AN OUTLINE OF THE LIFE OF ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS
1542. Birth of Juan de Yepes at Fontiveros (Hontiveros), near vila.
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.
? c. 1543. Death of Juan’s father. ‘After some years’ the mother removes, with her family, to Arévalo, and later to Medina del Campo.
? c. 1552-6. Juan goes to school at the Colegio de los Ni–os de la
Doctrina, Medina.
c. 1556-7. Don Antonio lvarez 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.
? c. 1559-63. Juan attends the College of the Society of Jesus at
Medina.
c. 1562. Leaves the Hospital and the patronage of lvarez de Toledo.
1563. Takes the Carmelite habit at St. Anne’s, Medina del Campo, as
Juan de San Matías (Santo Matía).
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 and P. Crisógono thinks February definitely improbable.
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 Alcalá 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 vila as confessor to the
Convent of the Incarnation. Remains there till 1577.
1574 (March). Accompanies St. Teresa from vila to Segovia, arriving
on March 18. Returns to vila 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.’ (Note: All these poems, in verse form, will be found in Vol. II of this edition.)
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 González de Mendoza, Canon of Toledo.
1578 (October 9). Attends a meeting of the Discalced superiors at
Almodóvar. 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.