Spirit of Flame

By Edgar Allison Peers

Saint John of the Cross is practically unique among Christendom’s many mystics. Never mind the connotations of delicacy, distance, or darkness which that word, mystics, might conjure up. A mystic means, simply, a person who has fallen in love with God. Ardently single-minded and single-hearted in love and purpose: in this way did John of the Cross attend to God, search for Him, strive after Him; in this way, too, did he long that others might share in this love and purpose. Here, Edgar Allison Peers writes, lies “the whole secret of the amazing power of his life, his character and his writings.”

God knows what is meet for us and ordains things for our good. Think only that God ordains all. And where there is no love, put love in and you will draw love out. (Saint John of the Cross)

A masterpiece of brief biography and literary appreciation, Spirit of Flame intro­duces this Spanish Carmelite friar, hero of the Counter-Reformation, companion to the great St. Teresa of Ávila, theologian and poet par excellence, and devoted mystic. With precision, tact, and immense respect for his subject, Peers surveys the life and work of St. John of the Cross, with special attention to his mystical and poetic legacies. First published in 1943, Spirit of Flame remains a marvelous occasion to let shine the steady light of St. John of the Cross.

Edgar Allison Peers (1891–1952) was an English Hispanist of international fame. Chair of Spanish Studies at the University of Liverpool for three decades, he wrote and edited some sixty books and translated the complete works of both St. John of the Cross and St. Teresa of Ávila. A devout High Anglican, Peers earned the praise and the imprimatur of the Roman Catholic Church, and requested, upon his death, that the Holy Mass be offered for him on all Carmelite altars in the world.

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Paperback: 206pp.

ISBN: 978-1685953645