St John of the Cross
Many mystics have some sort of influence
or impact on their society at the time of their life, some after their death. Saint
John of the Cross is one who left a legacy both while he was alive and after he
died. Saint John of the Cross’s impact on the Catholic Church can be seen in many
ways. He was one of the reformers of the Carmelite order alongside Saint Teresa
of Avila. The mystic facilitated the first male order of Discalced Carmelites
alongside Saint Teresa of Avila. He helped the Catholic Church focus on the
Union with God, and eventually became a doctor of the church.
To
understand how Saint John of the Cross transformed the Carmelites, one needs to
explore the beginning of the reform. In a general summary, Saint Teresa of Avila
saw the need to create a separate monastery where women could pray and serve
God without the layers of excess found in common practices of the time and saw
that thoughtful prayer and abstaining from talking were better practices. At
the time she started the journey, she was nervous about starting the male
counterpart to the order. This is where she ultimately enlisted the help of Fray
Juan de Santo Matia, who would eventually be known as Saint John of the Cross (Hardy,
1982, p. 27).
Throughout
his life and even after, Saint John of the Cross was seen by some in the Catholic
Church as offensive and ludicrous, but that did not stop him from becoming canonized.
According to the book Search For Nothing, “Ultimately, through the joint
efforts of the Calced and Discalced Carmelite Orders, all the obstacles were
cleared away, and Fray Juan was beatified on January 25, 1675, and finally canonized
as a saint by Pope Benedict XIII on December 27, 1726.” (Hardy, 1982, p. 123).
This process allowed him to be a permanent figure in the Catholic Church for
his message of connecting people with God in a sacred union.
Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi
Shaykh Ahmad Sirhindi was a controversial person during his time in the Muslim history of India. His lasting impact can be found in his stature in current understandings of Sufi beliefs. His bold opinions had people polarized as his views of the social and religious scene found in the Mughal Empire were more conservative and separative. He believed that the core values of Islam should not be mixed with any other, as it diluted the sacredness of those practices. This divisiveness had a part in sustaining a specific straightforward understanding of Islam in India.
This Sufi was most notably known for
his controversial beliefs surrounding Hinduism. During the early time of the Mughal
Empire, their leader Akbar tried to contort the various religious practices of
the citizens to create a more cohesive empire (Hasan, 1945, p. 248). Ahmad Sirhindi
directly opposed the integration of multiple beliefs into each other and created
an interfaith communal belief under Akbar’s reign. “Thus, the slogan ‘Back to
Original Islam’ was raised. The beginning of the second millennium had revived the
idea of a regenerator.” (Hasan, 1945, p. 249). This mystic is very well-known for
his self-righteousness as he implied himself to be “the renewer of the second millennium”
(Ingram, 2014, p. 227). His righteousness and divisive nature led to the common
practice of a foundationalist version of Islam.
(If any information seems off or unclear, please do not hesitate to correct me and send me more sources to research and draw more information from!)
Sources
Hardy, R. P. (1982). Search for nothing : the life of
John of the Cross. Crossroad.
Hasan, S. N. (1945).
SHAIKH AHMAD SIRHINDI AND MUGHAL POLITICS. Proceedings of the Indian History
Congress, 8, 248–257. http://www.jstor.org/stable/45435424
Ingram, B. (2014). Revealed Grace: The Juristic Sufism of
Ahmad Sirhindi (1564-1624), by Arthur F. Buehler. Comparative Islamic
Studies, 8(1-2), 227–229. https://doi.org/10.1558/cis.v8i1-2.227
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