Why the Church is marking a Jubilee for John of the Cross

From December 2025 through December 2026, the Church is celebrating a Jubilee Year dedicated to John of the Cross, one of Christianity’s most demanding — and enduring — spiritual teachers. Proclaimed by the Discalced Carmelites with papal approval, the jubilee marks two anniversaries: 300 years since his canonization and 100 years since he was named a Doctor of the Church.

But this jubilee is about more than commemorating dates. It invites Catholics to revisit a message that feels strikingly contemporary: faith does not eliminate darkness, but teaches how to pass through it.

Jubilee years, rooted in the Hebrew Bible, are traditionally linked to liberation, forgiveness, and restoration. In the Catholic tradition, they also emphasize pilgrimage, sacramental life, and spiritual renewal. The Jubilee of Saint John of the Cross draws directly from the Carmelite saint’s central insight: that union with God requires letting go — of illusions, attachments, and false securities.

John’s writings, including The Dark Night and The Ascent of Mount Carmel, were born not from comfort but from hardship. He wrote some of his most luminous poetry while imprisoned by his own religious brothers. That paradox — clarity born of suffering — lies at the heart of this Jubilee Year.

The jubilee is centered in Spain, in places closely tied to the saint’s life. Among the principal pilgrimage churches are:

Pilgrims who visit designated churches, receive the sacraments, and pray for the Pope’s intentions may receive a plenary indulgence during the Jubilee Year.

For those seeking a structured journey, the Carmelites are highlighting a simple but meaningful route linking Fontiveros, Duruelo, and Segovia. Covering several days by car or on foot in sections, the route traces John’s path from birth, through reform and hardship, to his final resting place.

Unlike large pilgrimage trails, this route is intentionally quiet. Its focus is not crowds or spectacle, but silence, prayer, and the landscapes that shaped Carmelite spirituality. Along the way, pilgrims are encouraged to read short passages from John’s writings — not as texts to master, but as companions for the road.

In an age uneasy with limits and discomfort, John of the Cross speaks with unusual honesty. He does not promise easy consolation. He promises truth, freedom, and a God who meets humanity not by bypassing darkness, but by entering it. That is the invitation of this jubilee year: not to admire a mystic from afar, but to walk — patiently and humbly — the path he once traced.