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Final Years
In the summer of 1588, John was elected third councillor to
the vicar general for the discalced, Father Nicolás Doria,
and
had to return to Segovia in Castile, where in this capacity he
was also prior. At his new site, one with a splendid view of
Segovia and the surrounding area, he spent a good portion of
his time again in manual labor, designing an addition to the
monastery, quarrying stone for it, and working on its
construction. He no longer wrote, but spent more time in
prayer, going off to a cave on the property where he could
view the countryside and have solitude for his deep
contemplation. He had brought his latest work, The Living
Flame of Love, to an unexpectedly swift close, confessing that
he did not want to explain any further about the breathing of
the Holy Spirit in the soul, "for I am aware of being
incapable of so doing, and were I to try, it might seem less
than it is.
Never one to shun those who came for help, John continued his
ministry of spiritual direction; the business matters of the
order's government were always claiming attention as well. In
fact, these latter sparked another conflict, this time among
the discalced themselves. The clash began when Nicolás
Doria
called an extraordinary chapter in June 1590 for the purpose
of undertaking two controversial moves. First he wanted to
abandon jurisdiction over the nuns, a reprisal against Madre
Ana de Jesús who opposed his plans; Doria had hoped both
to
make changes in Teresa's constitutions and to govern the nuns
through a body of councillors rather than through one friar
appointed to the task. Second, he proposed the expulsion of
Teresa's close collaborator, Father Jerónimo Gracián,
from the
discalced Carmelites. Fray John spoke in opposition to both
moves. In the chapter the following year, different
councillors were elected to assist Doria, and John remained
without an office, a fact that was more a problem for others
than for himself. When the news got about, some began raising
strong protests. But John looked at things differently, as he
so often did, and expressed his mind in a letter to the
prioress in Segovia:
Do not let what is happening to me, daughter, cause you any
grief, for it does not cause me any. What greatly grieves me
is that one who is not at fault is blamed. Men do not do these
things, but God, who knows what is suitable for us and
arranges things for our own good. Think nothing else but that
God ordains all, and where there is no love, put love, and you
will draw out love [July 6, 1591].
Doria, in what seemed a rebuff, sent John of the Cross back
into Andalusia, to an isolated monastery called La
Peñuela, a
solitude like Duruelo or El Calvario. However, John was to
stay there only in preparation for a mission to Mexico where
he was to lead a group of 12 friars. He was happy in the
solitude, but some ugly maneuverings began to disturb the
peace of his friends, whom he had helped as spiritual
director, and shattered the impressive silence of La
Peñuela.
Fray Diego Evangelista, with bitter resentment against his
former superior, was going about threatening and intimidating,
trying to gather information against the spiritual friar so as
to have him expelled from the discalced. Fray Diego never had
time to proceed far with his designs.
In mid-September John began to suffer a slight fever caused by
an inflammation of the leg. Thinking it nothing serious, he
paid little attention, but when it persisted he was forced to
make the journey to Ubeda for the medical assistance that was
unavailable at La Peñuela. Given the choice between Baeza
and
Ubeda, he chose Ubeda, "for at Baeza they know me very
well,
and in Ubeda nobody knows me. " It was the last journey of
his
life.
The prior of the monastery at Ubeda, Fray Francisco
Crisóstomo, did not welcome the sick man. Learned and
famous
as a preacher, Fray Crisóstomo had his weaknesses, among
them
a tendency to be mean and rigid. A sick friar was a nuisance
and an expense as far as he was concerned, and he showed his
vexation; nor did he care for people who were supposedly holy.
John's sickness grew worse. His leg was already ulcerated, and
the disease, erysipelas, spread to his back where a new
fist-sized tumor formed. On December 13, Fray John of the
Cross, knowing that time was running short, called for the
prior and begged pardon for all the trouble he had caused.
This profoundly changed the prior, who himself then begged
forgiveness and left the cell in tears, totally transformed.
According to witnesses Fray Francisco Crisóstomo later
died in
the odor of sanctity.
That same night, when the friars began to recite the prayers
for the dying, Fray John of the Cross begged, "No, read
some
verses from the Song of Songs, " and then exclaimed, "Oh, what
precious pearls! " At midnight, without agony, without
struggle, he died, repeating the words of the psalmist: "Into
your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit. " The favors he had
asked for in his last years he had now received: not to die as
a superior, to die in a place where he was unknown, and to die
after having suffered much.
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