Feast of St. John of the Cross

“At the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love.” (St. John of the Cross)

Double (1954 Calendar): November 24

St. John of the Cross was born in 1542 in Spain near the city of Avila.  At the age of 21, he entered the Carmelite Order.  The young St. John felt drawn to the Carthusian Order but he was asked by St. Teresa of Avila to help her in the restoration of the primitive Carmelite Rule of Life.

After John established several monasteries of Discalced Carmelites, those opposed to the reform had him imprisoned at Toledo. During the nine months of his imprisonment, he wrote many of the poems and prose works that have made him one of the foremost authorities on mysticism in the West.

St. John asked God for suffering, and he received an abundance of both physical and spiritual torment right up to his death in 1591. May he pray for us now!

For a complete summary of his life, see my Book Review of Saint John of the Cross by Father Paschasius Heriz.

For a summary of St. John of the Cross' masterpiece "Dark Night of the Soul" please click here. 

Collect:

O God, who blessed the holy confessor and doctor John with a spirit of complete self-denial and a deep love of the cross, grant that we may always follow his example and thus attain to eternal glory. Though Our Lord . . .