The Dark Night of the Soul. Done into English by Gabriela Cunninghame Graham

Bereft and impoverished by age two, this great Spanish Catholic mystic and poet was forced to enter the unbecoming trade market. Although he failed there miserably, he was able to succeed in his studies, which helped him earn a place at the Jesuit College in Medina. Later, he helped reform the Carmelite monasteries together with Teresa of Avila, to whom he eventually became a director and spiritual son. However, to avoid the clenched fists of the Calced (unreformed) Carmelites, who disagreed with John's reforms and tried to abduct him, he escaped to southern Andalusia. It was there where he wrote his notable ecstatic writings depicting (among other things) the stages of spiritual ascent (see The Ascent of Mt Carmel).