by

Practical religion. The Christian life

Mysticism

Table of Contents

p. 1 Title Page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 2 Preface to the Electronic Edition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 3 Principal Abbreviations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 4 Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 9 Manuscripts Of The Dark Night. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 13 Prologue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 15 Book The First. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 15

Chapter I. Sets down the first line and begins to treat of the imperfections

of beginners.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 16

Chapter II. Of certain spiritual imperfections which beginners have with

respect to the habit of pride.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 19

Chapter III. Of some imperfections which some of these souls are apt to

have, with respect to the second capital sin, which is avarice, in the spiritual

sense.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 20

Chapter IV. Of other imperfections which these beginners are apt to have

with respect to the third sin, which is luxury.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 23

Chapter V. Of the imperfections into which beginners fall with respect to

the sin of wrath.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 24 Chapter VI. Of imperfections with respect to spiritual gluttony.. . . . . . .

p. 27 Chapter VII. Of imperfections with respect to spiritual envy and sloth.. . .

p. 28

Chapter VIII. Wherein is expounded the first line of the first stanza, and a

beginning is made of the explanation of this dark night.. . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 30

Chapter IX. Of the signs by which it will be known that the spiritual person

is walking along the way of this night and purgation of sense.. . . . . . . .

p. 33

Chapter X. Of the way in which these souls are to conduct themselves in

this dark night.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 35 Chapter XI. Wherein are expounded the three lines of the stanza.. . . . .

p. 37 Chapter XII. Of the benefits which this night causes in the soul.. . . . . .

p. 40

Chapter XIII. Of other benefits which this night of sense causes in the

soul.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 43 Chapter XIV. Expounds this last line of the first stanza.. . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 46 Book The Second. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 46

Chapter I. Which begins to treat of the dark nights of the spirit and says at

what time it begins.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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p. 47

Chapter II. Describes other imperfections which belong to these

proficients.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 48 Chapter III. Annotation for that which follows.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 50 Chapter IV. Sets down the first stanza and the exposition thereof.. . . . .

p. 51

Chapter V. Sets down the first line and begins to explain how this dark

contemplation is not only night for the soul but is also grief and

torment.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 53 Chapter VI. Of other kinds of pain that the soul suffers in this night.. . . . .

p. 55

Chapter VII. Continues the same matter and considers other afflictions end

constraints of the will.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 59 Chapter VIII. Of other pains which afflict the soul in this state.. . . . . . .

p. 61

Chapter IX. How, although this night brings darkness to the spirit, it does

so in order to illumine it and give it light.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 65 Chapter X. Explains this purgation fully by a comparison.. . . . . . . . . .

p. 68

Chapter XI. Begins to explain the second line of the first stanza. Describes

how, as the fruit of these rigorous constraints, the soul finds itself with the

vehement passion of Divine love.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 70

Chapter XII. Shows how this horrible night is purgatory, and how in it the

Divine wisdom illumines men on earth with the same illumination that purges

and illumines the angels in Heaven.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 72

Chapter XIII. Of other delectable effects which are wrought in the soul by

this dark night of contemplation.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 76

Chapter XIV. Wherein are set down and explained the last three lines of

the first stanza.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 77 Chapter XV. Sets down the second stanza and its exposition.. . . . . . .

p. 78

Chapter XVI. Explains how, though in darkness, the soul walks

securely.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 83 Chapter XVII. Explains how this dark contemplation is secret.. . . . . . .

p. 86 Chapter XVIII. Explains how this secret wisdom is likewise a ladder.. . . .

p. 87

Chapter XIX. Begins to explain the ten steps of the mystic ladder of Divine

love, according to Saint Bernard and Saint Thomas. The first five are here

treated.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 90 Chapter XX. Wherein are treated the other five steps of love.. . . . . . . .

p. 92

Chapter XXI. Which explains the word ‘disguised,’ and describes the colours

of the disguise of the soul in this night.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 95 Chapter XXII. Explains the third line of the second stanza.. . . . . . . . . .

p. 96

Chapter XXIII. Expounds the fourth line and describes the wondrous hiding

place wherein the soul is set during this night. Shows how, although the

devil has an entrance into other places that are very high, he has none into

this.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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p. 101 Chapter XXIV. Completes the explanation of the second stanza.. . . . .

p. 102 Chapter XXV. Wherein is expounded the third stanza.. . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 104 Indexes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 104 Index of Scripture References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

p. 105 Latin Words and Phrases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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vi

St. John of the Cross Dark Night of the Soul

Translated and edited, with an Introduction,

by E. ALLISON PEERS

from the critical edition of

P. SILVERIO DE SANTA TERESA, C.D.

TO THE

DISCALCED CARMELITES OF CASTILE,

St. John of the Cross Dark Night of the Soul

This electronic edition (v 0.9) was scanned in 1994 from an uncopyrighted 1959 Image Books third

have been reproduced. Nearly 400 footnotes (and parts of footnotes) describing variations among

manuscripts have been omitted. Page number references in the footnotes have been changed to

chapter and section where possible. This edition has been proofread once, but additional errors may

remain. The translator’s preface to the first and second editions may be found with the electronic

2

St. John of the Cross Dark Night of the Soul

A.V.—Authorized Version of the Bible (1611).

D.V.—Douai Version of the Bible (1609).

Peers from the critical edition of P. Silverio de Santa Teresa, C.D. London, Sheed and Ward, 1946.

3 vols.

London, Burns Oates and Washbourne, 1953.

edition of P. Silverio de Santa Teresa, C.D. London, Burns Oates and Washbourne, 1951. 2 vols.

N.L.M.—National Library of Spain (Biblioteca Nacional), Madrid.

P. Silverio de Santa Teresa, C.D. Burgos, 1929–31. 5 vols.

2nd ed., London, S.P.C.K., 1951. Vol. II, London, Sheldon Press, 1930.

su obra. Madrid, 1950.

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undertakings given in it:

quoted:

In his three earlier books he has written of the Active Night, of Sense and of Spirit; he now proposes

to deal with the Passive Night, in the same order. He has already taught us how we are to deny and

purify ourselves with the ordinary help of grace, in order to prepare our senses and faculties for

union with God through love. He now proceeds to explain, with an arresting freshness, how these

same senses and faculties are purged and purified by God with a view to the same end—that of

union. The combined description of the two nights completes the presentation of active and passive

purgation, to which the Saint limits himself in these treatises, although the subject of the stanzas

which he is glossing is a much wider one, comprising the whole of the mystical life and ending

only with the Divine embraces of the soul transformed in God through love.

The stanzas expounded by the Saint are taken from the same poem in the two treatises. The

commentary upon the second, however, is very different from that upon the first, for it assumes a

much more advanced state of development. The Active Night has left the senses and faculties well

prepared, though not completely prepared, for the reception of Divine influences and illuminations

in greater abundance than before. The Saint here postulates a principle of dogmatic theology—that

by himself, and with the ordinary aid of grace, man cannot attain to that degree of purgation which

2 Op. cit., sect. 3.

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is essential to his transformation in God. He needs Divine aid more abundantly. ‘However greatly

the soul itself labours,’ writes the Saint, ‘it cannot actively purify itself so as to be in the least degree

prepared for the Divine union of perfection of love, if God takes not its hand and purges it not in

The Passive Nights, in which it is God Who accomplishes the purgation, are based upon this

incapacity. Souls ‘begin to enter’ this dark night

Before explaining the nature and effects of this Passive Night, the Saint touches, in passing, upon

certain imperfections found in those who are about to enter it and which it removes by the process

of purgation. Such travellers are still untried proficients, who have not yet acquired mature habits

of spirituality and who therefore still conduct themselves as children. The imperfections are examined

one by one, following the order of the seven deadly sins, in chapters (ii-viii) which once more

reveal the author’s skill as a director of souls. They are easy chapters to understand, and of great

purgation of the desires of sense.

In Chapter viii, St. John of the Cross begins to describe the Passive Night of the senses, the principal

aim of which is the purgation or stripping of the soul of its imperfections and the preparation of it

for fruitive union. The Passive Night of Sense, we are told, is ‘common’ and ‘comes to many,’

on the former Night existed in the time of St. John of the Cross and he therefore promises to be

brief in his treatment of it. Of the latter, on the other hand, he will ‘treat more fully . . . since very

little has been said of this, either in speech or in writing, and very little is known of it, even by

Having described this Passive Night of Sense in Chapter viii, he explains with great insight and

discernment how it may be recognized whether any given aridity is a result of this Night or whether

it comes from sins or imperfections, or from frailty or lukewarmness of spirit, or even from

indisposition or ‘humours’ of the body. The Saint is particularly effective here, and we may once

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St. John of the Cross Dark Night of the Soul

point where the soul may abandon discursive meditation and enter the contemplation which belongs

to loving and simple faith.

Both these chapters have contributed to the reputation of St. John of the Cross as a consummate

spiritual master. And this not only for the objective value of his observations, but because, even in

spite of himself, he betrays the sublimity of his own mystical experiences. Once more, too, we may

admire the crystalline transparency of his teaching and the precision of the phrases in which he

clothes it. To judge by his language alone, one might suppose at times that he is speaking of

mathematical, rather than of spiritual operations.

In Chapter x, the Saint describes the discipline which the soul in this Dark Night must impose upon

long it will experience enkindlings of love (Chapter xi), which will serve to purify its sins and

imperfections and draw it gradually nearer to God; we have here, as it were, so many stages of the

ascent of the Mount on whose summit the soul attains to transforming union. Chapters xii and xiii

detail with great exactness the benefits that the soul receives from this aridity, while Chapter xiv

briefly expounds the last line of the first stanza and brings to an end what the Saint desires to say

with respect to the first Passive Night.

At only slightly greater length St. John of the Cross describes the Passive Night of the Spirit, which

is at once more afflictive and more painful than those which have preceded it. This, nevertheless,

have called that of sense may and should be called a kind of correction and restraint of the desire

rather than purgation. The reason is that all the imperfections and disorders of the sensual part have

their strength and root in the spirit, where all habits, both good and bad, are brought into subjection,

Spiritual persons, we are told, do not enter the second night immediately after leaving the first; on

imperfections, both habitual and actual (Chapter ii). After a brief introduction (Chapter iii), the

Saint describes with some fullness the nature of this spiritual purgation or dark contemplation

referred to in the first stanza of his poem and the varieties of pain and affliction caused by it, whether

in the soul or in its faculties (Chapters iv-viii). These chapters are brilliant beyond all description;

in them we seem to reach the culminating point of their author’s mystical experience; any excerpt

from them would do them an injustice. It must suffice to say that St. John of the Cross seldom again

touches those same heights of sublimity.

Chapter ix describes how, although these purgations seem to blind the spirit, they do so only to

enlighten it again with a brighter and intenser light, which it is preparing itself to receive with

greater abundance. The following chapter makes the comparison between spiritual purgation and

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St. John of the Cross Dark Night of the Soul

the log of wood which gradually becomes transformed through being immersed in fire and at last

takes on the fire’s own properties. The force with which the familiar similitude is driven home

impresses indelibly upon the mind the fundamental concept of this most sublime of all purgations.

Marvellous, indeed, are its effects, from the first enkindlings and burnings of Divine love, which

are greater beyond comparison than those produced by the Night of Sense, the one being as different

from the other as is the body from the soul. ‘For this (latter) is an enkindling of spiritual love in

the soul, which, in the midst of these dark confines, feels itself to be keenly and sharply wounded

are the effects of the powerful Divine illumination which from time to time enfolds the soul in the

splendours of glory. When the effects of the light that wounds and yet illumines are combined with

those of the enkindlement that melts the soul with its heat, the delights experienced are so great as

to be ineffable.

The second line of the first stanza of the poem is expounded in three admirable chapters (xi-xiii),

while one short chapter (xiv) suffices for the three lines remaining. We then embark upon the second

being freed ‘not only from itself, but likewise from its other enemies, which are the world and the

This contemplation is not only dark, but also secret (Chapter xvii), and in Chapter xviii is compared

to the ‘staircase’ of the poem. This comparison suggests to the Saint an exposition (Chapters xviii,

xix) of the ten steps or degrees of love which comprise St. Bernard’s mystical ladder. Chapter xxi

describes the soul’s ‘disguise,’ from which the book passes on (Chapters xxii, xxiii) to extol the

‘happy chance’ which led it to journey ‘in darkness and concealment’ from its enemies, both without

and within.

Chapter xxiv glosses the last line of the second stanza—‘my house being now at rest.’ Both the

higher and the lower ‘portions of the soul’ are now tranquillized and prepared for the desired union

with the Spouse, a union which is the subject that the Saint proposed to treat in his commentary on

the five remaining stanzas. As far as we know, this commentary was never written. We have only

the briefest outline of what was to have been covered in the third, in which, following the same

effective metaphor of night, the Saint describes the excellent properties of the spiritual night of

infused contemplation, through which the soul journeys with no other guide or support, either

outward or inward, than the Divine love ‘which burned in my heart.’

It is difficult to express adequately the sense of loss that one feels at the premature truncation of

have been written on the final stanzas of the ‘Dark Night.’ Did we possess them, they would explain

the birth of the light—‘dawn’s first breathings in the heav’ns above’—which breaks through the

black darkness of the Active and the Passive Nights; they would tell us, too, of the soul’s further

13 [On this, see Sobrino, pp. 159–66.]

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progress towards the Sun’s full brightness. It is true, of course, that some part of this great gap is

filled by St. John of the Cross himself in his other treatises, but it is small compensation for the

incomplete state in which he left this edifice of such gigantic proportions that he should have given

treatise. They lose both in flexibility and in substance through the closeness with which they follow

we catch only the echoes of the poem, which are all but lost in the resonance of the philosopher’s

voice and the eloquent tones of the preacher. Nor have the other treatises the learning and the

authority of these. Nowhere else does the genius of St. John of the Cross for infusing philosophy

into his mystical dissertations find such an outlet as here. Nowhere else, again, is he quite so

appealingly human; for, though he is human even in his loftiest and sublimest passages, this

intermingling of philosophy with mystical theology makes him seem particularly so. These treatises

are a wonderful illustration of the theological truth that grace, far from destroying nature, ennobles

and dignifies it, and of the agreement always found between the natural and the

supernatural—between the principles of sound reason and the sublimest manifestations of Divine

grace.

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St. John of the Cross Dark Night of the Soul

second seems to have disappeared in the same period as the first. There are extant, however, as

of conscious adulteration of the original or of any kind of modification to fit the sense of any passage

into a preconceived theory. We definitely prefer one of these copies to the others but we nowhere

follow it so literally as to incorporate in our text its evident discrepancies from its original.

MS. 3,446. An early MS. in the clear masculine hand of an Andalusian: MS. 3,446 in the National

Library, Madrid. Like many others, this MS. was transferred to the library from the Convento de

San Hermenegildo at the time of the religious persecutions in the early nineteenth century; it had

been presented to the Archives of the Reform by the Fathers of Los Remedios, Seville—a Carmelite

is bound up with it.

This MS. has only two omissions of any length; these form part respectively of Book II, Chapters

xix and xxiii, dealing with the Passive Night of the Spirit. It has many copyist’s errors. At the same

time, its antiquity and origin, and the good faith of which it shows continual signs, give it, in our

view, primacy over the other copies now to come under consideration. It must be made clear,

MS. of the Carmelite Nuns of Toledo. Written in three hands, all early. Save for a few slips of the

copyist, it agrees with the foregoing; a few of its errors have been corrected. It bears no title, but

has a long sub-title which is in effect a partial summary of the argument.

MS. of the Carmelite Nuns of Valladolid. This famous convent, which was one of St. Teresa’s

foundations, is very rich in Teresan autographs, and has also a number of important documents

relating to St. John of the Cross, together with some copies of his works. That here described is

written in a large, clear hand and probably dates from the end of the sixteenth century. It has a title

similar to that of the last-named copy. With few exceptions it follows the other most important

MSS.

of the amanuensis, the ‘Argument’ at the beginning of the poem, the verses themselves and a few

lines from Book II, Chapter vii.

MS. 6,624. This copy is almost identical with the foregoing. It omits the ‘Argument’ and the poem

itself but not the lines from Book II, Chapter vii.

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It is written in various hands, all very early and some feminine. A note by P. Andrés de la

Encarnación, on the reverse of the first folio, records that the copy was presented to the Archives

of the Reform by the Discalced Carmelite nuns of Baeza. This convent was founded in 1589, two

years before the Saint’s death, and the copy may well date from about this period. On the second

folio comes the poem ‘I entered in—I knew not where.’ On the reverse of the third folio begins a

a soul may occupy itself and become fervent in the love of God. It deals with the Dark Night and

is divided into two books. The first treats of the purgation of sense, and the second of the spiritual

purgation of man. It was written by P. Fr. Juan de la Cruz, Discalced Carmelite.’ On the next folio,

a so-called ‘Preface: To the Reader’ begins: ‘As a beginning and an explanation of these two

purgations of the Dark Night which are to be expounded hereafter, this chapter will show how

narrow is the path that leads to eternal life and how completely detached and disencumbered must

be those that are to enter thereby.’ This fundamental idea is developed for the space of two folios.

treatise.

The copy contains many errors, but its only omission is that of the last chapter. There is no trace

in it of any attempt to modify its original; indeed, the very nature and number of the copyist’s errors

are a testimony to his good faith.

MS. 12,658. A note by P. Andrés states that he acquired it in Madrid but has no more detailed

antiquity.’

The Codex contains a number of opuscules, transcribed no doubt with a devotional aim by the

copyist. Its epoch is probably the end of the sixteenth century; it is certainly earlier than the editions.

There is no serious omission except that of six lines of the ‘Argument.’ The authors of the other

works copied include St. Augustine, B. Juan de Ávila, P. Baltasar Álvarez and P. Tomás de Jesús.

The copies which remain to be described are all mutilated or abbreviated and can be disposed of

briefly:

their omissions. In one place a meticulous pair of scissors has removed the lower half of a folio on

which the Saint deals with spiritual luxury.

MS. of the Carmelite Friars of Toledo. Dates from early in the seventeenth century and has numerous

omissions, especially in the chapters on the Passive Night of the Spirit. The date is given (in the

same hand as that which copies the title) as 1618. This MS. also contains an opuscule by Suso and

P. Silverio reproduces it in Spanish on p. 302 (note) of his first volume.]

16 The ‘first friar’ would be P. Antonio de Jesús, who was senior to St. John of the Cross in the Carmelite Order, though not in the

Reform.

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another entitled ‘Brief compendium of the most eminent Christian perfection of P. Fr. Juan de la

Cruz.’

first ten and the last three chapters, he omits freely.

MS. 12,411. Entitled by its copyist ’spiritual Compendium,’ this MS. contains several short works

a number of poems, some of them by the Saint, and many passages from St. Teresa. It is in several

omissions and abbreviations everywhere.

M.S. of the Carmelite Nuns of Pamplona. This MS. also omits and abbreviates continually, especially

in the chapters on the Passive Night of Sense, which are reduced to a mere skeleton.

Modifications of phraseology are more frequent and alterations are also made with the aim of

correcting hyperbaton. In the first book about thirty lines are suppressed; in the second, about

ninety. All changes which are of any importance have been shown in the notes.

The present edition. We have given preference, as a general rule, to MS. 3,446, subjecting it,

however, to a rigorous comparison with the other copies. Mention has already been made in the

a certain lack of uniformity in the Saint’s method of dividing his commentaries. This is nowhere

proper title, the Saint abandons this method and uses titles only occasionally. As this makes

comprehension of his argument the more difficult, we have adopted the divisions which were

introduced by P. Salablanca and have been copied by successive editors.

down the spiritual rhythm of the treatise and interrupts its movement. We do not agree. In any case,

we greatly prefer the gain of clarity, even if the rhythm occasionally halts, to the other

alternative—the constant halting of the understanding. We have, of course, indicated every place

The following abbreviations are adopted in the footnotes:

A = MS. of the Discalced Carmelite Friars of Alba.

B = MS. 6,624 (National Library, Madrid).

17 The longest of these are one of ten lines in Bk. I, chap. iv, [in the original] and those of Bk. II, chaps. vii, viii, xii, xiii, which

vary from eleven to twenty-three lines. Bk. II, chap. xxiii, has also considerable modifications.

18 The chief interpolation is in Bk. I, chap. x.

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Bz. = MS. 8,795 (N.L.M.).

C = MS. 13,498 (N.L.M.).

G = MS. 18,160 (N.L.M.).

H = MS. 3,446 (N.L.M.).

M = MS. of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns of Toledo.

Mtr. = MS. 12,658.

P = MS. of the Discalced Carmelite Friars of Toledo.

V = MS. of the Discalced Carmelite Nuns of Valladolid.

E.p. = Editio princeps (1618).

MS. 12,411 and the MS. of the Discalced Carmelite nuns of Pamplona are cited without

abbreviations.

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IN this book are first set down all the stanzas which are to be expounded; afterwards, each of the

stanzas is expounded separately, being set down before its exposition; and then each line is

expounded separately and in turn, the line itself also being set down before the exposition. In the

first two stanzas are expounded the effects of the two spiritual purgations: of the sensual part of

man and of the spiritual part. In the other six are expounded various and wondrous effects of the

spiritual illumination and union of love with God.

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Begins the exposition of the stanzas which treat of the way and manner which the soul follows

upon the road of the union of love with God.

Before we enter upon the exposition of these stanzas, it is well to understand here that the soul that

utters them is now in the state of perfection, which is the union of love with God, having already

passed through severe trials and straits, by means of spiritual exercise in the narrow way of eternal

life whereof Our Saviour speaks in the Gospel, along which way the soul ordinarily passes in order

to reach this high and happy union with God. Since this road (as the Lord Himself says likewise)

good chance to have passed along it to the said perfection of love, as it sings in this first stanza,

calling this strait road with full propriety ‘dark night,’ as will be explained hereafter in the lines of

the said stanza. The soul, then, rejoicing at having passed along this narrow road whence so many

blessings have come to it, speaks after this manner.

19 St. Matthew vii, 14.

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IN this first stanza the soul relates the way and manner which it followed in going forth, as to its

affection, from itself and from all things, and in dying to them all and to itself, by means of true

mortification, in order to attain to living the sweet and delectable life of love with God; and it says

that this going forth from itself and from all things was a ‘dark night,’ by which, as will be explained

hereafter, is here understood purgative contemplation, which causes passively in the soul the

negation of itself and of all things referred to above.

2. And this going forth it says here that it was able to accomplish in the strength and ardour which

love for its Spouse gave to it for that purpose in the dark contemplation aforementioned. Herein it

extols the great happiness which it found in journeying to God through this night with such signal

success that none of the three enemies, which are world, devil and flesh (who are they that ever

lulled to sleep and mortified, in the house of its sensuality, all the passions and desires with respect

to their mischievous desires and motions. The line, then, says:

INTO this dark night souls begin to enter when God draws them forth from the state of

beginners—which is the state of those that meditate on the spiritual road—and begins to set them

in the state of progressives—which is that of those who are already contemplatives—to the end

that, after passing through it, they may arrive at the state of the perfect, which is that of the Divine

20 [More exactly: ‘purificative.’]

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union of the soul with God. Wherefore, to the end that we may the better understand and explain

what night is this through which the soul passes, and for what cause God sets it therein, it will be

well here to touch first of all upon certain characteristics of beginners (which, although we treat

them with all possible brevity, will not fail to be of service likewise to the beginners themselves),

in order that, realizing the weakness of the state wherein they are, they may take courage, and may

desire that God will bring them into this night, wherein the soul is strengthened and confirmed in

the virtues, and made ready for the inestimable delights of the love of God. And, although we may

tarry here for a time, it will not be for longer than is necessary, so that we may go on to speak at

once of this dark night.

2. It must be known, then, that the soul, after it has been definitely converted to the service of God,

is, as a rule, spiritually nurtured and caressed by God, even as is the tender child by its loving

mother, who warms it with the heat of her bosom and nurtures it with sweet milk and soft and

pleasant food, and carries it and caresses it in her arms; but, as the child grows bigger, the mother

gradually ceases caressing it, and, hiding her tender love, puts bitter aloes upon her sweet breast,

sets down the child from her arms and makes it walk upon its feet, so that it may lose the habits of

a child and betake itself to more important and substantial occupations. The loving mother is like

the grace of God, for, as soon as the soul is regenerated by its new warmth and fervour for the

service of God, He treats it in the same way; He makes it to find spiritual milk, sweet and delectable,

in all the things of God, without any labour of its own, and also great pleasure in spiritual exercises,

for here God is giving to it the breast of His tender love, even as to a tender child.

3. Therefore, such a soul finds its delight in spending long periods—perchance whole nights—in

prayer; penances are its pleasures; fasts its joys; and its consolations are to make use of the

sacraments and to occupy itself in Divine things. In the which things spiritual persons (though

taking part in them with great efficacy and persistence and using and treating them with great care)

often find themselves, spiritually speaking, very weak and imperfect. For since they are moved to

these things and to these spiritual exercises by the consolation and pleasure that they find in them,

and since, too, they have not been prepared for them by the practice of earnest striving in the virtues,

they have many faults and imperfections with respect to these spiritual actions of theirs; for, after

all, any man’s actions correspond to the habit of perfection attained by him. And, as these persons

have not had the opportunity of acquiring the said habits of strength, they have necessarily to work

like feebler children, feebly. In order that this may be seen more clearly, and likewise how much

these beginners in the virtues lacks with respect to the works in which they so readily engage with

the pleasure aforementioned, we shall describe it by reference to the seven capital sins, each in its

turn, indicating some of the many imperfections which they have under each heading; wherein it

will be clearly seen how like to children are these persons in all they do. And it will also be seen

how many blessings the dark night of which we shall afterwards treat brings with it, since it cleanses

the soul and purifies it from all these imperfections.

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AS these beginners feel themselves to be very fervent and diligent in spiritual things and devout

exercises, from this prosperity (although it is true that holy things of their own nature cause humility)

there often comes to them, through their imperfections, a certain kind of secret pride, whence they

come to have some degree of satisfaction with their works and with themselves. And hence there

comes to them likewise a certain desire, which is somewhat vain, and at times very vain, to speak

of spiritual things in the presence of others, and sometimes even to teach such things rather than

to learn them. They condemn others in their heart when they see that they have not the kind of

devotion which they themselves desire; and sometimes they even say this in words, herein resembling

the Pharisee, who boasted of himself, praising God for his own good works and despising the

2. In these persons the devil often increases the fervour that they have and the desire to perform

these and other works more frequently, so that their pride and presumption may grow greater. For

the devil knows quite well that all these works and virtues which they perform are not only valueless

to them, but even become vices in them. And such a degree of evil are some of these persons wont

to reach that they would have none appear good save themselves; and thus, in deed and word,

whenever the opportunity occurs, they condemn them and slander them, beholding the mote in

3. Sometimes, too, when their spiritual masters, such as confessors and superiors, do not approve

of their spirit and behavior (for they are anxious that all they do shall be esteemed and praised),

they consider that they do not understand them, or that, because they do not approve of this and

comply with that, their confessors are themselves not spiritual. And so they immediately desire and

contrive to find some one else who will fit in with their tastes; for as a rule they desire to speak of

spiritual matters with those who they think will praise and esteem what they do, and they flee, as

they would from death, from those who disabuse them in order to lead them into a safe

much and accomplish very little. Sometimes they are anxious that others shall realize how spiritual

and devout they are, to which end they occasionally give outward evidence thereof in movements,

sighs and other ceremonies; and at times they are apt to fall into certain ecstasies, in public rather

than in secret, wherein the devil aids them, and they are pleased that this should be noticed, and

21 St. Luke xviii, 11-12.

22 St. Matthew vii, 3.

23 St. Matthew xxiii, 24.

25 [The original merely has: ‘and are often eager.’]

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4. Many such persons desire to be the favourites of their confessors and to become intimate with

too much embarrassed to confess their sins nakedly, lest their confessors should think less of them,

so they palliate them and make them appear less evil, and thus it is to excuse themselves rather

than to accuse themselves that they go to confession. And sometimes they seek another confessor

to tell the wrongs that they have done, so that their own confessor shall think they have done nothing

wrong at all, but only good; and thus they always take pleasure in telling him what is good, and

sometimes in such terms as make it appear to be greater than it is rather than less, desiring that he

may think them to be good, when it would be greater humility in them, as we shall say, to depreciate

it, and to desire that neither he nor anyone else should consider them of account.

5. Some of these beginners, too, make little of their faults, and at other times become over-sad when

they see themselves fall into them, thinking themselves to have been saints already; and thus they

become angry and impatient with themselves, which is another imperfection. Often they beseech

God, with great yearnings, that He will take from them their imperfections and faults, but they do

this that they may find themselves at peace, and may not be troubled by them, rather than for God’s

sake; not realizing that, if He should take their imperfections from them, they would probably

become prouder and more presumptuous still. They dislike praising others and love to be praised

themselves; sometimes they seek out such praise. Herein they are like the foolish virgins, who,

great harm. But some have fewer and some more, and some, only the first motions thereof or little

very differently and with quite another temper of spirit; for they progress by means of humility and

are greatly edified, not only thinking naught of their own affairs, but having very little satisfaction

with themselves; they consider all others as far better, and usually have a holy envy of them, and

an eagerness to serve God as they do. For the greater is their fervour, and the more numerous are

the works that they perform, and the greater is the pleasure that they take in them, as they progress

in humility, the more do they realize how much God deserves of them, and how little is all that

they do for His sake; and thus, the more they do, the less are they satisfied. So much would they

gladly do from charity and love for Him, that all they do seems to them naught; and so greatly are

they importuned, occupied and absorbed by this loving anxiety that they never notice what others

do or do not; or if they do notice it, they always believe, as I say, that all others are far better than

they themselves. Wherefore, holding themselves as of little worth, they are anxious that others too

should thus hold them, and should despise and depreciate that which they do. And further, if men

should praise and esteem them, they can in no wise believe what they say; it seems to them strange

that anyone should say these good things of them.

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7. Together with great tranquillity and humbleness, these souls have a deep desire to be taught by

anyone who can bring them profit; they are the complete opposite of those of whom we have spoken

above, who would fain be always teaching, and who, when others seem to be teaching them, take

the words from their mouths as if they knew them already. These souls, on the other hand, being

far from desiring to be the masters of any, are very ready to travel and set out on another road than

that which they are actually following, if they be so commanded, because they never think that

they are right in anything whatsoever. They rejoice when others are praised; they grieve only

because they serve not God like them. They have no desire to speak of the things that they do,

because they think so little of them that they are ashamed to speak of them even to their spiritual

masters, since they seem to them to be things that merit not being spoken of. They are more anxious

to speak of their faults and sins, or that these should be recognized rather than their virtues; and

thus they incline to talk of their souls with those who account their actions and their spirituality of

little value. This is a characteristic of the spirit which is simple, pure, genuine and very pleasing to

God. For as the wise Spirit of God dwells in these humble souls, He moves them and inclines them

to keep His treasures secretly within and likewise to cast out from themselves all evil. God gives

this grace to the humble, together with the other virtues, even as He denies it to the proud.

8. These souls will give their heart’s blood to anyone that serves God, and will help others to serve

Him as much as in them lies. The imperfections into which they see themselves fall they bear with

humility, meekness of spirit and a loving fear of God, hoping in Him. But souls who in the beginning

journey with this kind of perfection are, as I understand, and as has been said, a minority, and very

few are those who we can be glad do not fall into the opposite errors. For this reason, as we shall

afterwards say, God leads into the dark night those whom He desires to purify from all these

imperfections so that He may bring them farther onward.

MANY of these beginners have also at times great spiritual avarice. They will be found to be

discontented with the spirituality which God gives them; and they are very disconsolate and querulous

because they find not in spiritual things the consolation that they would desire. Many can never

have enough of listening to counsels and learning spiritual precepts, and of possessing and reading

many books which treat of this matter, and they spend their time on all these things rather than on

works of mortification and the perfecting of the inward poverty of spirit which should be theirs.

Furthermore, they burden themselves with images and rosaries which are very curious; now they

put down one, now take up another; now they change about, now change back again; now they

want this kind of thing, now that, preferring one kind of cross to another, because it is more curious.

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Here I condemn the attachment of the heart, and the affection which they have for the nature,

multitude and curiosity of these things, inasmuch as it is quite contrary to poverty of spirit which

considers only the substance of devotion, makes use only of what suffices for that end and grows

weary of this other kind of multiplicity and curiosity. For true devotion must issue from the heart,

and consist in the truth and substances alone of what is represented by spiritual things; all the rest

is affection and attachment proceeding from imperfection; and in order that one may pass to any

kind of perfection it is necessary for such desires to be killed.

that had been blessed, fastened with a pin twisted round it; he had never ceased using it, and he

always carried it about with him until I took it from him; and this was a person of no small sense

and understanding. And I saw another who said his prayers using beads that were made of bones

from the spine of a fish; his devotion was certainly no less precious on that account in the sight of

God, for it is clear that these things carried no devotion in their workmanship or value. Those, then,

who start from these beginnings and make good progress attach themselves to no visible instruments,

nor do they burden themselves with such, nor desire to know more than is necessary in order that

they may act well; for they set their eyes only on being right with God and on pleasing Him, and

therein consists their covetousness. And thus with great generosity they give away all that they

have, and delight to know that they have it not, for God’s sake and for charity to their neighbour,

no matter whether these be spiritual things or temporal. For, as I say, they set their eyes only upon

the reality of interior perfection, which is to give pleasure to God and in naught to give pleasure to

themselves.

3. But neither from these imperfections nor from those others can the soul be perfectly purified

until God brings it into the passive purgation of that dark night whereof we shall speak presently.

It befits the soul, however, to contrive to labour, in so far as it can, on its own account, to the end

that it may purge and perfect itself, and thus may merit being taken by God into that Divine care

wherein it becomes healed of all things that it was unable of itself to cure. Because, however greatly

the soul itself labours, it cannot actively purify itself so as to be in the least degree prepared for the

Divine union of perfection of love, if God takes not its hand and purges it not in that dark fire, in

the way and manner that we have to describe.

Saint such medals were greatly sought after, as we know from various references in St. Teresa’s letters.

saints. In modern Spanish it can denote a medal or amulet used superstitiously.]

33 [No doubt a branch of palm, olive or rosemary, blessed in church on Palm Sunday, like the English palm crosses of to-day. ‘Palm

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MANY of these beginners have many other imperfections than those which I am describing with

respect to each of the deadly sins, but these I set aside, in order to avoid prolixity, touching upon

a few of the most important, which are, as it were, the origin and cause of the rest. And thus, with

respect to this sin of luxury (leaving apart the falling of spiritual persons into this sin, since my

intent is to treat of the imperfections which have to be purged by the dark night), they have many

imperfections which might be described as spiritual luxury, not because they are so, but because

the imperfections proceed from spiritual things. For it often comes to pass that, in their very spiritual

exercises, when they are powerless to prevent it, there arise and assert themselves in the sensual

part of the soul impure acts and motions, and sometimes this happens even when the spirit is deep

in prayer, or engaged in the Sacrament of Penance or in the Eucharist. These things are not, as I

say, in their power; they proceed from one of three causes.

2. The first cause from which they often proceed is the pleasure which human nature takes in

spiritual things. For when the spirit and the sense are pleased, every part of a man is moved by that

moved to pleasure and delight of the senses, because it cannot possess and lay hold upon aught

else, and it therefore lays hold upon that which comes nearest to itself, which is the impure and

sensual. Thus it comes to pass that the soul is in deep prayer with God according to the spirit, and,

on the other hand, according to sense it is passively conscious, not without great displeasure, of

rebellions and motions and acts of the senses, which often happens in Communion, for when the

soul receives joy and comfort in this act of love, because this Lord bestows it (since it is to that end

that He gives Himself), the sensual nature takes that which is its own likewise, as we have said,

after its manner. Now as, after all, these two parts are combined in one individual, they ordinarily

both participate in that which one of them receives, each after its manner; for, as the philosopher

says, everything that is received is in the recipient after the manner of the same recipient. And thus,

in these beginnings, and even when the soul has made some progress, its sensual part, being

imperfect, oftentimes receives the Spirit of God with the same imperfection. Now when this sensual

part is renewed by the purgation of the dark night which we shall describe, it no longer has these

weaknesses; for it is no longer this part that receives aught, but rather it is itself received into the

Spirit. And thus it then has everything after the manner of the Spirit.

3. The second cause whence these rebellions sometimes proceed is the devil, who, in order to

disquiet and disturb the soul, at times when it is at prayer or is striving to pray, contrives to stir up

these motions of impurity in its nature; and if the soul gives heed to any of these, they cause it great

harm. For through fear of these not only do persons become lax in prayer—which is the aim of the

devil when he begins to strive with them—but some give up prayer altogether, because they think

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that these things attack them more during that exercise than apart from it, which is true, since the

devil attacks them then more than at other times, so that they may give up spiritual exercises. And

not only so, but he succeeds in portraying to them very vividly things that are most foul and impure,

and at times are very closely related to certain spiritual things and persons that are of profit to their

souls, in order to terrify them and make them fearful; so that those who are affected by this dare

not even look at anything or meditate upon anything, because they immediately encounter this

temptation. And upon those who are inclined to melancholy this acts with such effect that they

become greatly to be pitied since they are suffering so sadly; for this trial reaches such a point in

certain persons, when they have this evil humour, that they believe it to be clear that the devil is

ever present with them and that they have no power to prevent this, although some of these persons

can prevent his attack by dint of great effort and labour. When these impurities attack such souls

through the medium of melancholy, they are not as a rule freed from them until they have been

cured of that kind of humour, unless the dark night has entered the soul, and rids them of all

4. The third source whence these impure motions are apt to proceed in order to make war upon the

soul is often the fear which such persons have conceived for these impure representations and

motions. Something that they see or say or think brings them to their mind, and this makes them

afraid, so that they suffer from them through no fault of their own.

5. There are also certain souls of so tender and frail a nature that, when there comes to them some

spiritual consolation or some grace in prayer, the spirit of luxury is with them immediately,

inebriating and delighting their sensual nature in such manner that it is as if they were plunged into

the enjoyment and pleasure of this sin; and the enjoyment remains, together with the consolation,

passively, and sometimes they are able to see that certain impure and unruly acts have taken place.

The reason for this is that, since these natures are, as I say, frail and tender, their humours are stirred

up and their blood is excited at the least disturbance. And hence come these motions; and the same

6. Sometimes, again, there arises within these spiritual persons, whether they be speaking or

performing spiritual actions, a certain vigour and bravado, through their having regard to persons

who are present, and before these persons they display a certain kind of vain gratification. This

also arises from luxury of spirit, after the manner wherein we here understand it, which is

accompanied as a rule by complacency in the will.

7. Some of these persons make friendships of a spiritual kind with others, which oftentimes arise

from luxury and not from spirituality; this may be known to be the case when the remembrance of

that friendship causes not the remembrance and love of God to grow, but occasions remorse of

37 All writers who comment upon this delicate matter go into lengthy and learned explanations of it, though in reality there is little

that needs to be added to the Saint’s clear and apt exposition. It will be remembered that St. Teresa once wrote to her brother

Lorenzo, who suffered in this way: ‘As to those stirrings of sense. . . . I am quite clear they are of no account, so the best thing

is to make no account of them’ (LL. 168). The most effective means of calming souls tormented by these favours is to commend

them to a discreet and wise director whose counsel they may safely follow. The Illuminists committed the grossest errors in

dealing with this matter.

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conscience. For, when the friendship is purely spiritual, the love of God grows with it; and the more

the soul remembers it, the more it remembers the love of God, and the greater the desire it has for

God; so that, as the one grows, the other grows also. For the spirit of God has this property, that it

increases good by adding to it more good, inasmuch as there is likeness and conformity between

them. But, when this love arises from the vice of sensuality aforementioned, it produces the contrary

effects; for the more the one grows, the more the other decreases, and the remembrance of it likewise.

If that sensual love grows, it will at once be observed that the soul’s love of God is becoming colder,

and that it is forgetting Him as it remembers that love; there comes to it, too, a certain remorse of

conscience. And, on the other hand, if the love of God grows in the soul, that other love becomes

cold and is forgotten; for, as the two are contrary to one another, not only does the one not aid the

other, but the one which predominates quenches and confounds the other, and becomes strengthened

in itself, as the philosophers say. Wherefore Our Saviour said in the Gospel: ‘That which is born

born of sensuality ends in sensuality, and that which is of the spirit ends in the spirit of God and

causes it to grow. This is the difference that exists between these two kinds of love, whereby we

may know them.

8. When the soul enters the dark night, it brings these kinds of love under control. It strengthens

and purifies the one, namely that which is according to God; and the other it removes and brings

to an end; and in the beginning it causes both to be lost sight of, as we shall say hereafter.

BY reason of the concupiscence which many beginners have for spiritual consolations, their

experience of these consolations is very commonly accompanied by many imperfections proceeding

from the sin of wrath; for, when their delight and pleasure in spiritual things come to an end, they

naturally become embittered, and bear that lack of sweetness which they have to suffer with a bad

grace, which affects all that they do; and they very easily become irritated over the smallest

matter—sometimes, indeed, none can tolerate them. This frequently happens after they have been

very pleasantly recollected in prayer according to sense; when their pleasure and delight therein

come to an end, their nature is naturally vexed and disappointed, just as is the child when they take

it from the breast of which it was enjoying the sweetness. There is no sin in this natural vexation,

when it is not permitted to indulge itself, but only imperfection, which must be purged by the aridity

and severity of the dark night.

38 St. John iii, 6.

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2. There are other of these spiritual persons, again, who fall into another kind of spiritual wrath:

this happens when they become irritated at the sins of others, and keep watch on those others with

a sort of uneasy zeal. At times the impulse comes to them to reprove them angrily, and occasionally

spiritual meekness.

3. There are others who are vexed with themselves when they observe their own imperfectness,

and display an impatience that is not humility; so impatient are they about this that they would fain

be saints in a day. Many of these persons purpose to accomplish a great deal and make grand

resolutions; yet, as they are not humble and have no misgivings about themselves, the more

resolutions they make, the greater is their fall and the greater their annoyance, since they have not

the patience to wait for that which God will give them when it pleases Him; this likewise is contrary

to the spiritual meekness aforementioned, which cannot be wholly remedied save by the purgation

of the dark night. Some souls, on the other hand, are so patient as regards the progress which they

desire that God would gladly see them less so.

WITH respect to the fourth sin, which is spiritual gluttony, there is much to be said, for there is

scarce one of these beginners who, however satisfactory his progress, falls not into some of the

many imperfections which come to these beginners with respect to this sin, on account of the

sweetness which they find at first in spiritual exercises. For many of these, lured by the sweetness

and pleasure which they find in such exercises, strive more after spiritual sweetness than after

spiritual purity and discretion, which is that which God regards and accepts throughout the spiritual

makes them fall, the gluttony which they now have makes them continually go to extremes, so that

they pass beyond the limits of moderation within which the virtues are acquired and wherein they

have their being. For some of these persons, attracted by the pleasure which they find therein, kill

themselves with penances, and others weaken themselves with fasts, by performing more than their

frailty can bear, without the order or advice of any, but rather endeavouring to avoid those whom

they should obey in these matters; some, indeed, dare to do these things even though the contrary

has been commanded them.

2. These persons are most imperfect and unreasonable; for they set bodily penance before subjection

and obedience, which is penance according to reason and discretion, and therefore a sacrifice more

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acceptable and pleasing to God than any other. But such one-sided penance is no more than the

penance of beasts, to which they are attracted, exactly like beasts, by the desire and pleasure which

working their own will, they grow in vice rather than in virtue; for, to say the least, they are acquiring

spiritual gluttony and pride in this way, through not walking in obedience. And many of these the

devil assails, stirring up this gluttony in them through the pleasures and desires which he increases

within them, to such an extent that, since they can no longer help themselves, they either change

or vary or add to that which is commanded them, as any obedience in this respect is so bitter to

them. To such an evil pass have some persons come that, simply because it is through obedience

that they engage in these exercises, they lose the desire and devotion to perform them, their only

desire and pleasure being to do what they themselves are inclined to do, so that it would probably

be more profitable for them not to engage in these exercises at all.

3. You will find that many of these persons are very insistent with their spiritual masters to be

granted that which they desire, extracting it from them almost by force; if they be refused it they

become as peevish as children and go about in great displeasure, thinking that they are not serving

God when they are not allowed to do that which they would. For they go about clinging to their

faint-hearted and fall away. These persons think that their own satisfaction and pleasure are the

satisfaction and service of God.

4. There are others, again, who, because of this gluttony, know so little of their own unworthiness

and misery and have thrust so far from them the loving fear and reverence which they owe to the

greatness of God, that they hesitate not to insist continually that their confessors shall allow them

to communicate often. And, what is worse, they frequently dare to communicate without the leave

contriving to conceal the truth from him. And for this reason, because they desire to communicate

and perfectly, although it would be healthier and holier for them had they the contrary inclination

and begged their confessors not to command them to approach the altar so frequently: between

these two extremes, however, the better way is that of humble resignation. But the boldness referred

5. These persons, in communicating, strive with every nerve to obtain some kind of sensible

sweetness and pleasure, instead of humbly doing reverence and giving praise within themselves to

God. And in such wise do they devote themselves to this that, when they have received no pleasure

or sweetness in the senses, they think that they have accomplished nothing at all. This is to judge

43 [The Spanish is impersonal: ‘immediately this is taken from them,’ etc.]

46 [Lit, ‘the other boldnesses are.’]

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God very unworthily; they have not realized that the least of the benefits which come from this

Most Holy Sacrament is that which concerns the senses; and that the invisible part of the grace that

it bestows is much greater; for, in order that they may look at it with the eyes of faith, God oftentimes

withholds from them these other consolations and sweetnesses of sense. And thus they desire to

feel and taste God as though He were comprehensible by them and accessible to them, not only in

this, but likewise in other spiritual practices. All this is very great imperfection and completely

opposed to the nature of God, since it is Impurity in faith.

6. These persons have the same defect as regards the practice of prayer, for they think that all the

business of prayer consists in experiencing sensible pleasure and devotion and they strive to obtain

not found this pleasure they become greatly discouraged, thinking that they have accomplished

nothing. Through these efforts they lose true devotion and spirituality, which consist in perseverance,

together with patience and humility and mistrust of themselves, that they may please God alone.

For this reason, when they have once failed to find pleasure in this or some other exercise, they

have great disinclination and repugnance to return to it, and at times they abandon it. They are, in

fact, as we have said, like children, who are not influenced by reason, and who act, not from rational

and consolation; they never tire therefore, of reading books; and they begin, now one meditation,

now another, in their pursuit of this pleasure which they desire to experience in the things of God.

But God, very justly, wisely and lovingly, denies it to them, for otherwise this spiritual gluttony

and inordinate appetite would breed in numerable evils. It is, therefore, very fitting that they should

7. These persons who are thus inclined to such pleasures have another very great imperfection,

the soul that is given to sweetness naturally has its face set against all self-denial, which is devoid

8. These persons have many other imperfections which arise hence, of which in time the Lord heals

them by means of temptations, aridities and other trials, all of which are part of the dark night. All

these I will not treat further here, lest I become too lengthy; I will only say that spiritual temperance

and sobriety lead to another and a very different temper, which is that of mortification, fear and

submission in all things. It thus becomes clear that the perfection and worth of things consist not

in the multitude and the pleasantness of one’s actions, but in being able to deny oneself in them;

this such persons must endeavour to compass, in so far as they may, until God is pleased to purify

account of these imperfections.

to be metaphorical, as the words ‘as they say’ clearly indicate.]

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WITH respect likewise to the other two vices, which are spiritual envy and sloth, these beginners

fail not to have many imperfections. For, with respect to envy, many of them are wont to experience

movements of displeasure at the spiritual good of others, which cause them a certain sensible grief

at being outstripped upon this road, so that they would prefer not to hear others praised; for they

become displeased at others’ virtues and sometimes they cannot refrain from contradicting what

because the same is not said of them, for they would fain be preferred in everything. All this is

envy, it is a holy envy, comprising grief at not having the virtues of others, yet also joy because

others have them, and delight when others outstrip us in the service of God, wherein we ourselves

are so remiss.

2. With respect also to spiritual sloth, beginners are apt to be irked by the things that are most

spiritual, from which they flee because these things are incompatible with sensible pleasure. For,

as they are so much accustomed to sweetness in spiritual things, they are wearied by things in which

they find no sweetness. If once they failed to find in prayer the satisfaction which their taste required

(and after all it is well that God should take it from them to prove them), they would prefer not to

return to it: sometimes they leave it; at other times they continue it unwillingly. And thus because

of this sloth they abandon the way of perfection (which is the way of the negation of their will and

pleasure for God’s sake) for the pleasure and sweetness of their own will, which they aim at satisfying

in this way rather than the will of God.

3. And many of these would have God will that which they themselves will, and are fretful at having

to will that which He wills, and find it repugnant to accommodate their will to that of God. Hence

it happens to them that oftentimes they think that that wherein they find not their own will and

pleasure is not the will of God; and that, on the other hand, when they themselves find satisfaction,

God is satisfied. Thus they measure God by themselves and not themselves by God, acting quite

contrarily to that which He Himself taught in the Gospel, saying: That he who should lose his will

4. These persons likewise find it irksome when they are commanded to do that wherein they take

no pleasure. Because they aim at spiritual sweetness and consolation, they are too weak to have

who run fretfully away from everything that is hard, and take offense at the Cross, wherein consist

54 1 Corinthians xiii, 6. The Saint here cites the sense, not the letter, of the epistle.

55 St. Matthew xvi, 25.

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the delights of the spirit. The more spiritual a thing is, the more irksome they find it, for, as they

seek to go about spiritual matters with complete freedom and according to the inclination of their

will, it causes them great sorrow and repugnance to enter upon the narrow way, which, says Christ,

5. Let it suffice here to have described these imperfections, among the many to be found in the

lives of those that are in this first state of beginners, so that it may be seen how greatly they need

God to set them in the state of proficients. This He does by bringing them into the dark night whereof

we now speak; wherein He weans them from the breasts of these sweetnesses and pleasures, gives

them pure aridities and inward darkness, takes from them all these irrelevances and puerilities, and

by very different means causes them to win the virtues. For, however assiduously the beginner

practises the mortification in himself of all these actions and passions of his, he can never completely

succeed—very far from it—until God shall work it in him passively by means of the purgation of

the said night. Of this I would fain speak in some way that may be profitable; may God, then, be

pleased to give me His Divine light, because this is very needful in a night that is so dark and a

matter that is so difficult to describe and to expound.

The line, then, is:

THIS night, which, as we say, is contemplation, produces in spiritual persons two kinds of darkness

or purgation, corresponding to the two parts of man’s nature—namely, the sensual and the spiritual.

And thus the one night or purgation will be sensual, wherein the soul is purged according to sense,

which is subdued to the spirit; and the other is a night or purgation which is spiritual, wherein the

soul is purged and stripped according to the spirit, and subdued and made ready for the union of

love with God. The night of sense is common and comes to many: these are the beginners; and of

this night we shall speak first. The night of the spirit is the portion of very few, and these are they

that are already practised and proficient, of whom we shall treat hereafter.

57 St. Matthew vii, 14.

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Since the night of sense is first in order and comes first, we shall first of all say something about

it briefly, since more is written of it, as of a thing that is more common; and we shall pass on to

writing, and very little is known of it, even by experience.

do with their love of self and their own inclinations, as has been explained above, God desires to

lead them farther. He seeks to bring them out of that ignoble kind of love to a higher degree of love

for Him, to free them from the ignoble exercises of sense and meditation (wherewith, as we have

said, they go seeking God so unworthily and in so many ways that are unbefitting), and to lead

them to a kind of spiritual exercise wherein they can commune with Him more abundantly and are

freed more completely from imperfections. For they have now had practice for some time in the

way of virtue and have persevered in meditation and prayer, whereby, through the sweetness and

pleasure that they have found therein, they have lost their love of the things of the world and have

gained some degree of spiritual strength in God; this has enabled them to some extent to refrain

from creature desires, so that for God’s sake they are now able to suffer a light burden and a little

these spiritual exercises with the greatest delight and pleasure, and when they believe that the sun

of Divine favour is shining most brightly upon them, God turns all this light of theirs into darkness,

and shuts against them the door and the source of the sweet spiritual water which they were tasting

in God whensoever and for as long as they desired. (For, as they were weak and tender, there was

no door closed to them, as Saint John says in the Apocalypse, iii, 8). And thus He leaves them so

completely in the dark that they know not whither to go with their sensible imagination and

meditation; for they cannot advance a step in meditation, as they were wont to do afore time, their

inward senses being submerged in this night, and left with such dryness that not only do they

experience no pleasure and consolation in the spiritual things and good exercises wherein they were

wont to find their delights and pleasures, but instead, on the contrary, they find insipidity and

bitterness in the said things. For, as I have said, God now sees that they have grown a little, and

are becoming strong enough to lay aside their swaddling clothes and be taken from the gentle breast;

so He sets them down from His arms and teaches them to walk on their own feet; which they feel

to be very strange, for everything seems to be going wrong with them.

4. To recollected persons this commonly happens sooner after their beginnings than to others,

inasmuch as they are freer from occasions of backsliding, and their desires turn more quickly from

the things of the world, which is necessary if they are to begin to enter this blessed night of sense.

Ordinarily no great time passes after their beginnings before they begin to enter this night of sense;

and the great majority of them do in fact enter it, for they will generally be seen to fall into these

aridities.

5. With regard to this way of purgation of the senses, since it is so common, we might here adduce

a great number of quotations from Divine Scripture, where many passages relating to it are