San Juan de la Cruz

Tyler Fisher (University College London)

Ed. by Duncan Wheeler, University of Leeds
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.6.2.01: Spanish Literature and Culture from the Beginning to the Golden Age.
Vol. editors: Andrew M. Beresford (University of Durham), Stuart Green (University of Leeds), Juan Pablo Rodriguez (Yale University), Duncan Wheeler (University of Leeds)

Dates

Born 24 Jun 1542
Died 14 Dec 1591
Activity c. 1565-1591

Places

Born in Spain
Active in Spain

Activities

Primary

Religious writer

Other

Poet

Resources

Born Juan de Yepes y Álvarez near Ávila, Spain, the future saint showed an early aptitude for selfless service, beginning work as a teenager in a hospital for the infirm and impoverished in Medina del Campo. San Juan’s life and teaching underscore a rigorous asceticism, yet his poetry, while often tersely economical, is far from austere in its diction and imagery. “In his best lyrics every word tells”, Gerald Brenan observed (1973: xii). He professed to have attained a mystical, rapturous experience of God and divine love, and endeavoured to express something of that spiritual encounter in writing. To this end, his writing, in verse and prose, is autobiographical and exhortative: autobiographical, insofar …

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1272 words

Citation: Fisher, Tyler. "San Juan de la Cruz". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 February 2018 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13151, accessed 22 November 2024.]

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