who coined the term dark night of the soul
St. John of the Cross
title: Dark Night of the Soul text: Dark Night of the Soul Dark Night of the Soul () is a poem written by the 16th-century Spanish mystic and poet St. John of the Cross. The author himself did not give any title to his poem, on which he wrote two book-length commentaries: "Ascent of Mount Carmel" ("Subida del Monte Carmelo") and "The Dark Night" ("Noche Oscura"). The poem of St. John of the Cross, in 8 stanzas of 5 lines each, narrates the journey of the soul to mystical union with God. The journey is called "The Dark Night" in part because darkness represents the fact that title: Dark Night of the Soul text: on the ladder of mystical love, previously described by Saint Thomas Aquinas and in part by Aristotle. The time or place of composition are not certain. It is likely the poem was written between 1577 and 1579. It has been proposed that the poem was composed while John was imprisoned in Toledo, although the few explicit statements in this regard are unconvincing and second-hand. The treatises, written sometime between 1578 and 1585, are commentaries on the poem, explaining its meaning line by line. Padre Lucinio del SS. Sacramento, who edited the critical edition (edition 5), with extremely thorough notes, of title: Dark Night of the Soul text: John of the Cross's "Complete Works" in the "Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos" series, writes that "the idea of the 'night' to analyse the complex psychology of the soul under the purifying influence of grace is the most original and fruitful symbolic creation of the Mystic Doctor's doctrine." The "Ascent" and the "Dark Night" should be considered as forming a single body as P. Lucinio states, quoting Andrés de la Incarnación and P. Silverio de Santa Teresa. Both works were left uncompleted. The term "dark night (of the soul)" in Roman Catholic spirituality describes a spiritual crisis in the journey toward title: Dark Night of the Soul text: the heartache and trembling I feel loved...". Alternative rock band Sparklehorse, along with producer Danger Mouse and director and visual artist David Lynch, collaborated with a number of other artists on an audio-visual project titled "". The phrase has also been used as a song title by several other bands and music artists, including Steve Bell, The Get Up Kids, Ulver, Mayhem, and Shai Linne in "The Solus Christus Project". Canadian singer Loreena McKennitt set the poem to music on her album "The Mask and Mirror". Composer Ola Gjeilo has written a SATB choral setting accompanied with piano and string title: Dark Night of the Soul text: union with God, like that described by St. John of the Cross. St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, OCD, a 19th-century French nun and Doctor of the Church, wrote of her own experience of the dark night. Her dark night derived from doubt of the existence of eternity, to which doubt she nonetheless did not give intellectual or volitional assent, but rather prevailed by a deepening of her Catholic faith. However, she painfully suffered through this prolonged period of spiritual darkness, even declaring to her fellow nuns: "If you only knew what darkness I am plunged