John of the Cross

Juan de Yepes y Álvarez

Lived

1542–1591

Era

Reformation

Where

Castile, Spain

Tradition

Roman Catholic

The dark night of the soul

A Carmelite friar recruited by Teresa to extend her reform to the men's houses, for which his own order imprisoned him in a cell in Toledo for nine months. He composed poetry there in his head, having nothing to write with.

Why it matters

The poems are among the greatest in Spanish, and his prose commentaries on them describe the stripping away of consolation in prayer — the dark night — not as failure but as the ordinary way God works. The phrase has escaped into general use for depression, which is not quite what he meant. He died in his forties, out of favour with the reform he had helped build.

All the figures, from the apostolic age to the present, or the timeline they stand in.