Quote of the day, 21 July: St. John of the Cross

This definitory meeting is being greatly delayed, and I am sorry on account of my desire that Doña Catalina enter, for I want to give….

Saint John of the Cross
Letter 5 to Madre Ana de San Alberto
Seville, June 1586

Note: The following account of the Discalced friars’ 1586 provincial definitory meeting comes from biographer José Vicente Rodríguez Rodríguez, OCD, who details how St. John of the Cross traveled from Andalusia to Madrid, accompanying Blessed Anne of Jesus and other nuns for a new foundation there. After falling ill and recovering in Toledo, John arrived late to the Madrid definitory meeting that had begun on August 13th.

Father Rodríguez reveals that the definitory formally approved two requests to Pope Sixtus V: confirmation of the bull of separation from the Carmelite Order (which Gregory XIII had previously granted) and permission to have a procurator in Rome. However, Provincial Nicolás Doria had already been working behind the scenes on both matters, even securing King Philip II’s support before the definitory convened.

The disagreements during the meeting centered on liturgical practices, with John of the Cross, Ambrosio Mariano, and Juan Bautista preferring to maintain the traditional rite of the Holy Sepulcher, while Doria and Gregorio Nacianceno favored adopting the Roman rite—an additional level of separation between Calced and Discalced Carmelites.

While at the definitory meeting, on August 14th Nicolás Doria and the four definitors, among them John of the Cross, sent a letter to the general of the Order, Juan Bautista Caffardo, informing him that they were sending to Rome their own procurator in the person of Father Juan de Jesús (Roca), who would explain in person the need that the province had to have its own procurator, since they did not wish to burden the procurator general of the entire Order.

Once the definitory meeting was finished, Philip II again addressed the pope, asking him for confirmation of the brief [of separation from the Order], the change from the Order’s rite to the Roman rite, and the right to have their own procurator. As could be seen, this third point was now added to the petition: the change of liturgical rite.

When dealing with this matter at the definitory meeting, it seemed there were disagreements. Nicolás Doria and Gregorio Nacianceno favored the change to the Roman rite. The other three—John of the Cross, Ambrosio Mariano, and Juan Bautista—preferred to continue with the traditional rite of the Holy Sepulcher, proper to the Order of Carmel. In the end they yielded and accepted what the provincial proposed.

José Vicente Rodríguez Rodríguez, OCD

San Juan de la Cruz: La biografía, chap. 24

John of the Cross, St. 1991, The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, Revised Edition, translated from the Spanish by Kavanaugh, K and Rodriguez, O with revisions and introductions by Kavanaugh, K, ICS Publications, Washington DC.

Rodríguez, J.V. 2015, San Juan de la Cruz: la biografía, 2nd edn, San Pablo, Madrid.

Translation from the Spanish text is the blogger’s own work product and may not be reproduced without permission.

Featured image: Mass of Saint John of the Cross by José Joaquín Magón (1750–1763), oil on canvas, Templo de Nuestra Señora del Carmen, Puebla, Mexico. Image credit: © Alejandro Andrade Campos (Project for the Engraved Sources of Spanish Colonial Art, Item 2413B).

#CarmeliteRite #definitory #Madrid #RomanRite #StJohnOfTheCross