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The Early Years
On an unknown day, the month uncertain, in 1542, Juan de Yepes
was born in a small town called Fontiveros. It lay on rocky
and barren land in the central plateau of Old Castile midway
between Madrid and Salamanca. With a population of about
5,000, the town included some small weaving shops. Juan's
father, Gonzalo de Yepes, who belonged to a wealthy family of
silk merchants in Toledo, had stopped in Fontiveros on a
business journey to Medina del Campo, and there met Catalina
Alvarez, a weaver of poor and humble background. Despite the
difference in their status, the two fell in love and married
in 1529. Shocked and disturbed by what they considered
shameful - a marriage to a girl of low position - the merchant
family disinherited Gonzalo. Deprived of financial security,
he had to adapt to the drudgery of the poor, which in his case
meant the lowly trade of weaving. Under these trying
circumstances, both Gonzalo and Catalina had to find strength
in their mutual friendship and intimacy.
The couple had three sons: Francisco, Luis, and the youngest,
Juan (later to be known as St. John of the Cross). But John
was little more than two years old when his father died, worn
out from the terrible suffering of a long illness. Reduced to
penury, the young widow - afflicted but courageous - set out
with
hope on a tiring journey to visit the wealthy members of her
husband's family, to beg assistance in her dire need. Rejected
by them, she had to manage as best she could on her own in
Fontiveros. During this time John's brother Luis died, perhaps
as a result of insufficient nourishment. Catalina then felt
constrained to try elsewhere, abandoning her little home and
moving to Arévalo, where things were hardly an
improvement,
and finally to Medina del Campo, the bustling market center of
Castile, where she resumed her work of weaving.
Here John entered a school for poor children where he received
an elementary education, principally of Christian doctrine,
and had the opportunity to become an apprentice in some trade
or profession. The school resembled an orphanange where the
children received food, clothing, and lodging. At this time,
the priest who was the director of the school chose John to
serve as an acolyte at La Magdalena, a nearby monastery of
Augustinian nuns. While on duty, the young boy assisted in the
sacristy for four hours in the morning, and in the afternoons
whenever the superior, the chaplain, or the sacristan needed
him. As for the apprenticeships - in carpentry, tailoring,
sculpturing, and painting - John showed no enthusiasm. Rather,
his gentleness and patience led to the discovery of his gift
for compassion toward the sick. Don Alonso Alvarez,
administrator of the hospital in Medina for poor people with
the plague or other contagious diseases, took an interest in
John and enlisted his services as nurse and alms-collector.
Don Alonso also provided John with the opportunity for further
study. At age 17, the bright young lad enrolled at the Jesuit
school, where lectures in grammar, rhetoric, Latin, and Greek
were the rule. The future poet came in contact with Latin and
Spanish classics, a contact that was anything but superficial,
since the Jesuits insisted on high standards and an abundance
of exercises, reading, and composition. Becoming acquainted
with classical imagery, the gifted pupil learned about
literary technique and opened himself to the world around him.
These years of hospital work and study, tasks that called for
responsibility and diligence, complemented John's early
experiences of poverty.
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