St. Juan de la Cruz and St. John of the Cross, Spanish: Juan de la Cruz); (June 24, 1542, Ontiveros, Spain - December 14, 1591, Úbeda, Jaen, Spain), real name Juan de Yepes Álvarez (Spanish: Juan de Yepes Álvarez) - Catholic saint, writer and mystical poet. Reformer of the Carmelite Order. Teacher of the Church.
Biography and creativity
Juan came from a noble but impoverished noble family who lived in the vicinity of Avila. As a young man, he entered the hospital to care for the sick. He received his education at a Jesuit school in the town of Medina del Campo, where his family moved after the death of his father in search of a livelihood.
In 1568 he joined the Carmelite Order and received theological education in Salamanca. He then became one of the founders of the reformed Carmelite monastery of Duruelo. As a monk, he took the name John of the Cross.
In the Carmelite Order at this time there were strife related to the reforms of the order initiated by St. Teresa of Avila. John became a supporter of reforms aimed at returning to the original ideals of the Carmelites - severity and asceticism.
John’s activities were not to the liking of many in the monastery; he was brought to trial three times for slanderous denunciations, and spent many months in prison under difficult conditions. It was during his imprisonment that John began to write his beautiful poems, imbued with a special mystical spirit and religious awe. He also wrote prose treatises - “Ascent of Mount Carmel”, “Dark Night of the Soul”, “Song of the Spirit”, “Living Flame of Love”.
St. died John of the Cross in Ubeda, in 1591. In 1726 he was canonized by Pope Benedict XIII, in 1926 Pope Pius XI declared him a Doctor of the Church. Memorial Day of St. John of the Cross Catholic Church- December 14.
The fundamental principle of the theology of St. John is to affirm that God is everything and man is nothing. Therefore, in order to achieve perfect union with God, which is what holiness consists of, it is necessary to subject all the faculties and powers of soul and body to intense and deep purification.
The works of St. Russian symbolists were interested in John of the Cross, in particular D. S. Merezhkovsky, who wrote a book about him. Poems by St. John was translated into Russian by Anatoly Geleskul and Boris Dubin.
Based on the saint's ecstatic visions, Salvador Dali painted it in 1950-1952. painting "Christ of St. John of the Cross"
El Cristo de San Juan de la Cruz (1951) "The Christ of Saint John of the Cross". Salvador Dali
Mystical verses
St. Juan de la Cruz
Dark night of the soul.
In the unspeakable night,
burned with love and longing -
O my blessed lot! -
I walked away
In the blessed night
I went down the secret stairs -
O my blessed lot! -
shrouded in darkness
when my house was filled with peace.
Guarded by the darkness of the night,
hiding, I didn’t meet anyone
and I was invisible
and lit the way for me
the love that burned in my heart.
This love is brighter
Than the sun at noon, it illuminated my path.
I walked, led by her,
to someone I knew
to a deserted region, where she expected a meeting.
O night, more tender than the dawn!
O night that served as my guide!
O good night,
that I got engaged to Darling
and dressed the Bride as the Groom!
And in the heart, which is invisible
only for him the blossoms were saved,
he lay motionless
and I caressed him.
The cedar branch gave us coolness.
There, under the jagged canopy,
I touched his hair timidly,
and the wind blows
the wing hit me
and commanded all feelings to be silent.
In silence, in self-forgetfulness
I bowed over my Beloved,
and everything went away. Torment,
which I was yearning for,
dissolved among the snow-white lilies.
FIRE OF LIVING LOVE
Fire of living love
how sweetly you hurt
me to the depths of my heart!
You won't fade away anymore
you won’t get tired of shining -
burn the barrier to the desired meeting!
Oh the happiness of the burn!
O joy of those wounds!
About the touch of a gentle hand -
you are the road to eternity,
and payment of all debts,
and death, and transformation of death into life!
Oh, living lights!
Immeasurable radiance
that the dark depths of feelings were washed,
until then blind;
and a joyful tribute -
bestowed its warmth and light!
So tender and humble
ignited in consciousness,
only you, fire, secretly dwell in it...
In my blessed soul
your breath lives on
and you fill me with love!
SOURCE.
How sweet it is for me to know the source running
in the darkness of this night!
This eternal source is hidden from view,
but I know the valley where it flows quietly
in the darkness of this night.
In this dark night that is called life,
blessed is he who touches this moisture with faith,
in the darkness of this night.
All existing rivers originate in it,
you won’t find its beginning forever
in the darkness of this night.
Outshining any beauty,
he gives water firmament and earthly
in the darkness of this night.
Its waters flow, filled with coolness,
and there is no limit to them, and there is no barrier to them
in the darkness of this night.
The crystal of these waters will never be eclipsed,
but the light of the whole earth will be born in them from eternity
in the darkness of this night.
Clean and bright, those waters irrigate
and earth, and hell, and the vaults of heaven
in the darkness of this night.
This source gives birth to a great stream,
and he, the almighty, sweeps away obstacles
in the darkness of this night.
It contains the appearance of three, fused together,
and each shines, illuminated by others
in the darkness of this night.
This eternal source is hidden from view,
but it will turn into life-giving bread for us
in the darkness of this night.
That eternal bread nourishes creatures,
satisfying their hunger in the darkness of suffering,
in the darkness of this night.
And the eternal source, without which I suffer,
This living bread will quench my thirst
in the darkness of this night.
ON THE RIVERS OF BABYLON.
Here, on the rivers of Babylon,
Now I sit and cry,
the land of exile with tears
I irrigate every day.
Here, O my Zion, with love
I remember you
and the more blessed the memory,
the more I suffer.
I took off my clothes of joy,
I put on the robe of sorrows,
now hung on the willow tree
the harp on which I play;
I still have hope
what I entrust to You.
Wounded by love, in separation
I remain with my heart
and begging for death,
I stretch out my hands to You.
I threw myself into this flame -
I know its burning fire
and, becoming like a bird,
I'm dying in this fire.
I, having died in my heart,
I come to life only in You,
dying for you,
for Your sake I rise;
I'm losing it in my memories
life, and I find it.
We kill with our lives,
I die every day
for she separates
with the One I call.
Foreigners rejoice
that I'm languishing in their captivity
and to their vain joy
I look on blankly.
They ask for my songs
what I write about Zion:
“Sing,” they say, “the anthem of Zion!”
I, grieving, answer:
"How in the valley of exile,
crying for reasons,
I will sing songs of joy,
in which do I glorify Zion? "
I rejected someone else's joy,
I remain faithful to myself.
Let my tongue go numb
with which I sing your praises,
if I forget you
here, where I am in captivity,
if for the bread of Babylon
I will exchange my Zion.
May I lose my right hand
the one I hold to my chest,
if I don't remember you
with every sip that I taste,
if you celebrate a holiday
I will wish without you.
Woe, O daughter of Babylon,
I announce your doom!
Will be glorified forever
The one to whom I now call,
The one who will return your punishment
what do I accept from you!
May He gather these little ones,
for in captivity I trust
I'm on the stronghold of Christ
and I am leaving Babylon.
Debetur soli gloria vera Deo.
(True glory belongs only to God, lat.)
* * *
Seized by a strange thirst,
I waited for the cherished time -
and I flew high
I achieved my desired goal!
I've risen so high
drawn by this delight,
that in the heights is unknown
I'm forever lost.
Here it is, that long-awaited moment!
I was still flying alone
in this love - and high
I achieved my desired goal!
Higher! But my gaze is in flight
was blinded for a moment -
and so I overtook him in the dark
the target is like game on the hunt.
Blindly, with that strange love
I stepped deep into the darkness
and, being high,
I achieved my desired goal!
I got up so easily
up - is there a happier fate? -
and became more humble
and diminished more and more.
I say in the tireless struggle:
"Who will reach the source?" -
and I flew high
I achieved my desired goal!
My wondrous flight contains
there are so many different flights -
for he who trusted in God
he finds what he was looking for.
With this strange hope
I was waiting for the cherished time...
I was high, high
I achieved my desired goal!
* * *
I found myself in that land
having tasted such ignorance,
which is beyond anyone's knowledge.
I don’t know which path
I entered this reserved land,
I don’t know where I am, but I won’t hide it,
that at this moment my mind is poor,
leaving the world dumb and pale,
tasted such ignorance,
which is beyond anyone's knowledge.
True knowledge has embraced
the whole world created by the Almighty.
So, alone, in silence,
I saw him and, captivated,
became like an unintelligent baby,
having touched such a sacrament,
which is beyond anyone's knowledge.
I was so completely absorbed
what's at the top of alienation
every feeling is numb,
any feeling is gone
when I realized
incomprehensible - such
which is beyond anyone's knowledge.
This pilgrim, by God's will,
free himself from himself
and everything he had learned so far
will turn to dust and ashes.
will increase so much that it will decrease
suddenly, out of ignorance,
which is beyond anyone's knowledge.
The more he learns, numb,
mind, the less it comprehends
this flame that led Moses,
the light that shines at midnight,
but the one who still knows him,
will taste such ignorance,
which is beyond anyone's knowledge.
This unknown knowledge -
- such power it has,
that the wise men in their efforts
to comprehend it - they will not succeed,
for their knowledge will not be able to
achieve such ignorance
which is beyond anyone's knowledge.
Its top is inaccessible,
and there is no science that has mastered
by that higher knowledge entirely
or succeed in surpassing him.
But he overcame himself,
will taste such ignorance,
becoming above everything earthly.
And if you want an answer -
- what does the highest secret hide? -
I will say: this is good knowledge
represents the essence of the Divine.
God's mercy allows us
taste such ignorance.
which is beyond anyone's knowledge.
YOUNG SHEPHERD.
The young shepherd mourns in voiceless anguish.
He rushed, alien to entertainment,
to his shepherdess with every thought,
It's not because he's crying in vain
deeply wounded by his love,
but that is why he suffers cruelly,
that was forgotten by the beautiful shepherdess.
And forgotten by the beautiful shepherdess,
he endures this severe torment,
foreign land accepts reproaches,
and his chest is sick with passionate love.
And the shepherd says: “Oh, unfortunate me!
After all, she is now sick of my love!
She forgot me forever
and I yearn for this passionate love!”
And now, tormented by hourly torment,
one day he climbed a tree
and remained hanged by the hands
and his chest is sick with passionate love.
* * *
Both without support and with support
I live in darkness, without light;
I find my limit in everything.
About all creatures of flesh
the soul has forgotten forever,
and soared above herself,
and God was with her on that flight,
the support that kept her.
And therefore I have the right to say,
that there is no more beautiful thing,
my soul saw in reality -
both without support and with support!
Let my life be enveloped in darkness -
then the fate of everyone in the earthly vale,
I do not mourn this fate!
My love does to me
a hitherto unprecedented miracle:
sometimes I go blind, but I know -
the soul is full of love until
I live in darkness, without light.
That power of love guides me:
she, living invisibly in me,
Is it good or evil that is being done to me -
converted with one meal
and transformed life into itself.
And in this sweet languor
I feel like I'm burning in flames
and, wounded without healing,
I find my limit in everything.
Translation by L. Vinarova .
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John the Baptist, also known as John the Baptist, is respected by Christians as a predecessor. In Orthodoxy, it is second in importance after the Holy Mother of God. Many churches in Russia and around the world have been consecrated in the name of John. Muslims, Mandaeans and Baha'is call the prophet Yahya, Arab Christians - Yuhann. How historical figure appears in Josephus' Antiquities of the Jews.
On the icons he is depicted with the following attributes: a severed head (the second in the picture), a scroll in his hands, a bowl, a thin cross made of reeds. The saint is dressed in baggy clothes made of shaggy wool, belted with a wide leather belt, or less often in a woven chiton or himation. In the paintings, these signs are supplemented by a honeycomb, a lamb, a shepherd’s crook, and the index finger of the right hand facing the sky. Statues of the Baptist are popular among Catholics.
Childhood and youth
Theologians draw facts from the biography of John the Baptist from the four canonical Gospels, the apocrypha and hagiography. The evangelist Luke tells about John’s childhood.
John was born into the family of the high priest Zechariah and the righteous Elisabeth, a distant relative of the future Mother of God. The upcoming birth of a child to a barren elderly couple was predicted by the Archangel Gabriel, who visited the future father in the Temple, and Gabriel ordered that the boy be given a name unusual for the family. Zechariah did not believe the messenger, for which he deprived Zechariah of the gift of speech. The priest's muteness lasted until the birth of the child.
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The child began to prophesy while still in the mother’s womb. When Mary came to visit Elizabeth, the baby began to beat, and Elizabeth felt grace. That is, John rejoiced at meeting the Messiah even before those around him noticed the virgin’s pregnancy. On the site of Zechariah's country house, where the future mothers met, the Church of the Visitation was built.
In Ein Karem, a suburb of Jerusalem, where the prophet was born, a monastery of the Franciscan order (“St. John on the Mountains”) was built. The mute Zechariah confirmed in writing his desire to give his son the name John, indicated by the angel, after which he was able to speak again.
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According to Scripture, the Forerunner was born six months earlier than the Savior. Based on this information, the date of celebration of the Nativity of John the Baptist was calculated - June 24 according to the Julian calendar in Orthodoxy. The holiday is popularly known as Ivan Kupala Day. From the point of view of solar symbolism: Jesus' Nativity is celebrated after winter solstice, when the day becomes longer, and Ioannovo - after summer, when the day shortens.
In order to save the child from the hands of the servants of King Herod, who exterminated the children, the mother left the city with him into the desert, where John lived until adulthood, preparing for future service. It is believed that the secret place was a monastery of the Essenes, a secret Jewish sect. The high priest Zechariah was killed by Herod's soldiers at his workplace.
Christian service
In the desert, God spoke to young John, after which John went to preach; the beginning of the journey is considered to be 28 or 29. The Prophet was an ascetic, dressed in a shaggy tunic made of camel hair, girded himself with a rawhide belt, ate honey from wild bees and locusts, and did not drink wine. In his sermons he called on sinners to fear God's wrath and repent. He reproached the Sadducees and Pharisees for hypocrisy and pride.
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The prophet urged the warriors to be content with their salaries and not to offend civilians; tax collectors - do not demand anything from the population beyond what is required by law; the rich to share food and clothing with the poor. John designated ritual bathing in the streams of the Jordan River, called baptism, as a symbol of repentance and purification. A circle of followers gathered around the Baptist. John's disciples imitated their teacher's asceticism and assumed that John was the prophesied Savior.
When a delegation of clergy arrived from Jerusalem to verify this version, John denied it. He called himself the voice of the hermit, calling people to renewal. He predicted the imminent arrival of the Messiah, but was surprised when he met Jesus who came to be baptized, since he considered himself unworthy even to tie the straps of the Savior’s shoes.
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Jesus insisted on doing what God had ordained and was baptized in the Jordan. While performing the ritual, the Baptist laid right hand on the top of Christ's head, in connection with which the right hand of the saint was later especially revered. The baptism was accompanied by miracles that revealed to people the messiahship of Jesus: a dove flew from heaven and a voice sounded calling Jesus the beloved son and blessing him.
After the sign, the first two apostles, who had previously been among the disciples of John the Baptist, joined the Savior. While Jesus was meditating in the desert, John was arrested. Saint John in Orthodoxy is considered the most important prayer book for all Christians.
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The Akathist to the Forerunner is read to understand one’s sins and their causes, to bring unbelievers into the Church, and to help prisoners. The author of an ancient prayer compared the Forerunner to a morning star, eclipsing the radiance of other stars, which foreshadows the morning of a sunny day.
Death
The Prophet John severely denounced the crimes of the rulers, calling on them to repent. In particular, he publicly condemned the immoral behavior of the tetrarch of Galilee, Herod Antipas, who was married to Herodias, his niece. Antipas captured the beautiful Herodias from his half-brother, Herod Philip. John appeared at the tyrant’s palace and, right in front of the guests in the banquet hall, accused him of gross violation Jewish laws.
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The tetrarch did not repent, but, on the contrary, arrested the prophet and put him in prison. What to do with him next remained unclear: the execution of such a well-known person among the people could cause unrest among the population of Galilee. But the accusatory speech angered Herod's wife. The publicly insulted woman sought revenge, which she took with the help of her daughter Salome.
At the festival in honor of the birthday of Herod Antipas, Salome danced so beautifully that Herod promised the girl in front of the guests that she would fulfill any of her wishes. Incited by her mother, Salome asked for John's head as a gift. The squire, who was sent to prison, cut off the prophet's head and presented the girl with an eerie gift on a silver platter. Salome gave the head to Herodias, and the servants gave the body to the disciples of the Baptist.
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In memory of these events, the day of the Beheading of John the Baptist is celebrated. IN Orthodox Church This is a day of strict fasting. IN folk tradition Beheading has acquired a number of customs and superstitions: it is forbidden to work with sharp objects, eat round vegetables and fruits, or cut bread. The disciples buried the headless body of John the Baptist in Sebaste, near the tomb of the prophet Elisha, but after that miracles began to happen to the saint’s body.
Around 362, the pagans opened and destroyed the burial, burning the bones and scattering the ashes. However, Christians managed to save some of the relics. In the 10th century, Theodore Daphnopatos told Christians that the Apostle Luke wanted to take his body to Antioch, but the Sebastians allowed only the saint’s right hand to be taken away. Later, the incorruptible Hand of John the Baptist moved to Constantinople, in honor of which a corresponding holiday was established, which is now not popular.
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Herodias hid the prophet's head in the palace chambers, but a maid stole the relic and buried it in a clay jug on the slope of the Mount of Olives. A few years later, while digging a ditch, the servants of the nobleman Innocent found the jug and identified the relic. This event is celebrated by parishioners of the Russian Orthodox Church on February 24, old style. Before his death, Innocent hid the shrine well.
During the years when Emperor Constantine the Great reigned in Jerusalem, two pilgrims accidentally found the head, but the lazy people instructed a fellow traveler to carry the relic. A fellow traveler (a potter by profession) left the monks and became the guardian of the shrine. After his death, the jug with the miraculous head passed to the guardian's sister. Later, the relic went to an Arian priest, who hid the chapter in a cave near Emessa.
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In 452, John appeared in a dream to the archimandrite of a nearby monastery and indicated the place where the head was hidden. The relic was found and transferred to Constantinople. The second Finding of the Head is celebrated simultaneously with the first. During the unrest in Constantinople, the shrine was sent for storage to the city of Emessa, then hidden in Comana during the iconoclastic persecutions.
The embassy of Emperor Michael III in 850, guided by the insights of Patriarch Ignatius, found the head of the saint in Comana. This was the third Finding, celebrated by the Russian Orthodox Church on May 25 according to the Julian calendar. Each holiday has its own canon - the order and list of prayers read during the solemn service by priests.
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The further history of the relic is not precisely known, and now twelve churches are vying for the title of owner of the authentic head of John the Baptist. Also in Christendom there are seven jaws (in addition to heads), eleven index fingers, nine arms and four shoulders. All these relics are considered authentic and perform miraculous healings.
Memory
- 1663 – Joost van den Vondel’s poem “John the Baptist”
- 1770 – the battleship of the Russian Imperial Navy “Chesma” was built, which had the second name “John the Baptist”
- 1864 – poem “Herodias” by Stéphane Mallarmé
- 1877 – story “Herodias”
- 1891 – play “Salome”
Orthodox holidays
- September 23 (October 6) - Conception of John the Baptist
- June 24 (July 7) - Nativity of John the Baptist
- August 29 (September 11) - Beheading of John the Baptist
- 7 (January 20) - Cathedral of John the Baptist
- February 24 (March 8) in a leap year, February 24 (March 9) in a non-leap year - the first and second Finding of the Head of John the Baptist
- May 25 (June 7) – third Finding of the Head of John the Baptist
- 12 (October 25) - Transfer of the Hand of John the Baptist
In 1542, four years before the death of Luther and three years before the beginning of the Council of Trent, in Fontiveros, a small Castilian village, Juan de Yepes was born, whose life and work became, as it were, a living answer - not the only one, but, of course, one of the most profound and decisive ones - which God was pleased to give to the people of that troubled time - the second half of the 16th century. He was called the "mystical Teacher," and he left us the most sublime examples of mystical poetry in Spanish literature.
We talked about a “deep” answer, and indeed, reading the biography of this saint and his works, it is difficult to notice that the Church of his time was gripped by the crisis of Protestantism and crises of other kinds; in his writings there is no mention of the fact that the most severe religious wars were going on in France at that time, that Europeans conquered the New World with fire and sword, that the Inquisition was raging in Spain; they hardly reflected the fierce debates at the Council and after it about the reform of the clergy and monasteries - everything that worried Teresa of Avila to tears, who was almost thirty years older than him and chose him as her first associate in the reform of the old Carmelite Order.
Juan de Yepes, who later adopted the nickname "de la Cruz" (John of the Cross), seems to live in another world: he found himself in everyday life, especially in the life of poor people (he enjoyed working as an apprentice with masons who built and repaired small monasteries , where he happened to live); he found himself in the life of his monastic order, in which he almost always held the position of abbot and responsible for education; he found himself primarily in the matter of spiritual guidance to those who turned to him, asking him to help them convert and love God with all their hearts; however, he lived in a different world, if we talk about those important events, one of the main characters which we would expect to see him.
Let us immediately try to offer some key to his personality and to all his activities, based on the Holy Scriptures (and this is a much more significant and valuable starting point than it seems at first glance).
Every Christian knows that the Bible tells the story of salvation. In other words, about the story of happy love, driven by which. God created man in His image; the story of merciful love with which God condescended to His fallen creation, restoring a covenant with it (first with several of His friends: Abraham, the patriarchs, Moses, and then with all the people); about the history of the coming of the Son of God Himself as the Savior of all humanity, which must gradually become His Bride - the Church, born from the water that flowed from the side of Jesus, pierced on the Cross, the Church, the purpose of which is to constantly be affirmed in marital love for Jesus.
Therefore, the whole sacred history is imbued with the symbolism of marital love, more real than reality itself, and therefore in Christianity the love of a man and a woman becomes a Sacrament, that is, an effective sign, an embodied symbol of another, greater love.
The marriage love of Christ for every creature is a reality. Any other love is just a hint, a sign.
The Christian faith speaks about this: “God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God and God in him.”
What do we find in numerous biblical books? The history of the relationship of creatures with God - a history marked by all events human life: birth and death, successes and failures, peace and war, suffering and joys, sins and redemption, creation and destruction, successes and defeats. The Bible has it all, and its main characters are a wide variety of people: kings and prophets, warriors and sages, rich and poor, saints and sinners, extraordinary and ordinary people.
However, among all the books of Holy Scripture there is one special one, one of a kind, which is like his heart: in it is the explanation and life-giving source of all other books, all other events - this is the Song of Songs.
But if we take this book and read it carefully, what will we find in it? A long, beautiful poem about love: it could be a true story about the love of two young people, it could be a symbolic poem about the endless love of Yahweh for his chosen people, it could be a prophecy of the incarnation of the Son of God, coming to offer us the gift of Himself, Your Body in the Eucharist.
Be that as it may, the Song of Songs is included in our Bible and illuminates it all: both the Old and New Testament, casts its light on the entire Bible, and in its beauty any tragedy finds its resolution.
Something similar—much more “similar” than it appears at first glance—God demanded of Juan de la Cruz at this pivotal, truly unique moment in Church history: He demanded of him to continue and reinterpret the Song of Songs. However, in order for him to read the Bible in a new way, God forced him to live out this poem in his very unique life experience, which was a story of love that imitated and participated in the love of Jesus Crucified.
Having said this, we have already said everything that is essential. We can only move on to the story of the life of Juan de la Cruz. Usually his biographers do not pay enough attention to the sign that was inherent in the very birth of the great mystic.
When Dante decided to write an eternal poem with universal significance, he made a courageous choice. According to the customs of that time, he would have to write this poem in Latin, which at that time was considered the language “eternal and imperishable.” However, he decided to undertake a great task - to tell everything he knows about life in the vernacular, explaining his choice in this way:
“My dear native language was one of the elements of the union of my parents, who spoke it; and as fire heats iron for the blacksmith, who then forges a knife from it, so my native language was involved in my birth and is the co-cause of my being” (Pir. 1, 13).
We must say something similar about the language of love poetry - also the only one of its kind - which will become the language of a modest, humble, homely monk who has reached the extreme degree of mortification. The Song of Songs, which Juan de la Cruz continued during the Church, thus began in his maternal home.
"Maternally" because his father was deprived of the right to give a home to his children.
Gonzalo de Yepes, Juan's father, came from a noble Toledan family. He was engaged in the silk trade, which at that time was a very profitable business. While traveling on business, he met a young beautiful weaver, Catalina Alvarez - she was left an orphan and very poor. He fell in love with her and married her against the wishes of his wealthy parents, who disinherited him. So Gonzalo also became so poor that his young wife had to settle him in her humble home and teach him a trade.
Three children were born: amazing love and peace reigned in the house, but poverty bordered on poverty.
Shortly after Juan was born, his father became seriously ill, and within two years of his illness, the family's last savings were depleted.
When Catherine was left a widow with three children, she did not even have anything to feed them. On foot, carrying two children with her and carrying Juan in her arms, begging, she came to Toledo on foot to ask her husband’s rich relatives for help, but received nothing. The unfortunate family continued to be poor, and subsequently wandered, trying to move to larger cities, where it was easier to get some help.
Francis - the eldest of Catherine's children - had already grown up and began to help the family, her second son Luis died, unable to bear the hardships, and Juan was sent to a college for orphans, where he began to study and at the same time served in a hospital for syphilitics in Medina del Campo.
In the end, things improved for the unfortunate family, and they immediately began to help those who were even poorer: they took an abandoned child into the house and looked after him until his death.
Our story is necessarily short and incomplete, but we must at least try to feel the extraordinary atmosphere that little Juan breathed: an atmosphere imbued with love and suffering, inner wealth and external poverty, but not love, which coexists hard with suffering and poverty, but rich love - the love of a father who accepted poverty for the sake of love and, in turn, enriched by poverty and the love of a mother - and for their children wealth and poverty, love and suffering will forever remain mysteriously connected.
And this is true not only for Juan, but also for Francis, the elder brother, whom Juan loved more “than anyone on earth” throughout his life, and who also became a saint (though less famous) and died in deep old age, at the age of seventy-seven years, having acquired the glory of a man of holy life and a miracle worker.
During his childhood and youth, Juan already possessed all the human and spiritual inclinations, which were sufficient to fulfill the special calling that God had prepared for him.
The outstanding literary critic Damaso Alonzo, commenting on the poems of Juan de la Cruz, asked himself the question of whether he could have possessed such figurative language and such subtle sensitivity if in his youth he had not been smitten at least several times by “a pair of beautiful maiden eyes.” . Here we have before us an attempt to discern in his mystical exaltation the response of earthly experiences. But perhaps the critic forgot that in the story of Juan de la Cruz, the charm of loving eyes demanding reciprocal love was precisely the story of the birth of his own family - something from the Song of Songs was repeated in his youth and became part of his “native language” ".
When Juan was 21 years old, all the experience of love, poverty and wisdom that he had absorbed was embodied in his calling to become a Carmelite friar: to concentrate on the contemplation of God, on prayer and mortification of the flesh, fixing his gaze on the Virgin Mary of Carmel - the most tender example of maternal love - through which all grace is given.
In the education he received in the monastery, the greatest influence on his entire life was undoubtedly the instruction from the order's classic manual on spiritual life, which says: “If you want to take refuge in love and reach the goal of your path, drink from the fountain of contemplation. .., you must avoid not only what is forbidden, but also everything that prevents you from loving even more passionately."
So, for Juan, the years of monasticism began, studying philosophy and theology at the famous University of Salamanca. Teaching was a joy for him, he was gifted with a sharp mind and solid logic, and prayer and asceticism helped him improve in mental and physical life (he chose a small, dark cell for himself only because the choir was visible from its only window, and spent there for long hours, deep in contemplation of the tabernacle).
However, the overly busy university life was difficult to reconcile with the mystical experience of love and the cross, which, by the will of God, marked the birth of Juan and which he could no longer refuse.
Shortly before accepting his ordination, he came to the decision that his vocation was rather in complete seclusion and contemplation, and was going to change the order, but it was then that he met Teresa of Avila. The year was 1567.
The Carmelite nun, gifted with extraordinary charm, was thirty years older than him. Behind her was a long, painful search for a calling. But her soul has calmed down since several years ago she began to reform the Carmelite convents, striving to turn them into a small “heaven on earth”, where a “community of good people” lives, that is, people who help each other already on this earth.” to see God" with the pure eyes of faith, thanks to the fire of mutual love rising to the very heart of God. Striving to make them monasteries that would take upon themselves the responsibility of being and remaining “in the heart of the Church and the world,” monasteries where they pray, where they suffer, where they fight, where they love for everyone and instead of everyone.
Teresa wanted her reform to include the male branch of the order, moreover, she believed that this matter was more important than the reform of the female branch, because men could link together contemplation (the dissolution of the personality in love and the cross) and mission, readiness by will Christ to go to where the Church most needs help and support.
Juan agreed to become her companion and share her fate: he returned to Salamanca to complete his studies and be ordained a priest, while Teresa, meanwhile, began to look for a small monastery for the first reformed Carmelites.
It was she who personally cut and sewed for Juan de la Cruz a poor monastic robe made of coarse wool.
A new life began in Durvel. It was such a lost village that Teresa had to spend the whole day searching for it for the first time.
An old building was adapted into a monastery: in the attic, where one could only stand with one’s head bowed, a choir was built, a chapel was built in the hallway, and in the corners of the choirs there were two cells, so low that the head touched the ceiling. The small kitchen, divided in half, also served as a refectory. Wooden crosses and paper pictures hung on the walls everywhere.
Father Juan installed a large cross on the site in front of the monastery, which was visible from afar to everyone who headed towards them. In the new monastery, the “hermits” led an unusually harsh life, but it was all imbued with deep, intimate tenderness, nourished by long prayers, so concentrated that sometimes the monks did not even notice that they were praying; from the monastery they went to preach to peasants from neighboring villages, deprived of any spiritual nourishment, and to confess to them.
When Teresa first came to visit them, she was deeply touched and, in her words, the small monastery seemed to her “the threshold of Bethlehem.”
Juan - this time by his free choice - again recreated around himself the atmosphere of his childhood, where love was combined with freely chosen suffering and poverty. And his monastic life was so in harmony with his childhood that for some time Juan invited his relatives to live with them: while the brothers preached, his mother Catalina prepared modest food for the community, brother Francis cleaned the rooms and beds, and his brother’s wife Anna did the laundry.
Thus was born Carmel, who conceived and wished to create St. Teresa, and the experience of life in the monastic community was so rich and deep for the brothers that they forever remained faithful to their chosen path.
We cannot now dwell on all the twists and turns of this story, which soon became complex and tragic (in those days, monks who wanted reforms often encountered displeasure and resistance from those who believed that no reform was needed, as often happens in the Church ; and the brother reformers just as often did not show sufficient patience). Let's get to the core of our story.
The end of 1577 was approaching. For almost five years Juan de la Cruz lived in Avila. St. Teresa, who against her will was appointed abbess of a large unreformed Carmelite convent for women (the same monastery from which she had once retired), called Juan de la Cruz to her place to make him her assistant in the matter of spiritual re-education. They worked together, and the troubled monastery, home to more than 130 sisters, gradually became what it was meant to be: a place of prayer and love. But, due to the presence of two great reformers, it also became a place where the discontent of people matured, considering them irrepressible and disobedient adventurers.
At that time, the hierarchy of church authorities was unsettled and contradictory: there was a nuncio, who acted on behalf of the Pope, but there was also a representative of the general of the order, whose authority was also recognized by the Holy See, there were, further, advisers and representatives of King Philip II, who also acted according to Roman customs and powers received from Rome. At some point, it was no longer possible to figure out who should command and who should obey, and how to do it.
Be that as it may, the representative of the general of the order, who was too hastily obeyed by his impatient subordinates, gave the order to seize Juan de la Cruz and throw him into prison.
In those days, the life of the Church was organized in the same way as the life of the kingdom, and in the monasteries there was also a prison cell for disobedient brothers.
However, his brothers treated Juan with unusual cruelty: having tied him up and subjected him to all sorts of humiliations, like Christ taken into custody, they brought him to Toledo, where a large monastery stood on the banks of the Tagus. He was thrown into a small nook, hollowed out in the wall, which sometimes served as a latrine pit and where the light of the sun almost did not penetrate; only through a narrow gap three fingers wide could the neighboring room be seen, and only at noon did Juan manage to read his breviary - the only thing that They left it for him.
There he spent almost nine months on bread and water (sometimes he was given a sardine or half a sardine), wearing only clothes that rotted on his body and which he could not even wash. Every Friday he was beaten on the shoulders with a whip in the main refectory so hard that the scars from the blows did not heal even many years later. He was then showered with reproaches: he was told that he was fighting for reform only because he was striving for power and wanted to be revered as a saint. He was tormented by lice and burned with fever.
St. Teresa, who knew about what was happening, wrote terrible words to King Philip II:
“The Shoed (that is, unreformed Carmelites) seem to fear neither the law nor God.
I am oppressed by the thought that our fathers are in the hands of these people... I would prefer that they were among the Moors, who, perhaps, would be more merciful to them...".
But then a miracle happened: Juan de la Cruz’s deeply personal calling was revealed. God entrusted him with a living commentary on the Song of Songs in the contemporary Church. In the terrible darkness that enveloped him in the deep night of imprisonment, hot, light-filled poems about love are born from the heart of Juan de la Cruz.
They use biblical imagery, but in style and form they belong to the poetry of that time.
He composes them in his mind and creates an unusually rich world of images, symbols, feelings: a world where beauty appears as the cry of the soul seeking Christ, as the Bride seeks her Groom, and becomes an invincible attraction to God, in Christ seeking His creation.
Night - a terrible darkness in captivity, seeking to devour the very soul of the poor, exhausted and persecuted monk (he was given false news to convince him that all was lost and that the work he had begun was lost) - became an inevitable condition in order to set out on the path to the world of God's revelation, leaving behind everything that could distract from this great undertaking.
This is “the great loneliness of all things,” deep silence in which one can hear the very sources of the water of life flowing, descending from God to us, and this flow is a reality - “even if it is night all around.” In the darkness, “even if it’s night all around,” a person still knows that the thirst for water and earth is quenched, that clear water will never become clouded, and that it will ultimately quench the thirst of every creation, even “if it’s night.”
According to Juan de la Cruz, it is the images of night-light-satisfaction of hunger in their interconnection that are revealed to us in two great mysteries: the mystery of the Trinity, the all-encompassing flow of life, and the sacrament of the Eucharist.
It is night: the night when everyone is sleeping, and the prisoner is trying to escape, risking breaking (as Juan himself almost broke, falling from a window onto the rocky shores of the Tagus); a night when “no one sees you” and you yourself don’t see anyone, but a guiding fire burns in your heart, enlightening you better than “sunlight at noon.”
During these terrible months, in the darkness of his prison, Juan thus begins his journey in the biblical world of God's Revelation, as if God had transported him there by the power of grace and made him one of the main characters of the Bible.
Like the psalmist, he feels like an exile, sitting on the rivers of Babylon, where everyone demands from him songs of joy, which he can no longer sing.
“On the rivers that I contemplated in Babylon, I sat and wept, and watered the earth with tears, remembering you, Zion, my homeland, which I loved so much.”
Juan, grieving in exile, also remembers his homeland, but in the Old Testament verses the news of the resurrection of Christ sounds to him:
"And I was wounded by the love that struck my heart. I asked love to kill me, if its wounds were so deep. I ordered the fire to engulf me, knowing how it burns. In myself I was dying, and only in You did I find breath. Again and again "again, because of You, I died, and because of You, I was resurrected. It was enough to cry out to You in order to lose and gain life."
The unfortunate prisoner, called to see the luminous revelation, also composes romances in which the somewhat monotonous rhyme serves as evidence of how difficult it was for the memory to string one verse after another so as not to forget them. In the form of a romance, Juan puts the beginning of the Gospel of St. John: “In the beginning was the Word,” presenting it in the form of a love-filled dialogue between God the Father and the Son, and the story of the Gospels about the birth of Jesus.
The whole gospel story appears as a marriage celebration arranged by the Father, who gives His creation to the Son, and as a marriage gift of the Son, giving His body as a sacrifice in order to redeem it and return it to the Father. At the center of this celebration is Mary (the last words of the romances are about this): Mary, looking in amazement at something wonderful and hitherto unprecedented: God, who has become a child, cries with human tears, and man experiences the joy of God in his soul.
But the best of Juan’s poems is the famous Spiritual Song, which he himself was not afraid to compare with the Song of Solomon, admitting that he wrote it inspired by the Holy Spirit, and he himself could not interpret it, so rich are its lines in “abundant mystical wisdom”: "Who can describe what He makes the loving souls in whom He dwells feel? And who can express in words what He makes them feel? And the desires that He puts in? Of course, no one can do this, not even man himself , with whom all this is happening."
Juan, in his own words, became one of those people who “from the abounding Spirit give away hidden secrets.” Even on a psychological level, it is difficult to explain how a person imprisoned in prison, brought to the last degree of physical exhaustion, can find within himself the source of such pure, clear, fiery, life-filled poetry, so rich in colors, sounds, memories, desires, suffering, impatient aspirations .
Here are just a few lines: -
“Everyone rants, talking about Your great grace-filled gifts, and they hurt me more and more, leaving me, faded, with something they mutter about...”
- “O crystal-clear source, if only in your silvery reflections I could suddenly see the desired eyes, the image of which is deeply imprinted in my soul!”
- “My beloved is like hills, deserted valleys overgrown with dense forests, deserted glades, babbling springs, the gentlest rustling of the breeze... A rested night when it turns to the light of dawn, muffled music sounding in the desert, a meal that strengthens and awakens love.” .
- “If you can no longer hear me, if you can neither see nor find me, say that I was lost, that I fell in love and, wandering, wanted to destroy myself and was conquered.”
This is the song of a soul in love, literally continuing and picking up - in New Testament and church images - the Song of Songs, and also containing echoes of numerous commentaries that the Church Fathers dedicated to this brilliant and mysterious book.
When nine months later, on the eve of the Feast of the Ascension, Juan de la Cruz managed to escape from prison at night, risking his death on the rocky shores of the Tagus, he found refuge in a Carmelite convent in Toledo (remember that in contemplative monasteries the Church preserves a living, venerable image of the Bride of Christ) , and then - in the Beas monastery.
When he entered the reception room, the nuns were amazed by his appearance. They said: “He looked like a dead man - skin and bones, and was so emaciated that he could hardly speak, he was emaciated and pale, like a corpse. He spent several days withdrawn into himself and spoke surprisingly little.”
To encourage him and break the oppressive silence, the abbess (to whom Juan later dedicated a commentary on his Spiritual Song) ordered two young novices to sing several verses of spiritual chants.
It was a sad tune composed by a hermit. It contained the words: “He who has not experienced sorrow in this vale of tears has never tasted good and has never tasted love, for sorrow is the vestment of lovers.”
And this is what two young nuns say about what happened:
“His grief was so great that copious tears flowed from his eyes and streamed down his face... With one hand he leaned on the bars, and with the other he made a sign to stop singing.”
But what struck them most was why Juan was crying. He told them that he "grieved that God sent him little suffering so that he could truly taste the love of God."
Many years later, when the same abbess reminded him of the time spent in prison, Juan, quietly shaking his head, said to her: “Anna, my daughter, none of those grace-filled gifts that God sent me there can be paid for with just a prison sentence.” imprisonment (“carcelilla”), even for many years.”
And this “only” means that the small, suffocating prison in his consciousness and memories became something small and insignificant compared to the miracle that happened there!
We do not have the opportunity to talk in detail about all the events that marked the life of Juan de la Cruz.
After the Toledo prison he had only fourteen years to live, and during all this time he was the abbot of numerous monasteries and enjoyed universal love and respect, although he was always kept in the background. His spiritual guidance was sought primarily by those who asked him to direct their path to God.
Everyone who loved him testifies to what seems almost impossible to us: on the one hand, Juan bore the burden of the Cross in all its weight (the Cross as asceticism, mortification, strict observance of rules, severe demands on himself and on others), on the other On the other hand, in his presence the atmosphere of resurrection was vividly and clearly felt - tenderness, gentleness, understanding, the ability to make even the most difficult and bitter path attractive and desirable.
“A soul in love,” Juan wrote, “is a soul that is tender, soft, humble and patient.”
This is the mysterious connection of an insignificant creation with the Creator of the universe, but in studies devoted to the life experience and works of this saint, insufficient attention was paid and it was not well enough understood that we are not talking about his “system”, but about his deep mystical experience experiences of the Paschal mystery: the mystery of Golgotha (prison), from which the Word was resurrected as inspired, life-giving poetry.
Juan teaches everyone that death can also mean life, while sometimes life is what is actually death.
Juan de la Cruz is famous for having simultaneously achieved two heights that are outwardly opposite to each other: the highest beauty in his poetic works and the highest ascetic severity in commentaries on his own poetry. However, this external contradiction can be understood and correctly interpreted only by reflecting on how these two worlds merged, first in his childhood, and then in the beginning and flowering of his manhood.
Meanwhile, Juan continued to attract souls who wanted to taste and experience his mystical experience - the experience of perceiving the Church as the Bride of Christ.
The monasteries founded by Teresa and living by her spirit and according to her will naturally sought to have Juan de la Cruz as their mentor. And it was for their sake that he agreed, so to speak, to reveal an extraordinary and amazing mystical experience from which his spiritual mentoring was born.
Since the people closest to him asked for this, he devoted the rest of his life to trying to explain and comment on his poetic word, using all his knowledge, including theological, making every possible attempt to give a theological, philosophical, psychological analysis of his poems (and Juan was gifted with an extraordinary logical mind), trying to explain the inexpressible.
So he agreed - out of love for the Bride of Christ - to impoverish his own imperishable poetry, reducing it to ideas, principles and conclusions.
We say “impoverish” because we are talking about attempts to belittle the biblical and poetic power of his words, inspired by the Holy Spirit, although from a cultural and historical point of view his treatises, of course, are of interest, because they are marked by talent and intellectual power.
This is how Juan composed his famous ascetic treatises.
Continuing to comment on the spiritual song imbued with the light of poetry, composed in prison, he paradoxically, being free, composed a new poem in which he returned to a terrible and captivating experience - to the memory of the Night when it was necessary to undertake a dangerous escape in search of Love. This new poetic work is also commented on, almost simultaneously with the first, in two famous treatises: The Ascent of Mount Carmel and The Dark Night, which are two parts of one work.
Thus, the comments are already intertwined with each other at their birth, and it is impossible either to separate them or to give any of them undisputed preference: death and resurrection alternate in a certain rhythm, but the soul entering the Paschal mystery must simultaneously become like the living Christ crucified and the resurrected one, and what He demands from her and imprints in her finds its gradual expression and explanation only in Love.
Thus, even the style of the treatises written by Juan de la Cruz, filled with a strange, incomprehensible harmony, testifies to the fact that in them a person comes into contact with an inexpressible secret.
For Juan de la Cruz it was quite painful work. As far as possible, he develops his ideas, although he never managed to penetrate into the depths of his own poetry, his own images and insights. He encloses his ideas within the framework of rigid schemes, although he never manages to give them a comprehensive and intelligible presentation. He "explains" by trying to introduce clear distinctions, to follow all the trains of thought, and ultimately getting entangled in them. Sometimes he goes into too detailed explanations and lengthy digressions, sometimes he is too brief. He comments on poetry in prose writings, noting that the iron logic of prose forces him even to change the order in which poetry was originally poured out. He rewrites the comments repeatedly, unsatisfied with them, and finally ends them abruptly.
Even his great last treatise, a treatise on poetry called "The Living Flame of Love" - also revised twice - in the first edition ends abruptly at the point where Juan tries to comment on the beautiful line from his poem when the soul says to the Holy Spirit: "How tender Thou art You draw me to You!" And the comment ends almost unexpectedly:
"... The Holy Spirit fills the soul with kindness and glory, thus drawing it towards Himself, plunging it into the depths of God more than can be described or felt. Therefore, I end here."
In the second edition, he had to soften and correct the end: "Drawing her to Himself more than can be expressed or felt, plunging her into the depths of God, to Whom is honor and glory. Amen."
It is necessary to clarify: Juan de la Cruz’s theological commentary on his own poetic works is marked by extraordinary depth and brilliance, but von Balthasar is right when he wrote: “Everything is beautiful and true, but how hopelessly lame is the interpretation, not keeping pace with the vision! (...) Juan He is absolutely right when he speaks of his doctrinal writings as an obscure commentary on his poetry, inferior to it.”
Perhaps the words spoken by Juan de la Cruz himself about the heavenly Father, Who, having spoken His Word, would not want to continue to be questioned further, are appropriate here:
“If in My Word, that is, in My Son, I have told you the whole truth, and if I have no other revelation for you, how can I answer you or reveal anything else? Fix your gaze on Him alone: in Him I have spoken and He has revealed all things to you, and in Him you will find even more than you ask and desire" (2S 22:5).
The Holy Spirit once again breathed into Juan de la Cruz the revealed word of the Song of Songs, placing its echo in his heart and his poetry. And, drawing a fair analogy, Juan feels that, having uttered the words of Love, there is no need to ask or add anything.
We might think that here man has already reached the pinnacle of his spiritual experience, but the Bible teaches us that no man, while he is alive, can say that he has fully comprehended the mystery of the Cross and Resurrection: “I complete in my flesh, - said St. Paul, - the lack of the sorrows of Christ."
Thus, both at the beginning of his life and in its prime, and at the end of his days, Juan de la Cruz again found himself confronted with the mystery of death and resurrection to which he had devoted himself.
Due to a malicious misunderstanding, some of his brethren - this time not the brothers who rejected the reform, but his own "barefoot" brethren, whom he raised, whom he loved as his children, whom he was proud to call them " the best people Churches" rebelled against him.
Many rallied around him, defending him, but the few who hated him had power and some of them even tried to cut him loose and expel him from the Order.
But in those painful days, no one managed to hear a word of reproof or self-defense from Juan. Only once did the brothers hear him quietly read a verse from the psalm: “My mother’s brothers fought against me.”
When Juan was deprived of all his posts, he began to lead a quiet daily life, as always, working joyfully and humbly. In one of the letters written in those days, he says:
“This morning we collected chickpeas. In a few days we will thresh them. It is good to take these dead creatures in our hands, better than to be a tool in the hands of living creatures” (P. 25).
These are the only words he spoke about the terrible injustice of which he became a victim: he was slandered in the most offensive manner, the nuns were intimidated, forcing them to accuse him of immoral behavior.
But this is not about philosophical apathy or arrogant contempt: he suffered cruelly, but did not blame anyone and did not defend himself.
One day one of the brothers, who was very attached to him, said to him with tears in his eyes: “My father, what persecution is Father Diego Evangelist subjecting you to!” It would seem that it would be possible to relieve his soul here, but then Juan would have to say bitter words about who was his senior in the order. He looked at his young brother, whom he had taught so many times to obey in the faith, and said to him: “Your words caused me much more severe pain than all the persecution!”
He advised one nun, who also wrote to him about what was happening: “Don’t think about anything other than the fact that everything was prepared by God. And bring love where there is no love, and they will answer you with love.”
When everything was going well, in one of his short works called Warnings, Juan de la Cruz taught: “Treat your superior with no less reverence than you do God, for God Himself put him in this place!”
By then, several years had passed since Juan de la Cruz wrote his last work. The Living Flame of Love, which he edited in the last months of his life.
Love, which connects God with His creation and creation with God, no longer appears as a path to a goal, not as a passionate desire, but as an undivided, fiery possession: the Holy Spirit Himself unites with the soul and burns in it until both of them will not merge into a single flame.
And this is by no means an idle state, but a “triumph of the Holy Spirit,” celebrated “in the very depths of the soul,” filled with all kinds of joy, awe, burning, splendor, and glorification.
This is the most passionate love embrace that is possible on earth, embracing all that exists: God, so to speak, awakens in the soul, and the entire created world awakens in it: only the thinnest veil separates creation from eternal life- a cover that is about to break.
Like the Easter mystery, it remains a mystery to us how the most sublime and joyful mystical experiences were combined in the heart of Juan with the humiliating everyday experience of betrayal, reproach, physical and moral suffering.
At the age of 49, Juan became seriously ill: an incurable tumor developed on the instep of his leg. He was asked to choose a monastery where he would be looked after, and he chose the only monastery where the abbot was extremely unkind towards him: he allocated him the poorest and narrowest cell, did not care about delivering the necessary medicines to him, and more than once reproached him with pitiful expenses for treatment and did not allow friends to visit him.
The disease spread throughout the body, which was covered with ulcers. To the doctor who treated Juan, scraping out the living bone, it seemed that it was impossible to suffer so much and so humbly.
Juan accepted suffering undividedly: the fact that he achieved such a deep unity with God, the fact that he was “transformed by love,” could not and should not in any way diminish his imitation of the passions of Christ Crucified.
And he “got into character” so much that when they were treating a wound on his leg, looking at it, he was moved, because it seemed to him that he saw the pierced leg of Christ.
But death was approaching: Friday December 13, 1591 arrived. Juan was convinced that he would die at dawn on Saturday, the day dedicated to the Blessed Virgin of Carmel.
The evening before, he had reconciled with his superior: with a spontaneity that is even difficult for us to imagine, he asked to be called and said to him: “My Father, I beg Your Reverence for the sake of Christ to give me the vestment of the Blessed Virgin, which I wore, since I am poor and I’m poor and I won’t have anything to bury me in.”
The shocked abbot blessed him and left the cell. Then they saw him crying, “as if he had woken up from a lethargic, mortal sleep.”
In the evening, Juan asked to bring him the Eucharist, whispering words filled with tenderness, and when the holy communion was taken away, he said: “Lord, from now on I will not see You with my bodily eyes.”
Night was approaching, and Juan assured that he would “go to sing Matins in heaven.”
At about half-past twelve, the monastic brethren gathered at his bedside, and Juan asked to read De profundis: he began to read a psalm, and the monks answered him verse for verse. Then they began to read penitential psalms.
The provincial old father Antonio also came to Juan - he was 81 years old - with whom he laid the foundation for Durvel. Father Antonio thought that a reminder of all of Juan's labors for the reform of the order would bring him relief. “My father,” Juan answered him, “now is not the time to talk about this; only for the sake of the merits of the Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ do I hope for salvation.”
We began to read prayers for the dying. Juan interrupted them, saying: “I don’t need this, my father, read something from the Song of Songs.” And while the verses from this poem about love sounded in the dying man’s cell, Juan, enchanted, sighed: “What precious pearls!”
At midnight the bells rang for matins, and as soon as the dying man heard them, he joyfully exclaimed: “Thanks be to God, I will go to sing His praises in heaven!”
Then he looked intently at those present, as if saying goodbye to them, kissed the crucifix and said in Latin: “Lord, into Your hands I commend my spirit.”
So he died, and those present at his death said that a gentle light and a strong fragrance filled the cell.
And this was not a deceptive impression, because already fourteen years earlier, when he was languishing in the Toledo prison, his dungeon was filled with light, fragrance, wonderful images: everything that was needed to write poetry about love.
Thus Juan de la Cruz fulfilled his mission. By the special grace of God, Juan, like no one else in the history of the Church, gave his entire existence, his life experience, his flesh to the Word of God, so that it would once again sound as the Word of Love, including in verse.
And the flesh became the Word, responding with love to the Word who became flesh.
In conclusion, let us re-read one of the most beautiful pages written by Juan de la Cruz - the page with which he ends the Prayer of a Soul in Love:
"Why do you hesitate so long, although you can instantly love God in your heart? My heavens and my earth. My people. My righteous and my sinners. My angels and my Mother of God. All that exists is mine. God Himself is mine and for me, because Christ is mine and He is all for my sake.
What do you ask and what do you seek, my soul? All this is yours, and all for your sake.
Do not dwell on the unimportant and do not be content with the crumbs that fall from your Father’s table. Come out and be proud of your glory! Hide in it and enjoy it, and you will receive what your heart asks for."
Antonio Sicari. Portraits of Saints
Saint Juan de la Cruz
Prayer of a loving soul.
The earth and the sky belong to me, all people are mine - righteous and sinners; my angels and the Mother of God, and all my things, and God Himself is mine and for me, for Christ is mine; and everything in the world was created for me. So what do you ask and seek, my soul? You own it all, and it's all for you. Do not strive for anything less, do not pay attention to the crumbs that fall from the table of the Lord. Go out and rejoice in your paradise, take refuge in it and enjoy,
and you will find what you want.
CLIMBING MOUNT CARMEL
Fragment of the treatise
Jordan Omann
from book
"CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY IN THE CATHOLIC TRADITION"
It is impossible to talk about St. Teresa of Avila, without turning her thoughts to her great companion St. John of the Cross. They were so closely interconnected in life, in activity and in teaching that they are certainly the pillars on which the Carmelite school of spirituality stands. St. John of the Cross (1542-1591) is not known and read as widely as he deserves, and there are several reasons for this: he wrote for those whose souls had already advanced on the path of perfection; his teaching on detachment and purification seems too strict to some Christians; his language, often too refined and esoteric, is not to the taste of modern readers. However, his works and the works of St. Teresa complements each other so perfectly that one can best come to an understanding of one through studying the other. There is, of course, a significant difference between them, but it concerns not the essence, but the approach.
To understand St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa, it is necessary to understand the state of Christianity in sixteenth-century Spain. People who claimed to have received revelations, visions and other unusual mystical experiences were admired; We were looking for such people. Some of them really sought to acquire these wonderful gifts; others clearly imitated stigmata or visions simply to influence believers. Illuminism, which reached enormous proportions, especially in monastic monasteries that allowed indulgences, acted as a means leading to higher holiness and not requiring ascetic deeds and efforts in acquiring virtues. They were rejected as interfering or as absolutely unnecessary for direct connection in the mystical experience of communication with All methods of religious practice developed and officially approved by God. Pseudomysticism became the object of careful study by the Spanish Inquisition, which managed to control the situation, sacrificing, however, the development of genuine, orthodox spirituality.502 If we do not take into account the situation that developed in Spain in the sixteenth century, then we can mistakenly interpret certain provisions of the works of St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross.
Born in the town of Fontiveros, near Avila, Juan de Iepez, St. John of the Cross (1542-1591) was only a few months old when his father died. The family, squeezed by the grip of poverty, moved to the city of Medina del Campo, where John tried different professions, and from 1559 to 1563. attended a Jesuit school. At twenty-one he joined the Carmelite Order and was sent to Salamanca to receive theological education. Returning to Medina del Campo to celebrate his first Mass, John met St. Teresa of Avila. At the time, he seriously considered defecting to the Carthusians, but Teresa convinced him to join the reformed Carmel.
The first men's monastery of the reformed Carmelites was founded in Duruelo; the founding fathers were John and Anthony of Jesus. For several years, John of the Cross carried out various duties: mentor of the novitiate, rector of the college in Alcala, confessor of the Carmelites at the Monastery of the Annunciation in Avila. It was in Avila that he was kidnapped (1577) and imprisoned by the Shoed Carmelites in their monastery in Toledo.
After escaping from Toledo, John spent most of the rest of his life in Andalusia and was elected to various important positions. However, at the provincial chapter held in 1591 in Madrid, John openly expressed disagreement with the vicar general Nicholas Doria, who immediately deprived John of all positions. Humiliated, but rejoicing at the opportunity to return to the solitude and concentration of St. John of the Cross ended his days in Úbeda, where he died after much suffering. He was canonized in 1726 by Pope Benedict XIII, and in 1926 Pope Pius XI declared him a Doctor of the Church.503
The main works of St. John of the Cross - Ascent of Carmel (1579-1585); Dark Night of the Soul (1582-1585); Song of the Spirit (1584 - first edition, second - between 1586-1591); Living Flame of Love XCII (first edition between 1585-1587, second - between 1586-1591). All these works are commentaries on St.'s own poems. John of the Cross; the first two treatises were never completed. It is generally accepted, however, that these two treatises Ascension - Dark Night are devoted to the same theme, the theme of the separation of active and passive purification of the senses and spiritual faculties.504
During the years of study of St. John of the Cross in Salamanca, his studies there were carried out in line with Thomistic theology, but he also became acquainted with the works of Pseudo-Dionysius and St. Gregory the Great. However, the greatest influence on John seems to have been Tauler, although it is quite possible that he also knew the works of St. Bernard, Ruysbroeck, Cassian, the Victorians, Osuna and, of course, St. Teresa of Avila.505 Nevertheless, John of the Cross did not imitate anyone; his works, each in its own way, are distinguished by their special originality.
The fundamental principle of the theology of St. John is to affirm that God is everything and man is nothing. Therefore, in order to achieve perfect union with God, which is what holiness consists of, it is necessary to subject all the faculties and powers of soul and body to intense and deep purification. In Ascension - Dark Night, the process of purification can be traced completely - from the active purification of external senses to the passive purification of higher abilities; The Living Flame and the Song of the Spirit describe the perfect spiritual life in transformative union. The entire path to union is “night,” for the soul travels along it only by faith. St. John of the Cross presents his teaching systematically, so that the result is mystical theology in its best understanding, not because it is systematic, but because its sources are Holy Scripture, theology and personal experience.
Speaking about the union of the soul with God, St. John emphasizes that we are talking about a supernatural union, and not about that general union in which God appears to the soul when he simply supports its existence. The supernatural union characteristic of the mystical life is the “union in likeness,” accomplished in grace and love. However, in order for this union to reach its highest perfection and highest degree of intimacy, the soul must get rid of everything that is not God and everything that limits the love of God, so that it can love God with all its heart, soul, mind and strength.
Since any damage to the union of love comes from the soul, and not from God, then St. John concludes that the soul must undergo a complete purification of all its faculties and powers - both sensory and spiritual - before it can be fully illuminated by the light of divine union. Following this comes the “dark night,” a state whose name is determined by the fact that the starting point is the refusal and renunciation of the attraction to the created, the desire for the created; the means or way by which the soul advances towards union is faith in darkness; the goal of the path is God, Whom man also imagines in earthly life as a dark night.506
The need to go through this dark night is due to the fact that, from the point of view of God, human attachment to created things is absolute darkness, while God is the purest light, and darkness cannot comprehend the light (John 1:5). In the language of philosophy, the coexistence of two opposites in one subject is impossible. Darkness, an attribute of creatures, and light, which is God, are opposites; they cannot be in the soul at the same time.
Then St. John goes on to explain how the soul should mortify its passions or lusts and how it should, through faith, carry out an active purification of the senses and spirit. And although the treatment may seem unpleasant and strictly ascetic, St. John always tries to make it clear that this purification or poverty does not consist in the absence of created things, but in the renunciation of them, in the eradication of the desire to possess them and attachment to them.507 St. John gives a simple method for achieving purification: have a constant desire to imitate Christ; and for imitation, study the life and works of Christ and do as He did.508
In the second book of the Ascension of St. John speaks of the active night of the spirit. He states that the purification of the mind, memory and will is accomplished through the operation of the virtues of faith, hope and love, and then explains how faith is the dark night through which the soul must pass to unite with God. Turning further to prayer practice, St. John names three signs by which the soul can recognize its transition from meditation to contemplative prayer. Firstly, it is no longer possible to meditate in the usual way; secondly, there is no desire to focus separately on something specific; thirdly, an irresistible attraction to God and to solitude arises. A person experiences “awareness of God in love,” and this is what contemplative prayer consists of.509
Passive purification is explained in the Dark Night. At this stage, God stops the soul’s activity of self-purification in the area of feelings and spiritual abilities. The soul is gradually immersed in the contemplation of darkness, which Pseudo-Dionysius described as the “Ray of Darkness”, and St. John calls “mystical theology.”510 And although one might expect that mystical contemplation is delightful, St. John says that it causes torment, and the reason for this is that the divine light of contemplation, striking a soul that has not yet achieved complete purification, plunges it into spiritual darkness, for it not only exceeds human understanding, but also deprives the soul of the ability to think.
Nevertheless, even in this darkness and painful contemplation, the soul discerns the rays that signal the approach of dawn. In the Song of the Holy Spirit John describes the soul's restless search for God and the final meeting in love, using the image of a bride searching for a groom and ultimately entering into a perfect union of mutual love. God attracts the soul to Himself as a powerful magnet attracts metal particles; the soul’s approach to God accelerates all the time, until everything else is left behind and it enjoys that highest intimate union with God that is available in this life: the mystical marriage of a transforming union.
Then, in the Living Flame of Love, St. John describes sublimated perfect love in a state of transformative union. The union of the soul with God is so intimate that it surprisingly resembles a beatific vision, so reminiscent that “only a thin veil separates it.” The soul asks that the Holy Spirit now rip the veil of mortal life, that the soul may enter into full and perfect glory. The soul comes so close to God that it is transformed into the flame of love, communing with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. She enjoys the anticipation of eternal life.511
And it should not be considered as incredible that in a soul that has already been tested, purified and tested in the fire of suffering, trials and the most varied temptations, and recognized as faithful in love, the promise of the Son of God will be fulfilled, the promise that Holy Trinity will come and make her home in everyone who loves Her (John 14:23). The Most Holy Trinity dwells in the soul through the divine illumination of the mind of the soul by the wisdom of the Son, through the delight of the will in the Holy Spirit and its enthrallment into the delightful, sweet embrace of the Father.512
St. Teresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross, together, gave the Church spiritual teaching, which was never surpassed. Their influence was so great and their writing was so brilliant that they eclipsed all other authors of the golden age of Spanish spirituality.