Juan de Yepes was born in 1542 at Fontiveros, near Ávila, into a poor family; his father died when he was a small child. He grew up at Medina del Campo, where he worked in a hospital and studied with the Jesuits. In 1563 he became a Carmelite, studied at Salamanca and was ordained in 1567. That year he met Teresa of Ávila, who won him for her reform, and in 1568 he opened the first house of Discalced friars at Duruelo.
The reform divided the order. In December 1577 friars opposed to it seized him and shut him in a narrow cell in their priory at Toledo, where he was beaten and kept almost in darkness; there he composed much of the Spiritual Canticle. He escaped in August 1578 and served the reform in Andalusia as prior and superior, writing his commentaries on the Ascent, the Dark Night, the Canticle and the Living Flame.
John of the Cross in the library (5 works)
- Poesías: Noche oscura, Cántico espiritual, Llama de amor viva — siglo XVI · en español
Los tres grandes poemas de san Juan de la Cruz sobre el camino del alma hacia la unión con Dios. - Subida del Monte Carmelo y Noche oscura — c. 1578–1585; edición de 1912 · en español
Los dos tratados de san Juan de la Cruz sobre la purificación del alma en el camino hacia Dios: la Subida y la Noche oscura. - Cántico espiritual y Llama de amor viva — c. 1584–1586; edición de 1912 · en español
Los comentarios de san Juan de la Cruz a sus grandes poemas: el Cántico espiritual y la Llama de amor viva. - The Ascent of Mount Carmel and The Dark Night of the Soul — c. 1578–1585; translation 1864
John of the Cross's two treatises on the purifying of the soul on its way to God. - A Spiritual Canticle and The Living Flame of Love — c. 1584–1586; translation 1864
John of the Cross's commentaries on his great poems of the soul's love for God.