John and Teresa

This week we celebrate the Feast of St. John of the Cross. Among other things he was a great friend and helper of St. Teresa of Avila.   John first met Teresa at Medina del Campo shortly after she had made the foundation of St. Joseph’s, her first Discalced Carmelite Monastery.  She was in Medina del Campo trying to negotiate the foundation of another monastery for the discalced nuns but she had also obtained permission make two foundations for discalced friars. John was a newly ordained Carmelite and he had gone to Medina to celebrate his first Mass, but he was unsettled and thinking of transferring to the Carthusian Order so that he could have more solitude and silence.  Teresa was fifty-two and John was twenty-five when they first met, but they recognised an affinity between them and John shared his longing for a more contemplative life with her.  Teresa assured him that if he would join her reform he would be able to have more solitude and silence without leaving Carmel.

Soon afterwards Teresa was given a small farmhouse at Duruelo which she planned to use for the first friars. She was rather distressed at the bad state of it but John went there to work on it so that it could be lived in.  Fr. Antonio soon joined him there and the first Discalced Carmelite Friars were founded.

Some years later Teresa was made to take on the role of prioress at the Monastery of the Incarnation in Avila.  This was where she had lived before beginning her reform, and the nuns did not want her because they were afraid she would want to make them part of her reform movement.  Teresa did not want to impose her reform on the community, but she did want to correct abuses and restore community life.  To do this she needed help and support and she could think of no better person to give it than John of the Cross. Very soon John and another friar moved into one of the houses used for workmen in the grounds of the monastery. Teresa had such a high regard for John that she told the nuns she was giving them a saint for their confessor.  Under John’s guidance they deepened their spiritual lives as he spent many hours talking them and encouraging them.  He listened to them intently and became aware of their various needs. John showed exceptional care for the sick sisters and sent special dishes he was given to the infirmary for whoever was in greatest need of cheer and nourishment.

Without becoming Discalced Carmelites the nuns at the Incarnation became a transformed community.   

While he was at Avila John’s own prayer deepened and he became intensely aware of God’s continual presence in the beauty of the countryside as well as in his own soul. He began to write a little poetry and to carve simple crucifixes.

Always patient and understanding with people John was a great favourite both with the nuns and with the townspeople.  He got to know the children of workmen;they were poor, just like he had been as a child.  As well as teaching them catechism he taught then the basics of reading and writing, knowing that this would help them in later life.