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MOUNT CARMEL
by
Saint John of the Cross
DOCTOR
OF THE CHURCH
THIRD REVISED EDITION
Translated and edited,
with a General Introduction,
by
E.
ALLISON PEERS
from the critical
edition of
P.
SILVERIO DE SANTA TERESA, C.D.
NIHIL OBSTAT: CEORGIUS
SMITH, S.T.D., PH.D.
CENSOR DEPUTATUS
IMPRIMATUR: E. MORROGH
BERNARD
VICARIUS GENERALIS
WESTMONASTERII: DIE
XXIV SEPTEMBRIS MCMLII
TO THE
DISCALCED CARMELITES
OF CASTILE,
WITH ABIDING MEMORIES
OF THEIR HOSPITALITY AND KINDNESS
IN MADRID, AVILA AND
BURGOS,
BUT ABOVE ALL
OF THEIR DEVOTION TO
SAINT JOHN OF
THE CROSS,
I DEDICATE THIS
TRANSLATION
CONTENTS
Translator's
Preface to the Second edition
Principal
Abbreviations
An
Outline of the Life of St. John of the Cross
General
Introduction to the Works of St. John of the Cross
ASCENT
OF MOUNT CARMEL
Introduction
Argument
Prologue
BOOK
I
Chapter
I.- Sets down the first stanza. Describes
two different nights through which spiritual persons pass, according
to the two parts of man, the lower and the higher. Expounds the stanza
which follows
Chapter
II.- Explains the nature of this dark night
through which the soul says that it has passed on the road to union
Chapter
III.- Speaks of the first cause of this
night, which is that of the privation of the desire in all things,
and gives the reason for which it is called night
Chapter
IV.- Wherein is declared how necessary
it is for the soul truly to pass through this dark night of sense,
which is mortification of desire, in order that it may journey to
union with God
Chapter
V.- Wherein the aforementioned subject
is treated and continued, and it is shown by passages and figures
from Holy Scripture how necessary it is for the soul to journey to
God through this dark night of the mortification of desire in all
things
Chapter
VI.- Wherein are treated two serious evils
caused in the soul by the desires, the one evil being privative and
the other positive
Chapter
VII.- Wherein is shown how the desires
torment the soul. This is proved likewise by comparisons and quotations
Chapter
VIII.- Wherein is shown how the desires
darken and blind the soul
Chapter
IX.- Wherein is described how the desires
defile the soul. This is proved by comparisons and quotations from
Holy Scripture
Chapter
X.- Wherein is described how the desires
weaken the soul in virtue and make it lukewarm
Chapter
XI.- Wherein it is proved necessary that
the soul that would attain to Divine union should be free from desires,
however slight they be
Chapter
XII.- Which treats of the answer to another
question, explaining what the desires are that suffice to cause the
evils aforementioned in the soul
Chapter
XIII.- Wherein is described the manner
and way which the soul must follow in order to enter this night of
sense
Chapter
XIV.- Wherein is expounded the second line
of the stanza
Chapter
XV.- Wherein are expounded the remaining
lines of the aforementioned stanza
Book
I Footnotes
BOOK
II
Chapter
I
Chapter
II.- Which begins to treat of the second
part of cause of this night, which is faith. Proves by two arguments
how it is darker than the first and then the third
Chapter
III.- How faith is dark night to the soul.
This is proved with arguments and quotations and figures from Scripture
Chapter
IV.- Treats in general of how the soul
likewise must be in darkness, in so far as this rests with itself,
to the end that it may be effectively guided by faith to the highest
contemplation
Chapter
V.- Wherein is described what is meant
by union of the soul with God. A comparison is given
Chapter
VI.- Wherein is described how it is the
three theological virtues that perfect the three faculties of the
soul, and how the said virtues produce emptiness and darkness within
them
Chapter
VII.- Wherein is described how strait is
the way that leads to eternal life and how completely detached and
disencumbered must be those that will walk in it. We begin to speak
of the detachment of the understanding
Chapter
VIII.- Which describes in a general way
how no creature and no knowledge that can be comprehended by the
understanding can serve as a proximate means of Divine union with
God
Chapter
IX.- How faith is the proximate and proportionate
means of the understanding whereby the soul may attain to the Divine
union of love. This is proved by passages and figures from Divine
Scripture
Chapter
X.- Wherein distinction is made between
all apprehensions and types of knowledge which can be comprehended
by the understanding
Chapter
XI.- Of the hindrance and harm that may
be caused by apprehensions of the understanding which proceed from
that which is supernaturally represented to the outward bodily senses;
and how the soul is to conduct itself therein
Chapter
XII.- Which treats of natural imaginary
apprehensions. Describes their nature and proves that they cannot
be a proportionate means of attainment to union with God. Shows the
harm which results from inability to detach one self from them
Chapter
XIII.- Wherein are set down the signs which
the spiritual person will find in himself whereby he may know at
what season it behoves him to leave meditation and reasoning and
pass to the state of contemplation
Chapter
XIV.- Wherein is proved the fitness of
these signs, and the reason is given why that which has been said
in speaking of them is necessary to progress
Chapter
XV.- Wherein is explained how it is sometimes
well for progressives who are beginning to enter upon this general
knowledge of contemplation to make use of natural reasoning and the
work of the natural faculties
Chapter
XVI.- Which treats of the imaginary apprehensions
that are supernaturally represented in the fancy. Describes how they
cannot serve the soul as a proximate means to union with God
Chapter
XVII.- Wherein is described the purpose
and manner of God in His communication of spiritual blessings to
the soul by means of the senses. Herein is answered the question
which has been referred to
Chapter
XVIII.- Which treats of the harm that certain
spiritual masters may do to souls when they direct them not by a
good method with respect to the visions aforementioned. Describes
also how these visions may cause deception even though they be of
God.
Chapter
XIX.- Wherein is expounded and proved how,
although visions and locutions which come from God are true, we may
be deceived about them. This is proved by quotations from Divine
Scripture
Chapter
XX.- Wherein is proved by passages from
Scripture how the sayings and words of God, though always true, do
not always rest upon stable causes.
Chapter
XXI.- Wherein is explained how at times,
although God answers the prayers that are addressed to Him, He is
not pleased that we should use such methods. It is also shown how,
although He condescend to us and answer us, He is oftentimes wroth
Chapter
XXII.- Wherein is solved a difficulty - namely,
why it is not lawful, under the law of grace, to ask anything of
God by supernatural means, as it was under the old law. This solution
is proved by a passage from Saint Paul
Chapter
XXIII.- Which begins to treat of the apprehensions
of the understanding that come in a purely spiritual way, and describes
their nature
Chapter
XXIV.- Which treats of two kinds of spiritual
vision that come supernaturally
Chapter
XXV.- Which treats of revelations, describing
their nature and making a distinction between them
Chapter
XXVI.- Which treats of the intuition of
naked truths in the understanding, explaining how they are of two
kinds and how the soul is to conduct itself with respect to them
Chapter
XXVII.- Which treats of the second kind
of revelation, namely, the disclosure of hidden secrets. Describes
the way in which these may assist the soul toward union with God,
and the way in which they may be a hindrance; and how the devil may
deceive the soul greatly in this matter
Chapter
XXVIII.- Which treats of interior locutions
that may come to the spirit supernaturally. Says of what kinds they
are
Chapter
XXIX.- Which treats of the first kind of
words that the recollected spirit sometimes forms within itself.
Describes the cause of these and the profit and the harm which there
may be in them
Chapter
XXX.- Which treats of the interior words
that come to the spirit formally by supernatural means. Warns the
reader of the harm which they may do and of the caution that is necessary
in order that the soul may not be deceived by them
Chapter
XXXI.- Which treats of the substantial
words that come interiorly to the spirit. Describes the difference
between them and formal words, and the profit which they bring and
the resignation and respect which the soul must observe with regard
to them
Chapter
XXXII.- Which treats of the apprehensions
received by the understanding from interior feelings which come supernaturally
to the soul. Describes their cause, and the manner wherein the soul
must conduct itself so that they may not obstruct its road to union
with God
Book
II Footnotes
BOOK
III
Chapter
I
Chapter
II.- Which treats of the natural apprehensions
of the memory and describes how the soul must be voided of them in
order to be able to attain to union with God according to this faculty
Chapter
III.- Wherein are described three kinds
of evil which come to the soul when it enters not into darkness with
respect to knowledge and reflections in the memory. Herein is described
the first
Chapter
IV.- Which treats of the second kind of
evil that may come to the soul from the devil by way of the natural
apprehensions of the memory
Chapter
V.- Of the third evil which comes to the
soul by way of the distinct natural knowledge of the memory
Chapter
VI.-Of the benefits which come to the soul
from forgetfulness and emptiness of all thoughts and knowledge which
it may have in a natural way with respect to the memory
Chapter
VII.- Which treats of the second kind of
apprehension of the memory - namely, imaginary apprehensions
- and of supernatural knowledge
Chapter
VIII.- Of the evils which may be caused
in the soul by the knowledge of supernatural things, if it reflect
upon them. Says how many these evils are
Chapter
IX.- Of the second kind of evil, which
is the peril of falling into self-esteem and vain presumption
Chapter
X.- Of the third evil that may come to
the soul from the devil, through the imaginary apprehensions of the
memory
Chapter
XI.- Of the fourth evil that comes to the
soul from the distinct supernatural apprehensions of the memory,
which is the hindrance that it interposes to union
Chapter
XII.- Of the fifth evil that may come to
the soul in supernatural imaginary forms and apprehensions, which
is a low and unseemingly judgment of God
Chapter
XIII.- Of the benefits which the soul receives
through banishing from itself the apprehensions of the imagination.
This chapter answers a certain objection and describes a difference
which exists between apprehensions that are imaginary, natural and
supernatural
Chapter
XIV.- Which treats of spiritual knowledge
in so far as it may concern the memory
Chapter
XV.- Which sets down the general method
whereby the spiritual person must govern himself with respect to
this sense
Chapter
XVI.- Which begins to treat of the dark
night of the will. Makes a division between the affections of the
will
Chapter
XVII.- Which begins to treat of the first
affection of the will. Describes the nature of joy and makes a distinction
between the things in which the will can rejoice
Chapter
XVIII.- Which treats of joy with respect
to temporal blessings. Describes how joy in them must be directed
to God
Chapter
XIX.- Of the evils that may befall the
soul when it sets its rejoicing upon temporal blessings
Chapter
XX.- Of the benefits that come to the soul
from its withdrawal of joy from temporal things
Chapter
XXI.- Which describes how it is vanity
to set the rejoicing of the will upon the good things of nature,
and how the soul must direct itself, by means of them, to God
Chapter
XXII.- Of the evils which come to the soul
when it sets the rejoicing of its will upon the good things of nature
Chapter
XXIII.- Of the benefits which the soul
receives from not setting its rejoicing upon the good things of nature
Chapter
XXIV.- Which treats of the third kind of
good thing whereon the will may set the affection of rejoicing, which
kind pertains to sense. Indicates what these good things are and
of how many kinds, and how the will has to be directed to God and
purged of this rejoicing
Chapter
XXV.- Which treats of the evils that afflict
the soul when it desires to set the rejoicing of its will upon the
good things of sense
Chapter
XXVI.- Of the benefits that come to the
soul from self-denial in rejoicing as to things of sense, which benefits
are spiritual and temporal
Chapter
XXVII.- Which begins to treat of the fourth
kind of good - namely, the moral. Describes wherein this consists,
and in what manner joy of the will therein is lawful
Chapter
XXVIII.- Of seven evils into which a man
may fall if he set the rejoicing of his will upon moral good
Chapter
XXIX.- Of the benefits which come to the
soul through the withdrawal of its rejoicing from moral good
Chapter
XXX.- Which begins to treat of the fifth
kind of good thing wherein the will may rejoice, which is the super
natural. Describes the nature of these supernatural good things,
and how they are distinguished from the spiritual, and how joy in
them is to be directed to God
Chapter
XXXI.- Of the evils which come to the soul
when it sets the rejoicing of the will upon this kind of good
Chapter
XXXII.- Of two benefits which are derived
from the renunciation of rejoicing in the matter of the supernatural
graces
Chapter
XXXIII.- Which begins to treat of the sixth
kind of good wherein the soul may rejoice, Describes its nature and
makes the first division under this head
Chapter
XXXIV.- Of those good things of the spirit
which can be distinctly apprehended by the understanding and the
memory. Describes how the will is to behave in the matter of rejoicing
in them
Chapter
XXXV.- Of the delectable spiritual good
things which can be distinctly apprehended by the will. Describes
the kinds of these
Chapter
XXXVI.- Which continues to treat of images,
and describes the ignorance which certain persons have with respect
to them
Chapter
XXXVII.- Of how the rejoicing of the will
must be directed, by way of the images, to God, so that the soul
may not go astray because of them or be hindered by them
Chapter
XXXVIII.- Continues to describe motive
good. Speaks of oratories and places dedicated to prayer
Chapter
XXXIX.- Of the way in which oratories and
churches should be used, in order to direct the spirit to God.
Chapter
XL.- Which continues to direct the spirit
to interior recollection with reference to what has been said
Chapter
XLI.- Of certain evils into which those
persons fall who give themselves to pleasure in sensible objects
and who frequent places of devotion in the way that has been described
Chapter
XLII.- Of three different kinds of places
of devotion and of how the will should conduct itself with regard
to them
Chapter
XLIII.- Which treats of other motives for
prayer that many persons use - namely, a great variety of ceremonies
Chapter
XLIV.- Of the manner wherein the rejoicing
and strength of the will must be directed to God through these devotions
Chapter
XLV.- Which treats of the second kind of
distinct good, wherein the will may rejoice vainly
Book
III Footnotes
TRANSLATOR'S
PREFACE
TO
THE FIRST EDITION
FOR at least twenty years, a new translation
of the works of St. John of the Cross has been an urgent necessity.
The translations of the individual prose works now in general use go
back in their original form to the eighteen-sixties, and, though the
later editions of some of them have been submitted to a certain degree
of revision, nothing but a complete retranslation of the works from
their original Spanish could be satisfactory. For this there are two
reasons.
First, the existing translations were never
very exact renderings of the original Spanish text even in the form
which held the field when they were first published. Their great merit
was extreme readableness: many a disciple of the Spanish mystics, who
is unacquainted with the language in which they wrote, owes to these
translations the comparative ease with which he has mastered the main
lines of St. John of the Cross's teaching. Thus for the general reader
they were of great utility; for the student, on the other hand, they
have never been entirely adequate. They paraphrase difficult expressions,
omit or add to parts of individual sentences in order (as it seems)
to facilitate comprehension of the general drift of the passages in
which these occur, and frequently retranslate from the Vulgate the
Saint's Spanish quotations from Holy Scripture instead of turning into
English the quotations themselves, using the text actually before them.
A second and more important reason for a
new translation, however, is the discovery of fresh manuscripts and
the consequent improvements which have been made in the Spanish text
of the works of St. John of the Cross, during the present century.
Seventy years ago, the text chiefly used was that of the collection
known as the Biblioteca de Autores Espanoles (1853), which itself was
based, as we shall later see, upon an edition going back as far as
1703, published before modern methods of editing were so much as imagined.
Both the text of the B.A.E. edition and the unimportant commentary
which accompanied it were highly unsatisfactory, yet until the beginning
of the present century nothing appreciably better was attempted.
In the last twenty years, however, we have
had two new editions, each based upon a close study of the extant manuscripts
and each representing a great advance upon the editions preceding it.
The three-volume Toledo edition of P. Gerardo de San Juan de la Cruz,
C.D. (1912-14), was the first attempt made to produce an accurate text
by modern critical methods. Its execution was perhaps less laudable
than its conception, and faults were pointed out in it from the time
of its appearance, but it served as a new starting-point for Spanish
scholars and stimulated them to a new interest in St. John of the Cross's
writings. Then, seventeen years later, came the magnificent five-volume
edition of P. Silverio de Santa Teresa, C.D. (Burgos, 1929-31), which
forms the basis of this present translation. So superior is it, even
on the most casual examination, to all its predecessors that to eulogize
it in detail is superfluous. It is founded upon a larger number of
texts than has previously been known and it collates them with greater
skill than that of any earlier editor. It can hardly fail to be the
standard edition of the works of St. John of the Cross for generations.
Thanks to the labours of these Carmelite
scholars and of others whose findings they have incorporated in their
editions, Spanish students can now approach the work of the great Doctor
with the reasonable belief that they are reading, as nearly as may
be, what he actually wrote. English-reading students, however, who
are unable to master sixteenth-century Spanish, have hitherto had no
grounds for such a belief. They cannot tell whether, in any particular
passage, they are face to face with the Saint's own words, with a translator's
free paraphrase of them or with a gloss made by some later copyist
or early editor in the supposed interests of orthodoxy. Indeed, they
cannot be sure that some whole paragraph is not one of the numerous
interpolations which has its rise in an early printed edition - i.e.,
the timorous qualifications of statements which have seemed to the
interpolator over-bold. Even some of the most distinguished writers
in English on St. John of the Cross have been misled in this way and
it has been impossible for any but those who read Spanish with ease
to make a systematic and reliable study of such an important question
as the alleged dependence of Spanish quietists upon the Saint, while
his teaching on the mystical life has quite unwittingly been distorted
by persons who would least wish to misrepresent it in any particular.
It was when writing the chapter on St. John
of the Cross in the first volume of my Studies of the Spanish Mystics
(in which, as it was published in 1927, I had not the advantage of
using P. Silverio's edition) that I first realized the extent of the
harm caused by the lack of an accurate and modern translation. Making
my own versions of all the passages quoted, I had sometimes occasion
to compare them with those of other translators, which at their worst
were almost unrecognizable as versions of the same originals. Then
and there I resolved that, when time allowed, I would make a fresh
translation of the works of a saint to whom I have long had great devotion
- to whom, indeed, I owe more than to any other writer outside
the Scriptures. Just at that time I happened to visit the Discalced
Carmelites at Burgos, where I first met P. Silverio, and found, to
my gratification, that his edition of St. John of the Cross was much
nearer publication than I had imagined. Arrangements for sole permission
to translate the new edition were quickly made and work on the early
volumes was begun even before the last volume was published.
II
These preliminary notes will explain why
my chief preoccupation throughout the performance of this task has
been to present as accurate and reliable a version of St. John of the
Cross's works as it is possible to obtain. To keep the translation,
line by line, au pied de la lettre, is, of course, impracticable: and
such constantly occurring Spanish habits as the use of abstract nouns
in the plural and the verbal construction 'ir + present participle'
introduce shades of meaning which cannot always be reproduced. Yet
wherever, for stylistic or other reasons, I have departed from the
Spanish in any way that could conceivably cause a misunderstanding,
I have scrupulously indicated this in a footnote. Further, I have translated,
not only the text, but the variant readings as given by P. Silverio,[1]
except where they are due merely to slips of the copyist's pen or where
they differ so slightly from the readings of the text that it is impossible
to render the differences in English. I beg students not to think that
some of the smaller changes noted are of no importance; closer examination
will often show that, however slight they may seem, they are, in relation
to their context, or to some particular aspect of the Saint's teaching,
of real interest; in other places they help to give the reader an idea,
which may be useful to him in some crucial passage, of the general
characteristics of the manuscript or edition in question. The editor's
notes on the manuscripts and early editions which he has collated will
also be found, for the same reason, to be summarized in the introduction
to each work; in consulting the variants, the English-reading student
has the maximum aid to a judgment of the reliability of his authorities.
Concentration upon the aim of obtaining
the most precise possible rendering of the text has led me to sacrifice
stylistic elegance to exactness where the two have been in conflict;
it has sometimes been difficult to bring oneself to reproduce the Saint's
often ungainly, though often forceful, repetitions of words or his
long, cumbrous parentheses, but the temptation to take refuge in graceful
paraphrases has been steadily resisted. In the same interest, and also
in that of space, I have made certain omissions from, and abbreviations
of, other parts of the edition than the text. Two of P. Silverio's
five volumes are entirely filled with commentaries and documents. I
have selected from the documents those of outstanding interest to readers
with no detailed knowledge of Spanish religious history and have been
content to summarize the editor's introductions to the individual works,
as well as his longer footnotes to the text, and to omit such parts
as would interest only specialists, who are able, or at least should
be obliged, to study them in the original Spanish.
The decision to summarize in these places
has been made the less reluctantly because of the frequent unsuitability
of P. Silverio's style to English readers. Like that of many Spaniards,
it is so discursive, and at times so baroque in its wealth of epithet
and its profusion of imagery, that a literal translation, for many
pages together, would seldom have been acceptable. The same criticism
would have been applicable to any literal translation of P. Silverio's
biography of St. John of the Cross which stands at the head of his
edition (Vol. I, pp. 7-130). There was a further reason for omitting
these biographical chapters. The long and fully documented biography
by the French Carmelite, P. Bruno de Jesús-Marie, C.D., written from
the same standpoint as P. Silverio's, has recently been translated
into English, and any attempt to rival this in so short a space would
be foredoomed to failure. I have thought, however, that a brief outline
of the principal events in St. John of the Cross's life would be a
useful preliminary to this edition; this has therefore been substituted
for the biographical sketch referred to.
In language, I have tried to reproduce the
atmosphere of a sixteenth-century text as far as is consistent with
clarity. Though following the paragraph divisions of my original, I
have not scrupled, where this has seemed to facilitate understanding,
to divide into shorter sentences the long and sometimes straggling
periods in which the Saint so frequently indulged. Some attempt has
been made to show the contrast between the highly adorned, poetical
language of much of the commentary on the 'Spiritual Canticle' and
the more closely shorn and eminently practical, though always somewhat
discursive style of the Ascent and Dark Night. That the Living Flame
occupies an intermediate position in this respect should also be clear
from the style of the translation.
Quotations, whether from the Scriptures
or from other sources, have been left strictly as St. John of the Cross
made them. Where he quotes in Latin, the Latin has been reproduced;
only his quotations in Spanish have been turned into English. The footnote
references are to the Vulgate, of which the Douai Version is a direct
translation; if the Authorized Version differs, as in the Psalms, the
variation has been shown in square brackets for the convenience of
those who use it.
A word may not be out of place regarding
the translations of the poems as they appear in the prose commentaries.
Obviously, it would have been impossible to use the comparatively free
verse renderings which appear in Volume II of this translation, since
the commentaries discuss each line and often each word of the poems.
A literal version of the poems in their original verse-lines, however,
struck me as being inartistic, if not repellent, and as inviting continual
comparison with the more polished verse renderings which, in spirit,
come far nearer to the poet's aim. My first intention was to translate
the poems, for the purpose of the commentaries, into prose. But later
I hit upon the long and metrically unfettered verse-line, suggestive
of Biblical poetry in its English dress, which I have employed throughout.
I believe that, although the renderings often suffer artistically from
their necessary literalness, they are from the artistic standpoint
at least tolerable.
III
The debts I have to acknowledge, though
few, are very large ones. My gratitude to P. Silverio de Santa Teresa
for telling me so much about his edition before its publication, granting
my publishers the sole translation rights and discussing with me a
number of crucial passages cannot be disjoined from the many kindnesses
I have received during my work on the Spanish mystics, which is still
proceeding, from himself and from his fellow-Carmelites in the province
of Castile. In dedicating this translation to them, I think particularly
of P. Silverio in Burgos, of P. Florencio del Ni–o Jesús in Madrid,
and of P. Cris—gono de Jesús Sacramentado, together with the Fathers
of the 'Convento de la Santa' in Avila.
The long and weary process of revising the
manuscript and proofs of this translation has been greatly lightened
by the co-operation and companionship of P. Edmund Gurdon, Prior of
the Cartuja de Miraflores, near Burgos, with whom I have freely discussed
all kinds of difficulties, both of substance and style, and who has
been good enough to read part of my proofs. From the quiet library
of his monastery, as well as from his gracious companionship, I have
drawn not only knowledge, but strength, patience and perseverance.
And when at length, after each of my visits, we have had to part, we
have continued our labours by correspondence, shaking hands, as it
were, 'over a vast' and embracing 'from the ends of opposed winds.'
Finally, I owe a real debt to my publishers
for allowing me to do this work without imposing any such limitations
of time as often accompany literary undertakings. This and other considerations
which I have received from them have made that part of the work which
has been done outside the study unusually pleasant and I am correspondingly
grateful.
E.
ALLISON PEERS.
University
of Liverpool.
Feast
of St. John of the Cross,
November
24, 1933.
TRANSLATOR'S
PREFACE
TO
THE SECOND EDITION
DURING the sixteen years which have
elapsed since the publication of the first edition, several reprints
have been issued, and the demand is now such as to justify a complete
resetting. I have taken advantage of this opportunity to revise the
text throughout, and hope that in some of the more difficult passages
I may have come nearer than before to the Saint's mind. Recent researches
have necessitated a considerable amplification of introductions and
footnotes and greatly increased the length of the bibliography.
The only modification which has been made
consistently throughout the three volumes relates to St. John of the
Cross's quotations from Scripture. In translating these I still follow
him exactly, even where he himself is inexact, but I have used the
Douai Version (instead of the Authorized, as in the first edition)
as a basis for all Scriptural quotations, as well as in the footnote
references and the Scriptural index in Vol. III.
Far more is now known of the life and times
of St. John of the Cross than when this translation of the Complete
Works was first published, thanks principally to the Historia del Carmen
Descalzo of P. Silverio de Santa Teresa, C.D, now General of his Order,
and to the admirably documented Life of the Saint written by P. Cris—gono
de Jesus Sacramentado, C.D., and published (in Vida y Obras de San
Juan de la Cruz) in the year after his untimely death. This increased
knowledge is reflected in many additional notes, and also in the 'Outline
of the Life of St. John of the Cross' (Vol. I, pp. xxv-xxviii), which,
for this edition, has been entirely recast. References are given to
my Handbook to the Life and Times of St. Teresa and St. John of the
Cross, which provides much background too full to be reproduced in
footnotes and too complicated to be compressed. The Handbook also contains
numerous references to contemporary events, omitted from the 'Outline'
as being too remote from the main theme to justify inclusion in a summary
necessarily so condensed.
My thanks for help in revision are due to
kindly correspondents, too numerous to name, from many parts of the
world, who have made suggestions for the improvement of the first edition;
to the Rev. Professor David Knowles, of Cambridge University, for whose
continuous practical interest in this translation I cannot be too grateful;
to Miss I.L. McClelland, of Glasgow University, who has read a large
part of this edition in proof; to Dom Philippe Chevallier, for material
which I have been able to incorporate in it; to P. José Antonio de
Sobrino, S.J., for allowing me to quote freely from his recently published
Estudios; and, most of all, to M.R.P. Silverio de Santa Teresa, C.D.,
and the Fathers of the International Carmelite College at Rome, whose
learning and experience, are, I hope, faintly reflected in this new
edition.
E.A.P.
June
30, 1941.
PRINCIPAL ABBREVIATIONS
A.V.-
Authorized Version of the Bible (1611).
D.V.-
Douai Version of the Bible (1609).
C.W.S.T.J.-
The Complete Works of Saint Teresa of Jesus, translated and edited
by E. Allison Peers from the critical edition of P. Silverio de Santa
Teresa, C.D. London, Sheed and Ward, 1946. 3 vols.
H.-E.
Allison Peers: Handbook to the Life and Times of St. Teresa and St.
John of the Cross. London, Burns Oates and Washbourne, 1953.
LL.-
The Letters of Saint Teresa of Jesus, translated and edited by E. Allison
Peers from the critical edition of P. Silverio de Santa Teresa, C.D.
London, Burns Oates and Washburne, 1951. 2 vols.
N.L.M.-
National Library of Spain (Biblioteca Nacional), Madrid.
Obras
(P. Silv.)- Obras de San Juan de la Cruz, Doctor de la Iglesia, editadas
y anotadas pot el P. Silverio de Santa Teresa, C.D. Burgos, 1929-31.
5 vols.
S.S.M.-
E. Allison Peers: Studies of the Spanish Mystics. Vol. I, London, Sheldon
Press, 1927; 2nd ed., London, S.P.C.K., 1951. Vol. II, London, Sheldon
Press, 1930.
Sobrino.-Jose
Antonio de Sobrino, S.J.: Estudios sobre San Juan de la Cruz y nuevos
textos de su obra. Madrid, 1950.
AN
OUTLINE OF THE LIFE OF ST. JOHN OF
THE CROSS [2]
1542.
Birth of Juan de Yepes at Fontiveros (Hontiveros), near Avila.
The
day generally ascribed to this event is June 24 (St. John Baptist's
Day). No documentary evidence for it, however, exists, the parish registers
having been destroyed by a fire in 1544. The chief evidence is an inscription,
dated 1689, on the font of the parish church at Fontiveros.
1543.
Death of Juan's father. 'After some years' the mother removes, with
her family, to Arivalo, and later to Medina del Campo.
1552-6.
Juan goes to school at the Colegio de los Ninos de la Doctrina, Medina.
1556-7.
Don Antonio Alvarez de Toledo takes him into a Hospital to which he
has retired, with the idea of his (Juan's) training for Holy Orders
under his patronage.
1559-63.
Juan attends the College of the Society of Jesus at Medina.
1562.
Leaves the Hospital and the patronage of Alvarez de Toledo.
1563.
Takes the Carmelite habit at St. Anne's, Medina del Campo, as Juan
de San Mat’as (Santo Mat’a). The day is
frequently assumed (without any foundation) to have been the feast
of St. Matthias (February 24), but P. Silverio postulates a day in
August or September.
1564.
Makes his profession in the same priory - probably in August
or September and certainly not earlier than May 21 and not later than
October.
1564
(November). Enters the University of Salamanca as an artista. Takes
a three-year course in Arts (1564-7).
1565
(January 6). Matriculates at the University of Salamanca.
1567.
Receives priest's orders (probably in the summer).
1567
(? September). Meets St. Teresa at Medina del Campo. Juan is thinking
of transferring to the Carthusian Order. St. Teresa asks him to join
her Discalced Reform and the projected first foundation for friars.
He agrees to do so, provided the foundation is soon made.
1567
(November). Returns to the University of Salamanca, where he takes
a year's course in theology.
1568.
Spends part of the Long Vacation at Medina del Campo. On August 10,
accompanies St. Teresa to Valladolid. In September, returns to Medina
and later goes to Avila and Duruelo.
1568
(November 28). Takes the vows of the Reform Duruelo as St. John of
the Cross, together with Antonio de Heredia (Antonio de Jesus), Prior
of the Calced Carmelites at Medina, and José de Cristo, another Carmelite
from Medina.
1570
(June 11). Moves, with the Duruelo community, to Mancera de Abajo.
1570
(October, or possibly February 1571). Stays for about a month at Pastrana,
returning thence to Mancera.
1571
(? January 25). Visits Alba de Tormes for the inauguration of a new
convent there.
1571
(? April). Goes to Alcala de Henares as Rector of the College of the
Reform and directs the Carmelite nuns.
1572
(shortly after April 23). Recalled to Pastrana to correct the rigours
of the new novice-master, Angel de San Gabriel.
1572
(between May and September). Goes to Avila as confessor to the Convent
of the Incarnation. Remains there till 1577.
1574
(March). Accompanies St. Teresa from Avila to Segovia, arriving on
March 18. Returns to Avila about the end of the month.
1575-6
(Winter of: before February 1576). Kidnapped by the Calced and imprisoned
at Medina del Campo. Freed by the intervention of the Papal Nuncio,
Ormaneto.
1577
(December 2 or 3). Kidnapped by the Calced and carried off to the Calced
Carmelite priory at Toledo as a prisoner.
1577-8.
Composes in prison 17 (or perhaps 30) stanzas of the 'Spiritual Canticle'
(i.e., as far as the stanza: 'Daughters of Jewry'); the poem with the
refrain 'Although 'tis night'; and the stanzas beginning 'In principio
erat verbum.' He may also have composed the paraphrase of the psalm
Super flumina and the poem 'Dark Night.'
1578
(August 16 or shortly afterwards). Escapes to the convent of the Carmelite
nuns in Toledo, and is thence taken to his house by D. Pedro Gonzalez
de Mendoza, Canon of Toledo.
1578
(October 9). Attends a meeting of the Discalced superiors at Almodevar. Is
sent to El Calvario as Vicar, in the absence in Rome of the Prior.
1578
(end of October). Stays for 'a few days' at Beas de Segura, near El
Calvario. Confesses the nuns at the Carmelite Convent of Beas.
1578
(November). Arrives at El Calvario.
1578-9
(November-June). Remains at El Calvario as Vicar. For a part of this
time (probably from the beginning of 1579), goes weekly to the convent
of Beas to hear confessions. During this period, begins his commentaries
entitled The Ascent of Mount Carmel and Spiritual Canticle .
1579
(June 14). Founds a college of the Reform at Baeza. 1579-82. Resides
at Baeza as Rector of the Carmelite college. Visits the Beas convent
occasionally. Writes more of the prose works begun at El Calvario and
the rest of the stanzas of the 'Spiritual Canticle' except the last
five, possibly with the commentaries to the stanzas.
1580.
Death of his mother.
1581
(March 3). Attends the Alcala Chapter of the Reform. Appointed Third
Definitor and Prior of the Granada house of Los Mertires. Takes up
the latter office only on or about the time of his election by the
community in March 1582.
1581
(November 28). Last meeting with St. Teresa, at Avila. On the next
day, sets out with two nuns for Beas (December 8-January 15) and Granada.
1582
(January 20). Arrives at Los Mertires.
1582-8.
Mainly at Granada. Re-elected (or confirmed) as Prior of Los Mertires
by the Chapter of Almodevar, 1583. Resides at Los Mertires more or
less continuously till 1584 and intermittently afterwards. Visits the
Beas convent occasionally. Writes the last five stanzas of the 'Spiritual
Canticle' during one of these visits. At Los Mertires, finishes the
Ascent of Mount Carmel and composes his remaining prose treatises.
Writes Living Flame of Love about 1585, in fifteen days.
1585
(May). Lisbon Chapter appoints him Second Definitor and (till 1587)
Vicar-Provincial of Andalusia.
1587
(April). Chapter of Valladolid re-appoints him Prior of Los Mertires.
He ceases to be Definitor and Vicar-Provincial.
1588
(June 19). Attends the first Chapter-General of the Reform in Madrid.
Is elected First Definitor and a consiliario.
1588
(August 10). Becomes Prior of Segovia, the central house of the Reform
and the headquarters of the Consulta. Acts as deputy for the Vicar-General,
P. Doria, during the latter's absences.
1590
(June 10). Re-elected First Definitor and a consiliario at the Chapter-General
Extraordinary, Madrid.
1591
(June 1). The Madrid Chapter-General deprives him of his offices and
resolves to send him to Mexico. (This latter decision was later revoked.)
1591
(August 10). Arrives at La Peouela.
1591
(September 12). Attacked by fever. (September Leaves La Peouela for òbeda.
(December 14) Dies at òbeda.
January
25, 1675. Beatified by Clement X.
December
26, 1726. Canonized by Benedict XIII.
August
24, 1926. Declared Doctor of the Church Universal by Pius XI.
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