Historiography
First Biographies:
The first biography of the life of John of the
Cross was published consequently through the first publication of the life of
his brother Francisco de Yepes. Fr. José de Velasco, Francisco’s confessor who
wrote the saint´s brother biography dedicated a few chapters in the second book
for John of the Cross. Besides the spiritual teachings and his persecutions by
the Calced Carmelites, he dedicates a chapter on the miracles John of the Cross
preformed during his life and his heroic virtues; things such his power over
demons and bilocation, apparitions were not uncommonly mention in the work.
Velasco was not unaware of the work
being prepared by the Discalced Carmelites.
In fact, by
1618 work such as Relación sumaria del
autor de este libro y de su vida y virtudes attributed to José de Jesús
María (Quiroga) was published.
By 1625 another work came to light Suma de la vida y milagros del venerable
padre Fray Juan de la Cruz a single
volume which was published in Antwerp had no author named. This work was
translated two years later into the Italian in 1627.
1630 Jerónimo de San José writes, Dibujo del venerable varón fray Juan de la
Cruz.
These early biographies were short averaging 46
pages (31 pp. Quiroga, 54 pp. Antwerp work, 54 pp. Jerónimo de San José).
Characteristics:
Unlike the early biographies of St. Teresa
written by outside scholars and writers the Order (Ribera, Yepes) the early
biographies of John of the Cross were written by Carmelites.
Relación summaria by José de Jesús María
(Quiroga)
follows the life of John of the Cross through his spiritual development. The author is convinced that the writings of the Saint is the embodiment of his interior experience. Quiroga, who was a writer of spiritual treatises, dedicated his efforts in emphasizing the development of grace in the soul John of the Cross. The episode in which the Saint is incarcerated in Toledo, Quiroga sees this phase as a step or a degree toward a spiritual deepening that will eventually take him to a transforming union with God. However, Quiroga did not ignore the historical facts surrounding the Saint. He used the early testimonies being produced during the Process of beatification, however, in fragments since the process did not come to its completion until 1627, which by that time the biography had already been published (1625).
follows the life of John of the Cross through his spiritual development. The author is convinced that the writings of the Saint is the embodiment of his interior experience. Quiroga, who was a writer of spiritual treatises, dedicated his efforts in emphasizing the development of grace in the soul John of the Cross. The episode in which the Saint is incarcerated in Toledo, Quiroga sees this phase as a step or a degree toward a spiritual deepening that will eventually take him to a transforming union with God. However, Quiroga did not ignore the historical facts surrounding the Saint. He used the early testimonies being produced during the Process of beatification, however, in fragments since the process did not come to its completion until 1627, which by that time the biography had already been published (1625).
La vida de San Juan de la Cruz by Alonso de la Madre de Dios,
was written by one who had known the Saint and who profoundly remembered the blessing he had received from him in Segovia in 1587. Fr. Alonso was procurator of the canonical process of beatification in just about every town in which they were conducted. This source and access of information directly from eye witnesses of the Saint had given this biography a particularity apart from the others. Using a strict chronological historical method, Alonso in the first book wrote about the life of the Saint from his birth and infancy until the separation of the Province in 1581 in the last chapters. In the second book he treats of the chapter of Alcalá until the death of John of the Cross. Apparitions, miracles, his relics and the transfer of his body to Segovia is the theme running in the third book which is based largely on his process of beatification.
Dibujo del venerable varón fray Juan de la Cruz by Jerónimo de San José
divided the life of the Saint in eight books (only seven were published). 1st book: deals with the infancy until the first foundation at Duruelo. 2nd from the foundation of Duruelo until his activities in Avila. 3rd book: from the Council meeting in Almodóvar until his imprisonment. 4th book: from the prison until the foundation of Beaza. 5th book: from the Chapter of Alcalá until the his end of term in office as Vicar Provincial. 6th book: his life as prior of Granada and his sojourn in Segovia. 7th book: his death and translocation and miracles. Fray Jerónimo has an elegant and efficacious manner in his exposition making eulogies of cities in which the Saint has visited adding dialogue to personages within the biography and leaning toward comparing John of the Cross to various personalities from Sacred Scripture. A particularity of the biography by Jerónimo de San José is the connection of the biography with the writings of John of the Cross and like Quiroga he has focused on the spiritual development or spiritual evolution paralleling his life experience with his interior life. However, the biography by Jerónimo de San José is most noted for its ample use of the correspondence of John of the Cross.
Francisco de Santa María (Pulgar) Reforma de los Descalzos de Nuestra Señora del Carmen de la Primitiva Observancia hecha por Santa Teresa de Jesús (Madrid 1655).
In this work the author narrates the life of John of the Cross within the context of the general history of the Discalced with a more concise methodology. Francisco de Santa María was the second friar appointed by the general to write the history of John of the Cross apart from Jerónimo de San José. In fact, Francisco continued the work left unfinished by Jerónimo (he was unable to publish book eight of the biography) having at his disposition the manuscripts and the earlier works of biographer such as Quiroga.
New Biographies
The
beatification of John of the Cross in 1675
had lend the occasion for new biographies.
had lend the occasion for new biographies.
-
María of St. Paul, Vita del B. Giovanni della Croce, Roma 1675.
-
Pedro
de San Andres, La vie de Saint Jean de la
Croix, Aix, 1675.
-
Pedro
Rossel, Epítome, Barcelona 1676.
-
Modesto de San Amable, Resunata
de la vida de nuestro bienaventurado padre San Juan de la Cruz, Madrid
1675.
On the canonization 27 dec. 1726
-
Dositero
de San Alejo, Vie de Saint Jean de la
Croix, Paris 1727.
-
Eustaquio de Santa María, Storia della vita, virtù, doni e miracoli di San Giovanni della Croce, Roma
1726. (also in French, 1727)
-
Manuel Muñoz Garnica, San Juan
de la Cruz, Ensayo histórico, 1875
(also in Italian 1882)
On the occasion of the proclamation as doctor of the Universal Church
1926
XXth
century
Jean
Baruzi
(professor of the Collage of France- Sorbonne) in 1924 publishes Saint Jean de la Croix e le problème de l’expérience mystique. This work is not your typical a biography. It is a work that meticulously analyses the earlier biographies of the XVII century especially those made by Quiroga and Jerónimo de San José. His work attempts to correct several inconsistencies that he discovers between these primitive biographies and comments on its lack of evidence and methodology (including the testimonies given by eye witness for during his process of beatification/canonization) which he claims distorts the true figure of John of the Cross. It is perhaps among the first of its kind to call forth some of the concrete questions and motives behind the kind of John of the Cross the Order wanted to show to the rest of the Church.
As you can well imagine Baruzi had turned the Carmelite world upside-down. Well known Carmelites had immediately taken pen to hand to refute Baruzi such as Florencio del Niño Jesús holding that his academic approach which impoverish and oversimplified the life of the doctor of the Church from Fontiveros was nothing more than an anachronistic construction of a Friar named John and not the John of the Cross of history. Baruzi’s book had re-stimulated the Order to revisit the historical sources, the early biographies and biographies thereafter with the scope of confronting a new era of historical method and critical interpretation of the life of John of the Cross.
The famous Carmelite Crisogono de Jesús Sacramentado said of Baruzi: «The in-depth study, which entails the life of the Carmelite doctor, notwithstanding a genuine effort by Baruzi to depict in his book, it is not John of the Cross, the one born in Fontiveros and who died in Ubeda, who was a blessed by mystical delectations; rather it is another, born in the XXth century and generated from the mind of the professor of the Sorbonne […] The work by Baruzi is a great attempt to make John of a Cross into a transcendental pantheist and also an idealist in Plotinus sort of way».
Bruno de Jesús María:
(professor of the Collage of France- Sorbonne) in 1924 publishes Saint Jean de la Croix e le problème de l’expérience mystique. This work is not your typical a biography. It is a work that meticulously analyses the earlier biographies of the XVII century especially those made by Quiroga and Jerónimo de San José. His work attempts to correct several inconsistencies that he discovers between these primitive biographies and comments on its lack of evidence and methodology (including the testimonies given by eye witness for during his process of beatification/canonization) which he claims distorts the true figure of John of the Cross. It is perhaps among the first of its kind to call forth some of the concrete questions and motives behind the kind of John of the Cross the Order wanted to show to the rest of the Church.
As you can well imagine Baruzi had turned the Carmelite world upside-down. Well known Carmelites had immediately taken pen to hand to refute Baruzi such as Florencio del Niño Jesús holding that his academic approach which impoverish and oversimplified the life of the doctor of the Church from Fontiveros was nothing more than an anachronistic construction of a Friar named John and not the John of the Cross of history. Baruzi’s book had re-stimulated the Order to revisit the historical sources, the early biographies and biographies thereafter with the scope of confronting a new era of historical method and critical interpretation of the life of John of the Cross.
The famous Carmelite Crisogono de Jesús Sacramentado said of Baruzi: «The in-depth study, which entails the life of the Carmelite doctor, notwithstanding a genuine effort by Baruzi to depict in his book, it is not John of the Cross, the one born in Fontiveros and who died in Ubeda, who was a blessed by mystical delectations; rather it is another, born in the XXth century and generated from the mind of the professor of the Sorbonne […] The work by Baruzi is a great attempt to make John of a Cross into a transcendental pantheist and also an idealist in Plotinus sort of way».
Bruno de Jesús María:
writes a biography using a variety of historical documents. He visited Spain and studied the places where John of the Cross had been. He had reviewed and revisited the sources used by Baruzi taking into account the criticisms and complaints the author had received. The biography was so well received in its first publication in 1929 that it was republished in 1939 and 1961 and was later translated into English in 1932, and 1957 (Italian 1938, 1963 – Spanish 1943, 1947).
Silverio de Santa Teresa:
had prepare his first volume of Obras de san Juan de la Cruz which not only offered a well-documented account of the biography of John of the Cross but offered an in-depth study of his literary work emphasizing the areas of disputed by Baruzi. Silverio concentrates on his initial academic formation in Medina del Campo and at the University of Salamanca as well as his professors and superiors. Silverio will again dedicate his 5th volume of Historia del Carmen Descalzo to John of the Cross.
Crisogono de Jesús Sacramentado:
One of the greatest gifts on the occasion of the fourth centenary of the birth of John of the Cross was the publication of Vida de San Juan de la Cruz. Su obra científica y su obra literaria. Published in Avila, 1929. ( later in 1934 a second biography entitled San Juan de la Cruz. El hombre. El Doctor. El Poeta, second edition 1946). Crisogono´s Vida de San Juan de la Cruz is among the best biographies on John of the Cross marked as a classic. For its archival research and documents, and enriching manuscripts, a vivid description and authenticity of the places in which the Saint had lived his life, the rich historical context of life in XVIth century Spain circumventing the life of John of the Cross.
However, what has encapsulated and has set this work apart is its literary composition and narrative its manoeuvrability through historical documentation and data with simplicity, yet without losing its critical method rectifying source errors made in past biographies while enhancing other biographical areas wanting. For example: information regarding the Saint´s work in the Hospital of Las Bubas en Medina del Campo or more details regarding the House of Studies of Santa Ana, proves that the Saint had been more than twice to Pastrana. The biography had superseded even the work of Bruno de Jesús María and Silverio de Santa Teresa correcting some of their inaccuracies in their research.
Crisogono´s biography became an
instant best-seller with several editions from its first publication in 1946,
50,55, 60, 64, 72, 74, 75, 78, 82. And translated into Italian 1955, English in
1958, German 1961, Croatian 1974, French 1982.
