St. John of the Cross 
Dark Night of the Soul 

Written in the 16th century by a reform-minded Carmelite monk, Dark Night of the Soul is a treatise focusing on the metaphor of a dark night to represent a lonely phase in one’s personal spiritual life. Saint John was a Roman Catholic mystic and a Spanish poet, and this work reflects his mystical stages toward union with God. Written on a scroll smuggled to him by one of his guards, his songs are the ultimate expression of the spiritual seeker’s journey from estranged despair to blissful union with the divine. 

In Saint John’s poem, one comes to understand his belief in a benevolent God, outside of all thought or imagination, who we can only come to know through love. A profound description of absolution, desolation, progress, and love, it is a powerful work that captures the discouragement of doubt, as it offers help through spiritual loneliness. It explores not only the torments and relations of a soul’s spiritual journey, but also expounds on man’s relationship with God and the natural longing for union with the Creator.