Saint John of the Cross, a great lover of Mary

A young John de Yepes y Álvarez, aged 4, had fallen in a pond while throwing sticks in it. As he was trying to get out of the water, a "beautiful lady" – whom he later acknowledged to be the Virgin Mary – held out her hand to help him. John refused to grab her hand because his were covered with sludge. A laborer who was walking by pulled him out of the water with his goad.

Later, his mother, a poor widow, sent him to a school of Christian doctrine. There, he fell into the well of a waterwheel. The people who rescued him marveled that he hadn't drowned or wasn't hurt. John said he was under the protection of the Virgin Mary.

He chose the order of the Carmelites, out of love for Mary. The Carmelite brothers helped him to attend the University of Salamanca, where he received a rigorous, broad education.

The year of his novitiate, in Medina, John of the Cross wrote a poem (now lost) called: "In thanksgiving for the grace which (the Lord) has given him to make him worthy to belong to the said order (the Carmel), under the protection of His most Blessed Mother.”

Chosen by Saint Teresa of Avila and sent by the apostolic vicar, John of the Cross became the confessor of the Carmel of Avila and the reformer of the order. After that he founded several Carmelite monasteries for men. Although he was younger than her, Saint Teresa of Avila called him her spiritual father.

His brothers of Andalusia gave the following testimony, around the years 1585-1588:

"Father John of the Cross was so devoted to Our Lady that he recited the office of Our Lady each day, on his knees... In all his homilies and conversations, he talked about the Blessed Sacrament and the Most Blessed Virgin, Our Lady."

On December 7, 1591, John received the last rites. He died at midnight on the following Friday, at the beginning of the office of matins, on a Saturday, a day especially dedicated to the Virgin Mary.

Crisogono de Gesù, Jean de la Croix, sa vie, Cerf, Paris 1982.

See also: Library of Marian Writings