JOHN OF JESUS MARY

Or Juan de San Pedro y Ustarroz, educator and mystical writer; b. Calahorra, Logrono, Spain, Jan. 27, 1564;d. Montecompatri, May 29, 1615. He was the son of the famous physician, Diego de San Pedro. He came to know the Discalced Carmelites while studying at Salamanca. He took the habit and was later professed at Pastrana (Jan. 30, 1583). Soon afterward he was appointed professor at the Colegio Complutense. Nicholas Doria chose him for the same office in the newly founded convent of Genoa, Italy, where he was ordained priest in 1590. He accompanied Doria to Cremona for the general chapter of the Carmelite Order (1593) that decreed the separation of the Reform from the old Order of Carmel. On his return from the general chapter, he was appointed master of novices at St. Ann's of Genoa (1593–98) and was later transferred to the novitiate of La Scala in Rome, where he served first as assistant to the master of novices (1599–1601), then as master of novices (1601–11). He took an active part in the foundation of the Italian Congregation. At its first general chapter (1605), he was elected second definitor and procurator general (1608–11); he finally became general in 1611. Completing his term as general in 1614, he retired to the convent of St. Sylvester in Montecompatri.

Almost all his writings deal with the proper spiritual formation of religious, both superiors and subjects; his published writings number 65. These appeared together in a three-volume collection, first published in Cologne (1622), and again in Florence (1771–74).

Bibliography: florencio del niÑo jesÚs, El ven. P. fr. Juan de Jesús María (Burgos 1919). e. a. peers, Studies of the Spanish Mystics, 3 v. (London 1960) v.3. pier giorgio del sacro cuore, La contemplazione secondo il Ven. P. Giovanni di Gesù Maria (Cremona, Italy 1950).

[o. rodrÍguez]