by Saint John of the Cross

Juan de Yepes y Alvarez, Saint John of the Cross’s original name, was born in 1542 in Fontiveros, a village in the heartland of Castile, between Avila and Salamanca. A few years after his birth, his father, Gonzalo de Yepes, who barely made a living as a weaver, died of a lingering illness, leaving a widow and three sons in deeper poverty. For many years to come, Juan’s mother, Catalina Alvarez, worked at the loom to support her family. During his adolescence the family moved in 1551 to Medina del Campo, a larger, somewhat prosperous town nearby. Juan was apprenticed, in turns, to a painter, carpenter, and tailor, and was soon returned as useless by all of them. He then volunteered his services at a hospital—el Hospital...