Spiritual Canticle facts for kids
The Spiritual Canticle (in Spanish, Cántico Espiritual) is a famous poem by the Spanish poet Saint John of the Cross. He was a very important writer known for his mystical poems.
John of the Cross was a Carmelite monk and priest. During a time called the Counter-Reformation, he was arrested in 1577. He was put in jail by another group of Carmelites in Toledo. This happened because he worked closely with Saint Teresa of Avila to make changes to the Carmelite order. He was held in a small cell for nine months. It was a very difficult time for him. Because he had no paper or pen, he memorized a long version of the poem, which had thirty-one stanzas. Later, after 1582, he wrote down the rest of the poem in Baeza and Granada. The last five stanzas were added after he talked with a nun named Francisca de la Madre de Dios.
A nun named Ana de Jesús asked John of the Cross to write an explanation for his poem. He finished this explanation in 1584. Ana de Jesús later took the poem with her when she left Spain. The poem was first printed in Paris in 1622, but it was a French translation. It was not published in Spanish until 1627 in Brussels. In the same year, it was also published in Italian in Rome. The first time the poem was printed in Spanish in Spain was in Madrid in 1630.
Contents
What is The Spiritual Canticle About?
In The Spiritual Canticle, Saint John of the Cross explains how a person's soul can become very close to God. To do this, he uses a special story. He tells about a wife who is looking for her husband. In this story, the wife is like the human soul, and the husband is like Christ (God).
The wife feels deeply in love and starts searching for her Beloved (which means "the one she loves"). The soul asks everyone where to find God. It feels lost and sad until it finally finds God. They meet in a quiet, peaceful place, like a garden, which represents Paradise. This story helps explain the deep spiritual journey of a person's soul connecting with God.
Different Versions of the Poem
There are two main versions of The Spiritual Canticle.
Canticle A
The first version has thirty-nine stanzas. It is usually called Canticle A. This version comes from a special book known as the Manuscript of Sanlúcar.
Canticle B
The second version has forty stanzas. It is usually called Canticle B. This version comes from the Manuscript of Jaén.
For a while, some people wondered if Canticle B was truly written by John of the Cross. However, most experts today agree that both Canticle A and Canticle B were written by him.
See also
In Spanish: Cántico espiritual para niños
