While [John’s] body was succumbing to erysipelas, his heart and reputation were still being battered. The prior of the community of Ubeda where he had gone for treatment had a grudge against him, and made his dying quite difficult. Medicines were regarded as a financial drain, putrid bandages were not to be washed, visits were curtailed . . . John’s nurse, Bernardo, captures it with a modern phrase: ‘It was just incredible what was taking place!’
Finally, Bernardo himself was forbidden to nurse John. Whatever about the sick man’s patience, Bernardo had had enough: he wrote in complaint, higher authorities intervened and matters improved in time for John to die in a community at peace.
Iain Matthew, O.C.D.
The Impact of God: Chapter 12, Healing Darkness
Matthew, I 1995, The Impact of God: Soundings from St. John of the Cross, Hodder and Stoughton, Ltd, London.
This is all new to me too. “See how these Christians love one another…”