Early Life, prologue.
Holiness has its own history. Models for holiness have always been the same, that is to say they have adapted themselves to the collective thoughts and have been demanded by society. Such as the Baroque Spain, a period when everything and just about every aspect was sanctified, a society which was hungry for miracles a sense of the natural and supernatural due to the lack of borders between heavenly and earthly society. The Baroque religiosity corresponds to the model of holiness and is applied to John of the Cross.
According to this baroque model, and the social condition of XVIth Spain guaranteed inevitably, nobility- honorability (honra), purification of blood, dignity of office, social origins. Within the complex formed in this society, holiness, considered as the supreme valour it was compatible with nobility. For this and economic and social implications, we see a certain obsession in one’s genealogy, the tendency to falsify or to invent privilege descendants for all the saints and even for those who were not and those who did not.
The father of John of the Cross “Noble weaver”.
The hagiography of John of the Cross is very explicit in the preconception of the model of holiness of his time «The Father was a Noble» declares [the brother] Francisco de Yepes. In the hagiography of the personality of John of the Cross’ father Francisco narrates the story of the apparition of their deceased mother revealing to them that «of the glory he [John of the Cross] possessed, as his father had been in the world a Noble and of good lineage». During the process of beatification and inquiries from witness it was said of him that «it was true… that he was born of catholic parents, who were pious and nobles, Gonzalo de Yepes y Catalina Alvarez». These witness were not forced to state such observations but rather they did not conceived any other way than to think of his parents other than «pious and noble». Another witness declares « I have it as certain that he was a son of noble parents».
Witness and hagiographers coincide with the narrative of an episode which proved the distance between the critical evaluation of the Saint and those who related his story. This occurred (or invented) in Granada in the monastery of the Martires were important persons had conversed about John of the Cross: «it happened that a certain friar from a religious Order when he was found in the orchard the prior [who was a prestigious person] had said to John ‘your paternity must be son of a labradour [Laborer] because you so delight in the orchard. John of the Cross responds «no I am not as much as that, for I am son of a poor weaver». In 1620 during the times of the process of beatification for John being a “Labrador” was not equivalent to a simple labourer but it connoted a high office. The expression was a reflection of a social conditioning which wiped out any doubt and gave a guarantee the cleansing of blood. It was the complete opposite of being a son of «a poor weaver».
The classic hagiographers do not seem to extol the response made by John of the Cross to the prior in Granda as proof of his deep humility and his heroic virtue. Quiroga states that having said those words «they remained astonished among themselves». Quiroga says that the reason for the astonishment was a confession of «humble blood, so contrary to human esteem». Alonso de la Madre de Dios recounting the same scene recounts in his biography « I am not so much as that, my parents were poor weavers of buratos [woollen stuff]. For the hagiographer, notwithstanding the humble words of the Saint, are manipulated to a virtuosity of the truth a lie because the hagiographer continues with his discourse stating «the humble father could have responded [to the prior in Granada] Fathers, and relatives we have in the Royal Court, We are relatives of Don Diego de Yepes, who is a confessor of our King Philip II and we have relatives inquisitors and cannons of the Church of Toledo.».
The Discalced Carmelites after the death of the Saint had adopted a program with the purpose to cleans the bloodline with singular rigor. And so the General of the Order had set a program of genealogy over extending even imaginarily until reaching a so called Francisco de García de Yepes, a notable Hidalgo, a military officer of King Juan II. This forced the accredited witnesses to the cleansing of the bloodline of Gonzalo de Yepes and consequently of John of the Cross. There was no possibility that such humble and poor beginnings of such a Saint con be reconciled with holiness and attributed to an Order which he was part of its founding. The fact that the Discalced Carmelites of this period of time attempted to cover-up this is an attestation itself of the truth of his humble beginnings.
His mother, a poor woman
Mother did not weigh in in the arguments of genealogy of the XVII century. The hagiographers focus even less in the mother of John of the Cross given that her genealogy was practically useless within the social context of the Saint. Even though the hagiographers insist of her poverty, her virtue and charity, some such as Jerónimo de San José confess that not knowing her lineage establish that she was daughter of honest and virtuous parents, stating that Alvarez is a « Surname well known and extensive, embracing innumerable Nobile families» «Who knows, says Jerónimo de San José, if the father of this virtuous girl was part of a branch, perhaps forgotten, of the most nobile of all?». But at the end of the day Juan de Yepes lived with her during his infancy and youth in his most decisive moments of his life.
It is presumed that her husband was rich when he had decided to marry her and married for love. That they married for love has not been proven, thus it has become a free hypothesis which has been turned into a key for the interpretation of the disownment of the family upon their marriage – the rich who marries the poor and gives cause to the «deshonra» conferred on Gonzalo upon his marriage with Catalina. The reason for the disowning was her poverty for several hagiographers including the biography of Baruzi, but Gómez Menor believes otherwise pointing to an unspoken a «mácula» or stain which might have been highly embarrassing and grave for the time period. What was this mysterious macula or stain which Gómez Menor held as a thesis… it was probably a series of possibilities which were deigned contrary for the society of the time, was Catalina was a Judaizer, or did Gonzalo being pursued by the law for illegal transgressions? Or where any of the parents of Moorish origins. The Moorish ancestry on the mother side for John of the Cross has been recovered by Jiménez Lozano creating a Moorish ambiance in the infancy of the Saint and his affinity to Arabic touches in his literature and lyric as well as his affinity to Andalucía
Juan de Yepes and the world of the poor.
Before the various biographies on St. John of the Cross, including those of his early hagiographers nothing could deny or hide the fact that he had grown up in an impoverish surrounding. The poor had their own social category. However, solidarity and tenderness was manifested through alms giving. As a reflection of this mentality is seen in the life of Francisco de Yepes: «[Francisco]Asking him one day to Our Lord which were the alms more acceptable before His Majesty made by the faithful. He said to him that it was the ones given to the “shamed” poor (avergonzantes) which in other time had enjoyed prosperity». This phrase helps understand the Yepes’ relationship between the “shamed” poor and the “honra”. However, not only was there a direct relationship between the shame poor and honra but that it was a test of good ancestry and a past “honrado” (honourable, past respectable). And this is the sense attributed to the conversion of Gonzalo de Yepes (John’s father) a type of shameful poor not out of consequence of his state of condition but due to the whimsy consequence of his misfortune (cause of his own fault). Jerónimo de San José writes «Being Gonzalo de Yepes of such “honra” in his surname and family and akin in Toledo, we will find him in a humble state working as a poor weaver”.
Yet, despite the hagiographical violations made by the early biographers the Yepes family from Fontiveros did not belong to that category of chosen poor, rather they belonged substantially and essentially to the simple poor who had all the right to beg and to the collective subsidy and if this was not enough – the mother was a widow. It is not certain if the poor parents of Juan de Yepes were poor when they had married. It is possible, however, that the humble weavers were thrown into poverty by the many agriculture crisis which had an effect on the subsidies for and support of the textile industry.
Birth of John de Yepes
One thing is for certain, Juan de Yepes came into this world during a most difficult time for Spain economically whether it was in 1541, or 1542 both years Spain was experiencing a draught, and a poor and meagre harvest, mass famine and disease and a high mortality rate for the impoverished. King Philip II tried pass laws to stop the increasing poverty in the country even to the point through his Royal Court to stop the “invasion” of the poor in cities like Zamora, Salamanca, Vallodolid and Toledo. It is possible that Catalina, his mother, due to the hunger crisis, had to look for other recourse such as acting as a wet nurse. The early hagiographers omit the mendicant mother and her attempt to find help from her husband’s relatives in Toledo, the harsh treatment received from them and entrusting her son Francisco to the care of his uncle Dr. Gálvez. It was possibly omitted by the hagiographers because were believe to be fictitious, romantic literature to be discredited.
Medina del Campo was in effect a remedy for the poor family. Francisco had married with another poor girl, Ana Izquierdo, and continue to be poor and preferred to beg as a type of “work”. Juan de Yepes followed another trajectory. Orphaned and son of a very poor widow, Medina del Campo was the villa of his infancy, and adolescence and it because his real home country, even though he was born in Fontiveros. It was a collective charity within the city of Medina del Campo which saved the family and formed the child intellectually. He attended “los doctrinos” a type of college-reformatory, a rigorous boarding school, with a monastic schedule or horarium and a rigorous daily routine which in effect its result served the common good of the public safety, given the danger of such youngsters falling into mischief and delinquency. Together with the “doctrinos” another element was added, a type of healthcare clinic which by consequence could treat illness and stop infectious disease before spreading to the public.
The “doctrinos” from Castille such as in Toledo, Avila, Valladolid, Medina del Campo, etc.) which were closely regulated by statutes of the Royal Courts were considered to be the most observant and strict. All were subordinated to “good customs” . The curriculum or plan of study and teaching were founded on Christian doctrine, learning a basic words and pronouncement and simple arithmetic, counting and letter recognition and some reading. The part of the curriculum was in the teaching of a trade, most of the children were chosen for a skill and eventually take up by a master or expert. Other children who had demonstrated an affinity and gift for letters were chosen to become students. Here is Juan de Yepes must have forged himself into a candidate for study, he had a gift for letters more so than for a trade or skill. His brother Francisco testifies: “ Juan, although a child, was very capable and learned well, and so they placed him with the children of the “doctrina” of Medina del Campo so that he could be taught. He was so clever that in a short time, he learned a lot, and also begged for the children of the “doctrina” and the nuns loved him because he was smart and able.”
His good reputation and high esteem had gain for him a place for him with some of the children assigned to act as altar boys at the monastery chapel of the Augustinian nuns. It is presumed that Juan de Yepes like the rest of the doctrinos had to help economically their own institution, by either assisting at funerals and burials (to add more people to the funeral entourage and procession). But without a doubt, as his brother Francisco points out, begging through the streets.. and this is how he lived his infancy with other marginalized children of Medina del Campo.
Grammar School, Jesuits and among the syphilitic.
From the days of initial formation of the “doctrinos” Juan de Yepes passed on to the work as an orderly at a hospital. The hagiographers and witnesses for his cause of beatification speak about the hospital… and nothing more. It was not appropriate according to the model of sanctity to speak about this type of hospital which quarantined persons with what was considered to be amongst the most shameful, degrading, impure and lethal contagious sexual disease called syphilis. Yet, among such hospitals in the regions the Hospital of las Bubas in Medina del Campo was the most busiest and had the best medical staff. It was situated outside the walls of the city, similar to other hospitals treating infectious diseases, it was founded and staffed by the confraternity of the Immaculate Conception. Juan de Yepes continued with the function, according to his brother Francisco, of begging for the syphilitics just like he did formally with the “doctrinos”.
One should not think that these hospitals were anything like the modern installations. The orderly or infirmarian cohabitated with the sick day and night. We see later, that John always had a gentle natural care for friars who complained or suffered from illness, or sickness caused by epidemics, plagues during his time in Andalucía. It is not easy to forget the experiences or familiarity with the syphilitics under sanitary conditions unimaginable.
Intellectual formation with the Jesuits
The Jesuits in their education structure had laid out a hermeneutic plan much different than any other educational institute. Their method of teaching consisted in a holistic or integral approach which embraced not only the studies in the humanities, which was common then but extended beyond the classroom covering all its aspects of the students life from the dining room, to speaking properly, even in recreation and play which also involved the local town community. This type of education had won for the Jesuits much esteem, respect and popular support.
Francisco again expressed his admiration for his younger brother John in the manner he used his time wisely to gain as much as he could: «He had such care, that in a short time he came to know much about the Compañia [Jesuits] he profited much in short time». The truth is that his illiterate brother, Francisco, was just simply impressed with just about anything John did.
John had acquired ideals and learned of the humanistic method enjoying the teaching of the great Jesuit professors. The later lyrical expressions in the works of John of the Cross reveal an exceptional humanistic infrastructure which could only be acquired in his early years of formation critical and decisive for his later intellectual development and expression. This aspect of his early intellectual formation, unfortunately has fallen victim of the obstructing spell of the early biographers and hagiographers.
The Jesuit college was teeming with religious vocations. Yet, whether he had any intentions of joining the Jesuit Order until today has satisfactorily not been answered, given that he had been a favourite for the hospital chaplaincy at las Bubas. -- jlf
