Jean de la Croix
1542-1591 16th century Feast day: December 14
Poetry forged in the dark, a map of the soul's darkest nights toward union with God, fidelity to reform even when it cost him everything.
Who was Jean de la Croix?
A Spanish Carmelite of the 16th century, he was locked in a tiny prison cell by his own brothers for nine months over a dispute about reform, fed almost nothing, beaten regularly, and it was there, in the dark, that he composed some of the greatest mystical poetry ever written in Spanish. He escaped, kept writing, kept reforming, and left behind a map of the soul's journey through darkness toward union with God that still reads like it was written yesterday.
In their own words
In the evening of life, we will be judged on love alone.