The treatise, written in 1584-5, is a theological commentary on the poem, explaining its meaning by stanzas. John of the Cross was imprisoned by his Carmelite brothers who opposed his reformations to the Order. The text was written in 1578 or 1579 while St. Dark Night of the Soul further describes the ten steps on the ladder of mystical love, previously described by St. The second, the more intense of the two stages, which is far less common, is that of the purification of the spirit. The first is a purification of the senses. The poem is divided into two books that reflect the two phases of the dark night, the first difficult and the second horrible. The main idea of the poem can be seen as the painful experience that people endure as they seek to grow in spiritual maturity and union with God. There are several steps in this night, which are related in successive stanzas. The journey is called “The Dark Night,” darkness representing the hardships and difficulties the soul meets in detachment from the world and reaching the light of the union with the Creator. John of the Cross’ poem narrates the journey of the soul from its bodily home to its union with God.
He is one of the thirty-five Doctors of the Church. He was canonized as a saint in 1726 by Pope Benedict XIII. Both his poetry and his studies on the growth of the soul are considered the summit of mystical Spanish literature and one of the peaks of all Spanish literature. John of the Cross was a reformer of the Carmelite Order and is considered, along with Saint Teresa of Ávila, as a founder of the Discalced Carmelites. John of the Cross was a major figure of the Counter-Reformation, a Spanish mystic, Roman Catholic saint, Carmelite friar and priest. JOHN OF THE CROSS, 16th Century The Dark Night of the Soul New Section: The Coronavirus and a Global Darker Night of the Soul ST.