MIRACULOUS MIRACLES™

Prayer — Prayers of the Saints

Prayer to St. John of the Cross

Indulgenced by Leo XII, 30 January 1828

To the poet who was imprisoned by his own brethren and wrote the Spiritual Canticle in the cell: 'thy thirst after sufferings was so burning that thy noble heart rejoiced in the midst of the sorest torments.'

The Prayer
English · Original
O glorious St. John, who, through a pure desire of being like unto Jesus crucified, didst long for nothing so eagerly, up to the last moment of thy holy life, as to be despised and made little of by all, and whose thirst after sufferings was so burning that thy noble heart rejoiced in the midst of the sorest torments and afflictions: vouchsafe, I beseech thee, O dear Saint, by the glory which thy many sufferings have gained for thee, to intercede for me, and obtain for me of God a love of suffering, together with grace and strength to bear with firmness of mind all trials and adversities, which are the sure means to the happy attainment of that glorious crown which awaits me in Heaven.

Dear Saint, from thy most happy throne of glory, whereon thou art now seated in majesty, hear, I beseech thee, my prayers; so that, after thy example, full of love for the Cross and for suffering, I may deserve to be thy companion in glory. Amen.
When the Prayer is Said

On 14 December; in desolation and dryness of soul; in Carmel; when treated unjustly by one's own.

History & Background

Juan de Yepes joined Teresa of Ávila's reform of Carmel and paid for it. In December 1577 the unreformed friars seized him, and he spent nine months in a cell six feet by ten in Toledo, beaten weekly before the community, with no light but a slit high in the wall. He composed the greater part of the Spiritual Canticle there, in his head, and escaped one night down a rope of torn blankets. He is the Mystical Doctor, and the phrase 'the dark night of the soul' is his.

The prayer asks for what he had: 'a love of suffering, together with grace and strength to bear with firmness of mind all trials and adversities'. That is a petition to weigh before making. Asked once by Christ in a vision what reward he wanted for his work, he is said to have answered: 'To suffer and to be despised for Thee.'

Leo XII indulgenced the prayer in 1828. The text is the Raccolta's of 1910.

Indulgences Attached

One hundred days once a day, and plenary once a month — Leo XII, 30 January 1828 (Raccolta, 1910, no. 365).

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