St. John of the Cross was born Juan de Yepes at Fontiveros, near Avila in Spain and died in 1591 at Ubeda. He was beatified in 1675, canonized in 1726 and declared "Doctor of the Church Universal" in 1926.

from back cover: "It is perhaps not an exaggeration to say that the verse and prose works combined of St. John of the Cross form at once the most grandiose and the most melodious spiritual canticle to which any one man has ever given utterance. The most sublime of all the Spanish mystics, he soars aloft on the wings of Divine love to heights known to hardly any of them. . . . True to the character of his thought, his style is always forceful and energetic, even to a fault. . . . These treatises are a wonderful illustration of the theological truth that grace, far from destroying nature, ennobles and dignifies it, and of the agrement always found between the natural and the supernatural--between the principles of sound reason and the sublimest manifestations of Divine grace."

Beutiful poetry even for a novice like myself. The depth would be unreachable without Johns outstanding commentary. ( )

This is the follow-on companion book to the Ascent of Mount Carmel. Honestly I have not indulged my self yet. It appears to be done in the same objective approach as Ascent of Mount Carmel.