Episode Details

In this episode of pplpod, we explore the dramatic life and profound interior world of Juan de Yepes y Álvarez, known to history as St. John of the Cross. Born into a family of Jewish converts in 16th-century Spain, John rose from poverty to become a Doctor of the Church and one of the foremost poets in the Spanish language,.

Join us as we discuss:

• The Reformer: How a pivotal meeting with St. Teresa of Ávila led John to help found the Discalced Carmelites, a movement seeking to return the order to its primitive rules of silence, poverty, and solitude,,.

• The Prisoner: The intense religious tension that resulted in John’s kidnapping by opposing friars in 1577. We detail his brutal eight-month imprisonment in a tiny, stifling cell in Toledo, where he was subjected to starvation and weekly lashings.

• Poetry in Darkness: How, amidst this torture, John composed masterpieces of mystical literature, writing parts of the Spiritual Canticle on scraps of paper passed to him by a guard before making a daring escape through a window,.

• The Dark Night: A breakdown of his major theological treatises, including The Dark Night of the Soul and Ascent of Mount Carmel. We unpack his teaching on the "dark night"—the painful spiritual detachment required for the soul to reach maturity and perfect union with God,.

• The Legacy: John’s enduring influence on diverse figures ranging from Pope John Paul II to T.S. Eliot and Salvador Dalí.

Tune in to understand how a friar locked in darkness found a "living flame of love" that changed Christian mysticism forever,.