Spiritual Canticle

He remained imprisoned for nine months in a cell, in bad conditions that caused him much suffering.

In the Spiritual Canticle, John tries to explain the mystical process that follows the soul until it reaches its union with God.

The wife feels wounded by love, and this makes it to start the search of the Beloved (el Amado); the soul asks everywhere for him in despair until they finally get together in the solitude of the garden (Paradise).

The earlier version of thirty-nine stanzas is generally referred to as Canticle A, and is derived from the Manuscript of Sanlúcar.

The later version, containing forty stanzas, is generally referred to as Canticle B, and is derived from the Manuscript of Jaén.

Arms of the Discalced Carmelites (distinguished by the Cross) drawn on a page of the "Manuscript of Sanlúcar". The manuscript retains the handwritten annotations of John of the Cross, and is preserved in the Discalced Carmelites convent in Sanlúcar de Barrameda , Spain.