He was born Juan de Yepes, in Avila, Spain.
His father was employed by wealthy family members as an accountant, but they disowned him when he married a poor woman from the lower class. As a result of his family's poverty, John's family suffered greatly.
His father died when he was three and his older brother died two years after that and his mother eventually found work weaving which helped her to feed her family. As a child, he was sent to a boarding school for poor and orphaned children.
He was given a religious education from a young age and chose to follow a religious path even as a child. As he grew older, he went to work in a hospital while attending Jesuit school.
He was able to join the Carmelite order and took the name "John of St Matthias ". He made vows the following year, and was sent to the university of Salamanca to study theology and philosophy.
He became and expert in the bible.
He became a priest and encountered Theresa of Avila, a charismatic Carmelite nun and she asked John to follow her. He was attracted by the strict routine followed by Theresa, as well as her devotion to prayer and simplicity. Her followers went barefoot and were therefore known as the discalced Carmelites.
On Nov 1568, Theresa founded a new monastery and John changed his name again to John of the Cross. John traveled to Avila at the invitation of Theresa to become her confessor and spiritual guide. He remained there. While there, he had a vision of Christ and made a drawing that remains to this day called " Christ from Above ".
The little drawing shows Christ on the cross, looking down on him from above.
Around 1575, a rift within the Carmelite order began to grow and create controversy between various monastic houses. There was disagreement between the Discalced and the ordinary Carmelites over reform.
The discalced Carmelites sought to restore the original, strict routine and regimen that the order had when it was founded.
In 1432, the strict rules were liberalised and some Carmelites such as theresa of Avila felt that this liberalization had interfered with their order and practice.
In late 1577, John was ordered to leave the monastery in Avila and to return to his original house. However, his work to reform the order had already been approved by the higher authority. thus he chose to ignore and stayed at Avila.
A group of Carmelites broke into John's residence and kidnapped him. He was taken by force to the order's main house in Toledo. He was brought before a court and placed on trial for disobedience. He was punished by imprisonment.
His only luxuries were a prayer book an oil lamp to read it by, to pass the time he wrote poems on paper that was smuggled to him by the friar charged with guarding his cell.
He became known as a remarkable and influential poet.
After 9 months, he managed to pry his cell door and escape. He joined Theresa's nuns in Toledo and spent six weeks in the hospital to recover.
During the last few years of his life, he traveled and established new houses across Spain
He became ill with a skin condition that resulted in an infection and died in 1591.
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