Juan de Yepes Álvarez was a poet and religious known by the name of San Juan de la Cruz, who was born on June 24, 1542 in the town of Fontiveros, in the province of Ávila.
His parents were Gonzalo de Yepes, a weaver by trade, and Catalina Álvarez, and was the youngest of three children. When Juan was 4 years old, his father died, and at the age of two one of his brothers also died. The rest of the family, in a difficult economic situation, moved to Medina del Campo in 1551. His brother’s marriage to a wealthy woman alleviates the situation, and Juan is able to study at the Jesuits.
At the same time that he was studying Humanities, he worked at the Hospital de Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, in Medina del Campo.
In the year 1563 he entered the Convent of the Carmelite Fathers, adopting the name of Fray Juan de San Matías, and the following year he moved to Salamanca to study the Bachelor of Arts.
In 1567 he was ordained priest, in Medina del Campo, and celebrated his first mass. This day he meets Teresa de Cepeda y Ahumada, later known as Santa Teresa de Jesús. Teresa had come to the municipality to carry out a Carmelite reform and create the order of Discalced Carmelites, convincing Juan to join her in this task.
In 1568 Juan founded in Ávila, in the town of Duruelo, the first male convent of Carmelo Descalzo, changing his name to Fray Juan de la Cruz. Later other foundations arrive, Juan becoming one of the main formators of the members of the new order.
In the year 1572 he settled in Ávila, in the Convent of the Incarnation, where he is Teresa de Jeús, acting as vicar and confessor of the nuns.
Due to the confrontation between the new order and the old Carmelites, Juan is arrested several times. On the last occasion he was imprisoned in Toledo for eight months, and there he wrote his famous “Spiritual chant”. Aided by a jailer, he escapes and takes refuge in the Convent of the Discalced Carmelites in Toledo.
In the year 1579 he moved to Baeza, being appointed Rector of the Colegio Mayor of one of its foundations, a position in which he remained until 1582. Then he lives for a time in Granada and then in Segovia.
In 1591, in this last city he fell ill, being transferred to Úbeda.
Saint John of the Cross died on December 14, 1591.