The Mystics of Spain

E. Allison Peers

• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9780486425016
• eBook ISBN:
  9780486164731
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Religious Biographies

During the sixteenth century — the golden age of Spanish mysticism — Roman Catholicism produced a thoroughly orthodox form of mysticism, a type of meditation that lay at the core of religious beliefs and was practiced to raise spiritual consciousness. In this authoritative book, a leading specialist in the field presents a comprehensive, ground-breaking study of the works and personalities of fifteen mystical authors. A brief exploration of the period serves as a background to extracts from the authors’ writings.
Included are Juan de Ávila and his “Letter to a religious, urging him to the perfect love of God”; St. Teresa of Jesus and her “An exclamation of the soul to God”; and St. John of the Cross, represented in part by his best-known work, “Dark Night of the Soul.” The text also contains “A contemplation to obtain love” by St. Ignatius of Loyola, as well as the meditations of Alonso de Orozco, Luis de Granada, Diego de Estella, Luis de León, and Pedro Malón de Chaide, among others. A list of books is provided for those who wish to make this anthology a starting point for further study.

ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS

1542—1591

(See pp. 23-4, above)

EDITIONS. The Complete Works of St. John of the Cross have been translated in three volumes (London, Burns Oates, 1934-5) from the text of P. Silverio de Santa Teresa’s five-volume edition (Burgos, 1929-31). The earlier translations of David Lewis (1864 ff.) are admirably done, but from an inferior text. The poems are separately translated (Spanish and English text) as The Poems of St. John of the Cross (London, Burns Oates, 1947).

STUDIES. The literature is immense, and much has appeared since the publication of my bibliography in Studies of the Spanish Mystics, London, Sheldon Press, 1927-30, Vol. I, pp. 443-8, Vol. II, pp. 399-400. It includes three biographies:

P. Bruno: St. John of the Cross. London, Sheed and Ward, 1932.

P. Crisógono de Jesús Sacramentado: Vida in Vida y Obras (Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos), Madrid, 1946 (2nd ed., 1950).

E. Allison Peers: Spirit of Flame. London, S.C.M. Press, 1943.

Other outstanding works are:

Dámaso Alonso: La Poesía de San Juan de la Cruz. Madrid, 1942.

Jean Baruzi: Saint Jean de la Croix et le problème de l’expérience mystique. Paris, 1924.

Bede Frost: St. John of the Cross. London, Hodder & Stoughton, 1937.

R. Hoornaert: L’Ame ardente de Saint Jean de la Croix. Bruges, Desclée, 1928 (English trans. by Algar Thorold: The Burning Soul of St. John of the Cross, London, Burns Oates, 1931).

C. H.: The Mystical Doctrine of St. John of the Cross. London, Sheed and Ward, 1934.

E. Allison Peers: In St. John of the Cross, etc., London, Faber & Faber, 1946, pp. 11-53.

Robert Sencourt: Carmelite and poet. London, Hollis & Carter, 1944.

DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL

Upon a darksome night,
Kindling with love in flame of yearning keen
—O moment of delight!—
I went, by all unseen,
New-hush’d to rest the house where I had been.

Safe sped I through that night,
By the secret stair, disguised and unseen
—O moment of delight!—
Wrapt in that night serene,
New-hush’d to rest the house where I had been.

O happy night and blest!
Secretly speeding, screen’d from mortal gaze,
Unseeing, on I prest,
Lit by no earthly rays,
Nay, only by heart’s inmost fire ablaze.

‘Twas that light guided me,
More surely than the noonday’s brightest glare,
To the place where none would be
Save one that waited there—
Well knew I whom or ere I forth did fare.

O night that led’st me thus!
O night more winsome than the rising sun!
O night that madest us,
Lover and lov’d, as one,
Lover transform’d in lov’d, love’s journey done!

Upon my flowering breast,
His only, as no man but he might prove,
There, slumbering, did he rest,
’Neath my caressing love,
Fann’d by the cedars swaying high above.

When from the turret’s height,
Scattering his locks, the breezes play’d around,
With touch serene and light
He dealt me love’s sweet wound,
And with the joyful pain thereof I swoon’d.

Forgetful, rapt, I lay,
My face reclining on my lov’d one fair.
All things for me that day
Ceas’d, as I slumber’d there,
Amid the lilies drowning all my care.

SPIRITUAL CANTICLE

Whither hast vanished,
Beloved, and hast left me full of woe,
And like the hart hast sped,
Wounding, ere thou didst go,
Thy love, who follow’d, crying, high and low?

Ye shepherds, soon to be
Among those sheepcotes on the hillside high,
If ye perchance should see
Him that I love pass by,
Say to him that I suffer, grieve and die.

I’ll seek my love straightway
Over yon hills, down where yon streamlets flow.
To pluck no flowers I’ll stay;
No fear of beasts I’ll know;
Past mighty men, o’er frontier-grounds I’ll go.

QUESTION TO THE CREATURES

You forest, thicket, dene,
Which my beloved set in close array;
You meadow-land so green,
Spangled with blossoms gay,
Tell me, oh, tell me, has he pass’d your way?

ANSWER OF THE CREATURES

Rare gifts he scattered
As through these woods and groves he pass’d apace,
Turning, as on he sped,
And clothing every place
With loveliest reflection of his face.

BRIDE

O that my griefs would end!
Come, grant me thy fruition full and free!
And henceforth do thou send
No messenger to me,
For none but thou my comforter can be.

The creatures, all around,
Speak of thy graces as I pass them by.
Each deals a deeper wound
And something in their cry
Leaves me so raptur’d that I fain would die.

How do I still draw breath
Since ’tis no life at all, this life I know?
These arrow-wounds deal death
That do torment me so
And with fair thoughts of thee increase my woe.

Why piercedst thou this heart
And heal’dst it not upon the selfsame day?
Why usedst robbers’ art
Yet leavest thus thy prey
And tak’st it not eternally away?

End thou my torments here,
Since none but thou can remedy my plight;
And to these eyes appear,
For thou art all their light
And save for thee I value not their sight.

Reveal thyself, I cry,
Yea, though the beauty of thy presence kill,
For sick with love am I,
And naught can cure my ill
Save only if of thee I have my fill.

O crystal spring so fair,
Might now within thy silvery depths appear,
E’en as I linger there,
Those features ever dear
Which on my soul I carry graven clear!

Withdraw thy gaze apart,
For, lo! I soar aloft.

SPOUSE

Return, my love!
See where the stricken hart
Looks from the hill above
What time he hears thy beating wings, my dove!

BRIDE

My love is as the hills,
The lonely valleys clad with forest-trees,
The rushing, sounding rills,
Strange isles in distant seas,
Lover-like whisperings, murmurs of the breeze.

My love is hush-of-night,
Is dawn’s first breathings in the heav’n above,
Still music veil’d from sight,
Calm that can echoes move,
The feast that brings new strength—the feast of love.

Now blooms our nuptial bed,
Safe-hid from men by lions’ fortress-lair,
With royal purple spread,
Builded all free from care,
Crown’d with a thousand golden scutcheons rare.

Youths that adore thy name
Follow thy footprints, for they sorely pine
To feel thy touch of flame,
To taste thy spiced wine,
To be anointed with thy balm divine.

Within his secret store,
Of my beloved drank I deep indeed.
Remembering then no more,
I roam’d this fertile mead,
My flock forgotten which I used to feed.

There gave he me his breast,
There taught me sweetest science of his own,
And I myself confest
His only, his alone,
Lavish’d my love upon him, keeping none.

My soul is well content
To serve her spouse with all her wealth and might.
Her days of toil full-spent,
Her flock now lost to sight,
Love is her labour, love her sole delight.

So, should I ne’er again
Be seen or heard of on the common-ground,
Say that I roam’d in vain,
By bonds of true love bound,
That I was lost, and that I now am found.

Of flowers and emeralds green,
Gather’d at coolest dawn on summer lea,
Garlands, my love, we’ll glean
That joy to bloom for thee:
Bound with one golden hair of mine they’ll be.

That golden hair one day
Thou saw’st as on my neck it lightly stray’d.
It bound thee then straightway;
A prisoner thou wert made
And wounded by my glance that on thee play’d.

When thou on me didst gaze
Thine eyes forthwith imprinted of their grace.
Then knew I love’s amaze.
And, bolden’d in that place,
Straightway ador’d as I beheld thy face.

Ah, scorn me not, I pray,
For if, in truth, uncomely once was I,
Thy beauty came one day,
And cloth’d my misery:
Look then on me, thus shrouded, as I cry.

Drive us the foxes hence,
For, see! our vine has come at last to flower,
The while with roses dense
We twine our nuptial bower.
Let none disturb our groves at this glad hour.

Begone, chill northern blast!
Wind from the south, that wakenest love, be ours!
Breathe in us, winter past,
The fragrance of these bowers,
Where my beloved pastures ’mid the flowers.

SPOUSE

Her entry she has made
Into the long’d-for garden, fair to sight.
Now rests she in its shade,
With fullness of delight,
Secure in the embrace of tranquil might.

Beneath the apple-flower
To plight my troth to thee, my love, I came.
My hand in that same hour
Pledg’d unto thee my name
In reparation of thy mother’s shame.

Birds as ye take your wing,
Lion and hart and skipping fallow-deer,
River-bank, valley, spring,
Heats, breezes, mountains sheer,
Things that chase sleep and fill the nights with fear,

By siren’s sweetest song
And pleasant lyre I conjure you to cease.
Let your tumultuous throng
No more assault our peace:
The Bride shall find in sleep secure release.

BRIDE

Daughters of Jewry, stay!
While choicest ambar-perfume doth invade
Rose-bowers and blossoms gay,
Rest in the outer glade
And come not to disturb our holy shade.

Hide thee, my lover dear,
And lift thine eyes until the hills they see.
Speak not, for none will hear;
Lo, where they company
With her that roams strange islands, far and free.

SPOUSE

See, where the milk-white dove
Bears to the ark the pledge of flood-freed ground,
And the comrade of her love
The turtle-dove has found
On...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• GENERAL INTRODUCTION
• PREFACE
• Table of Contents
• INTRODUCTION - THE MYSTICS OF SPAIN
• LIST OF BOOKS
• EXTRACTS FROM THE SPANISH MYSTICS
• RAMÓN LULL - c. 1233—c. 1315
• GARCÍA DE CISNEROS - 1455—1510
• BERNARDINO DE LAREDO - 1482—1540
• ST. IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA - 1491—1556
• FRANCISCO DE OSUNA - c. 1497—c. 1541
• ST. PETER OF ALCÁNTARA - 1499—1562
• JUAN DE ÁVILA - 1500—1569
• ALONSO DE OROZCO - 1500—1591
• LUIS DE GRANADA - 1504—1588
• ST. TERESA OF JESUS - 1515—1582
• DIEGO DE ESTELLA - 1524—1578
• LUIS DE LEÓN - 1528—1591
• PEDRO MALÓN DE CHAIDE - C. 1530—1589
• JUAN DE LOS ÁNGELES - 1536—1609
• ST. JOHN OF THE CROSS - 1542—1591