Week 38 · mystical

St. John of the Cross

St. John of the Cross was a 16th-century Spanish Carmelite monk who was kidnapped by members of his own religious order, thrown into a tiny cell, and beaten regularly for nine months. In that cell, in complete darkness, he composed some of the most beautiful poetry in the Spanish language. His poem "Dark Night of the Soul" gave us the phrase we still use for any profound inner crisis. He wrote it about something specific...the moment when God goes silent.

“"In the dark night of the soul, bright flows the river of God." He wrote that from a prison cell, half-starved and beaten. The brightness he described wasn't metaphorical optimism. It was the discovery that when everything else is taken away, something remains...”