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Francisco de Osuna · 1554 · Treatise
Francisco de Osuna's Sexto Abecedario Espiritual represents the culmination of his influential series of spiritual alphabets, treatises that organized mystical instruction according to the letters of the alphabet. Writing in the flowering…
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Teresa of Ávila · 1560–1582 · Other
The Avisos are a collection of short, pointed maxims that Teresa of Ávila set down for the nuns of her reformed Carmelite communities during the decades she spent founding convents and shaping…
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Luis de León · 1560–1591 · Poem
The poems of Fray Luis de León emerged from one of the most turbulent periods in Spanish intellectual and religious history. Writing during the height of the Spanish Inquisition, this Augustinian friar…
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Teresa of Ávila · 1560–1581 · Other
Between 1560 and 1581 Teresa of Ávila wrote, at the insistence of a succession of confessors, a series of short accounts of her interior life: reports of visions, locutions, raptures, and states…
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Teresa of Ávila · 1560–1582 · Poem
Across the decades in which Teresa of Ávila was traveling the roads of Castile founding reformed Carmelite convents, she also wrote verse — coplas, villancicos, and glosses composed for her nuns to…
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Luis de León · 1561–1591 · Commentary
Luis de León's Commentaria in Sacram Scripturam represents the mature biblical scholarship of one of sixteenth-century Spain's most distinguished theologian-poets. Composed during his tenure as professor of theology at the University of…
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Teresa of Ávila · 1561–1582 · Letter
Between 1561 and her death in 1582, Teresa of Ávila wrote constantly to nuns, priors, confessors, patrons, royal officials, and her own family as she founded and defended a network of reformed…
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Teresa of Ávila · 1562–1565 · Book
Teresa of Ávila wrote this spiritual autobiography between 1562 and 1565 at the request of her confessors, who wanted a detailed account of her interior life and mystical experiences. Originally titled "The…
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Council of Trent · 1563 · Other
The Decree on the Sacrament of Marriage emerged from the Council of Trent's twenty-fourth session in November 1563, representing the Catholic Church's definitive response to Protestant challenges regarding marriage and clerical celibacy.…
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Teresa of Ávila · 1566 · Book
Teresa of Ávila wrote The Way of Perfection in 1566 as a practical guide for the nuns of the reformed Carmelite convent she had recently founded in Ávila. The work emerged from…
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Teresa of Ávila · 1567 · Other
Teresa of Ávila wrote the Constituciones in 1567 to give concrete governing order to the reformed Carmelite houses she had begun founding, starting with San José in Ávila in 1562. The reform…
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Teresa of Ávila · 1569 · Treatise
Teresa of Ávila wrote these seventeen brief exclamations in 1569, during a period of intense mystical experience following her completion of The Interior Castle. The work emerged from what she described as…
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Teresa of Ávila · 1572 · Treatise
Teresa of Ávila wrote this mystical commentary on the Song of Songs in 1572 at the request of her confessor, Padre Jerónimo Gracián, who asked her to expand upon certain verses that…
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Teresa of Ávila · 1573 · Book
Teresa of Ávila's Foundations chronicles her seventeen-year campaign to reform Carmelite religious life across Spain, written as she traveled between convents and negotiated with bishops, nobles, and local authorities. Composed in fragments…
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Teresa of Ávila · 1576 · Treatise
Teresa of Ávila wrote this short treatise in 1576, near the end of her life, at the request of Padre Jerónimo Gracián, who had been appointed apostolic visitator to the Discalced Carmelite…
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John of the Cross · 1577–1584 · Poem
"Tras de un amoroso lance" is a short lyric by John of the Cross, known, like most of his poems, by its opening line: "After an amorous quest, and not lacking in…
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Complete Works The Complete Works of Saint John of the Cross
John of the Cross · 1577–1591 · Book
This is the 1864 English collected edition. The complete works of John of the Cross emerge from the crucible of sixteenth-century Spanish mysticism and the fierce opposition he faced as a Carmelite…
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Teresa of Ávila · 1577 · Book
Teresa of Ávila wrote The Interior Castle in 1577 at the request of her confessor, completing this masterwork of mystical theology in just two months despite severe illness and the pressures of…
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John of the Cross · 1577–1584 · Treatise
The Spiritual Canticle emerged from the depths of imprisonment and mystical experience. John of the Cross composed the initial stanzas while confined in a tiny cell in Toledo by his own Carmelite…
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John of the Cross · 1578 · Treatise
John of the Cross composed this treatise as a detailed commentary on his own mystical poem of the same name, written during his imprisonment by fellow Carmelites in Toledo in 1577. The…
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John of the Cross · 1578–1591 · Poem
"Por toda la hermosura" is one of the shorter poems of John of the Cross, the Castilian Carmelite friar (1542–1591) who worked alongside Teresa of Ávila to reform the order and paid…
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John of the Cross · 1578 · Poem
"Que bien sé yo la fonte que mana y corre, aunque es de noche" — "How well I know the fount that flows and runs, although it is night" — is a…
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John of the Cross · 1578–1580 · Poem
A short lyric in Spanish, traditionally titled "Coplas hechas sobre un éxtasis de harta contemplación" — stanzas made upon an ecstasy of deep contemplation — and known by its first line, "Entréme…
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John of the Cross · 1578 · Poem
"Vivo sin vivir en mí" is a short Spanish lyric by the Carmelite friar John of the Cross, known in manuscript tradition under the heading "Coplas del alma que pena por ver…
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