Critical praise of the translation.
Read MoreSt John did not include this prologue in the Andújar manuscript. It is taken from early manuscript copies of the sayings that Andújar includes. Nor did he provide a title in Andújar, though his reference in the prologue to dichos de luz y amor (sayings of light and love) is often applied in modern editions not only to the sayings in Andújar but to all those that have survived.
Read MoreTo the men and women he was guiding along a spiritual path John of the Cross occasionally gave apophthegmata (wisdom sayings) for them to ponder prayerfully and make their own. The practice had a long history in the monastic tradition, inspired by the sayings of the desert fathers.
Read MoreThe manuscript takes its name from Andújar (Jaén), where it is conserved in the church of Santa María la Mayor. There is a paleographic transcription of the text in Lucinio (1984: 159–63), and a facsimile edition, San Juan de la Cruz, Dichos de Luz y Amor, edición facsímil (Códice de Andújar), edited by José Vicente Rodríguez (Madrid: Editorial de Espiritualidad, 1976).
Read MoreThe sayings in this section are found in early manuscripts and editions. Some of them (numbers 79–104) appear to have been written for the Carmelite sisters in Beas. Others (numbers 105 and 122–157) were published in a seventeenth-century collection, Glosas a unos tercetos, sacados de los libros del V.P.F. Juan de la Cruz, edited by Jerónimo de la Asunción (Gerona: Gerónimo Palol, 1650). See Rodríguez (1993: 91).
Read MoreMagdalena del Espíritu Santo was a nun in the Carmelite community in Beas. She recorded these sayings in a manuscript now in the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid. See Pacho (1997: 108).
Read MoreMaría de Jesús (de Solís y Mendoza) was prioress in the Carmelite community of Seville. She recorded these sayings in a manuscript now in the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid. See Pacho (1997: 40).
Read MoreThese sayings are recorded in a manuscript previously conserved in Antequera and now in the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid. See Pacho (1997: 40–41).
Read MoreThis translation is based on three Spanish editions of the Sayings of St John.
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