(1542-1591)
 
Our patron, Saint John of the Cross, was a Spanish mystic, Carmelite friar and priest. He was born in Spain in 1542, and learned the importance of self-sacrificing love from his parents. After joining the Carmelites, St. Teresa of Avila asked him to help her reform the order. But many of the Carmelites felt threatened, so John was kidnapped and locked in a dark cell. He was able to pray the divine office only when a ray of sunlight penetrated through a tiny slit in the window high on the wall and was able to write what became some of his greatest works. After nine months John escaped and made his way back to the Carmelites convent. His life of poverty and persecution could have produced a bitter cynic. Instead it gave birth to a compassionate mystic, who lived by the belief that “Who has ever seen people persuaded to love God by harshness?”