Tag: bljohnthespaniard

Saint of the Day – 25 June – Blessed John the Spaniard O.Cart. (1123-1160) Carthusian Prior, Founder of the female branch of the Carthusians for which he wrote the Rule, also Founder of the Reposoir Monastery. Born in 1123 at Almanza, Spain and died on 25 June 1160 at the Reposoit Chapterhouse in Switzerland of natural causes, aged just 37. Patronage – against fever. Also known as – John of Spain. Blessed John was Beatified in 1864 by Pope Pius IX.

At the age of thirteen John left his country for France, both to escape the Moslems and for the purpose of studies. He settled in the Town of Arles , in Southern France. At sixteen he felt drawn to the monastic life and entered a Monastery in the vicinity. After some years, he heard about the recently founded Order of the Carthusians and their Monastery of Montrieux, not far away, founded in 1118, 5 years before he himself was born. Drawn to their austere and entirely contemplative life, he joined the Carthusians there.

Once a vowed Carthusian, he was Ordained a Priest, was named Sacristan and eventually — still a man in his twenties! —elected Prior. We may assume he was precocious on the natural level but, even more so, by the early maturity of his virtues.

The Nuns of the Monastery of Prébayon in the vicinity, following the Rules of Saint Caesarius of Arles and of Saint Benedict , were so impressed with the fervour of Montrieux, under John’s leadership that they asked to be admitted to the Carthusian Order which, unil then, had consisted only of Monks. The Prior of the Motherhouse, La Grande Chartreuse and Superior General of the Order, Saint Anthelm, authorised this. He asked John to adapt the Consuetudines of Guigo , which were the Carthusian Rule at that time, to the nuns. He did so and this was the beginning of the female branch of the Order. It was the year 1145.

Various difficulties at Montrieux lead to his retirement from the Priorship and he moved to la Grande Chartreuse in 1150. Just then, a noble lord in neighbouring Savoy, asked for a Monastery of Carthusians on his lands. Saint Anthelm saw in Blessed John the man of Providence. He sent him to make the foundation in Savoy, which was eventually given the name of le Reposoir. There he ruled wisely as Prior for some years.

While being in this new Monastery, for several years he copied, for the Nuns, the liturgical books in use at the Chartreuse. Finally, he contributed to the ratification of the Nuns’ affiliation with the Order, probably during the Second General Chapter in 1155, in which he participated as Prior of the Charterhouse of Reposoir.

On 25 June 1160 John died, not yet forty years old. Through unusual circumstances he was interred not inside the enclosure, as the custom is but outside. In fact, during his Priorate, two servants of the Monastery, having died in the mountains, under an avalanche of snow, had been interred in an inappropriate place, outside the enclosure, for which John had been reproved. To make amends he had made his Monks swear that after his death they would bury him at the same place as the two servants. This, however, permitted John’s Tomb—with his renowned for sanctity—to become the object of popular pilgrimages. The faithful prayed at his Tomb and many miracles occurred in the course of the centuries, particularly cures of malignant fever. In 1864 Blessed Pius IX approved the cult of Blessed John of Spain, venerated since time immemorial.

Let us pray:
God our Father, Thou called on Blessed John
to help draw up a Rule for our Nuns.
May we ,who have eagerly embraced the monastic life,
also arrive at the perfection of charity.
We ask this through Christ Our Lord.
Amen.