THE 27th of December, 1726, Our Predecessor, Pope Benedict XIII., of happy memory, enrolled in the number of the saints, St. John of the Cross, the first Discalced Carmelite Friar and with Teresa of Jesus, Reformer of the Order of Carmel.

The Bull of Canonization not only attested that his life was admirable by its austerity and the practice of all the virtues, but it also bore strongest testimony to his knowledge of divine things. Among other men, illustrious for doctrine and sanctity, true luminaries of the Catholic Church in the sixteenth century, divine Providence raised him up to repair the injuries and losses caused the mystical Spouse of Christ by the Protestants, and especially to refute their errors.

St. John of the Cross was born on June 24, 1542 at Fontiveros in Spain. After his entrance, at the age of twenty-one years into the Order of Carmel, he studied philosophy and theology at the celebrated College of Alcalá. In 1567, the year of his ordination to the priesthood, he came to know St. Teresa who, after having led the Nuns of Carmel to a more strict observance, ardently desired to extend this reform to the Friars of the Order of Carmel.

Unreservedly approving the projects of St. Teresa and seconding her undertakings with all his zeal, John clothed himself with the habit of the Reformed Carmelites and applied himself to the observance of their rule. He was appointed master of the students and first rector of the College of Alcalá de Hanares. A little later, having been called to Avila as confessor to the Carmelite Nuns of the Old Observance, he was arrested and cast into prison.

During his nine months of detention he wrote his “Spiritual Canticle” to celebrate the mystical union of the faithful soul with Christ, her Bridegroom, and to show forth the manifold effects as well as the sweet affections of prayer. He developed it later by considerations and explanations. Delivered miraculously from prison, he set to work, at first in the Convent of Calvary, then in other houses where he sojourned filling various offices, and composed other writings in which, as inspired by light from on high, he showed to souls, in a penetrating commentary on the divine gifts, the way of perfection. “The Ascent of Mt. Carmel,” “The Obscure Night,” “The Living Flame of Love,” and his numerous small treatises and letters, though treating of difficult and hidden matters, contain at the same time an elevated spiritual doctrine, which is nevertheless within the reach of his readers. His works may rightly be regarded as the manual and school of the faithful soul in the search for the most perfect life.

It is not astonishing that the Bull of Canonization should affirm, that St. John of the Cross wrote “upon Mystical Theology books full of a heavenly wisdom”; to this judgment of the highest importance, the greater number, if not all, will give their assent. After his death, which occurred in 1591, John became in the course of time such an authority in the mystical science, that the ascetical authors and saintly persons recognized in him a master in sanctity and piety. For their spiritual writings, they drew from his doctrine and works as from a limpid source of the Christian thought and the mind of the Church.

Therefore no one was surprised, when in 1891, on the occasion of the tercentenary of the death of St. John of the Cross, numerous Cardinals and Bishops of Spain besought Our Predecessor, Pope Leo XIII., of happy memory, to deign to declare this saint a Doctor of the Church; after this many rectors of Catholic universities and superiors of religious orders ceased not to present the same petition to the Holy See.

On the occasion of the second centenary of his canonization, the present Prepositor General of the Order of Discalced Carmelites, upon the unanimous desire of the General Chapter of his Order, has begged Us to be pleased to glorify with the title of Doctor of the Church the same St. John of the Cross. The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, Archbishops, numerous Bishops, illustrious men, clerics as well as laymen, members of societies and institutes of learning support this supplication.

Therefore, it has appeared to Us particularly opportune to confide this important affair to the consideration and profound study of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, which, at Our order, appointed for the office men competent to make the examination.

After having required and obtained separately their suffrages and having had them printed, it remained to ask the opinion of the members of the Congregation of Rites upon the question: After examination of the three conditions required in a Doctor of the Universal Church by our Predecessor, Pope Benedict XIV., of happy memory, namely, exalted sanctity of life, eminent doctrine and the declaration of the Sovereign Pontiff, could St. John of the Cross be declared Doctor of the Universal Church?

On the 27th of last July, in the ordinary Assembly, held in the Palace of the Vatican, the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, officials of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, gave unanimously, an affirmative response, after having heard the report of the facts by Our Venerable Brother Antonio Cardinal Vico, Bishop of Porto and of St. Rufina, and also Our beloved son, Carlo Salotti, General Promotor of the Faith.

In consequence, willingly fulfilling the desires of all the Discalced Carmelites and of those who with them have solicited this favor, We, by the [tenor] of the present Letters, of certain knowledge and after mature deliberation, using the plenitude of the Apostolic Power, constitute and declare St. John of the Cross Doctor of the Universal Church.

Notwithstanding all contrary constitutions or ordinances or whatever may be opposed, decreeing that the present Letters are and remain ever fixed, valid and efficacious, that they go forth and obtain their full and entire effects. Thus has it been exactly judged and defined; if any opposition to this subject supervene, on the part of no matter what authority, knowingly or through ignorance, it is at present annulled and non-existent.

Given at Rome from St. Peter’s, under the Ring of the Fisherman, the 24th day of August, in the year 1926, of Our Pontificate the fifth.

P. CARDINAL GASPARRI, Secretary of State.