John of the Cross
Early life and education

He was born Juan de Yepes y Álvarez at Fontiveros, Old Castile, into a converso family (descendants of Jewish converts to Catholicism) in Fontiveros, near Ávila, a town of around 2,000 people. His father, Gonzalo, was an accountant to richer relatives who were silk merchants. In 1529 Gonzalo married John's mother, Catalina, who was an orphan of a lower class; he was rejected by his family and forced to work with his wife as a weaver. John's father died in 1545, while John was still only around three years old. Two years later, John's older brother, Luis, died, probably as a result of malnourishment due to the poverty to which the family had been reduced. As a result, John's mother Catalina moved with John and his surviving brother Francisco, first to Arévalo in 1548, and then in 1551 to Medina del Campo, where she was able to find work.

In Medina, John entered a school for 160 poor children, mostly orphans, to receive a basic education, mainly in Christian doctrine. They were given some food, clothing, and lodging. While studying there, he was chosen to serve as an altar boy at a nearby monastery of Augustinian nuns. Growing up, John worked at a hospital and studied the humanities at a Jesuit school from 1559 to 1563. The Society of Jesus was at that time a new organisation, having been founded only a few years earlier by the Spaniard St. Ignatius of Loyola. In 1563 he entered the Carmelite Order, adopting the name John of St. Matthias.

In the following year (1564), he made his first vows and enrolled in Salamanca University, where he studied theology and philosophy. There he met Fray Luis de León, who taught biblical studies (Exegesis, Hebrew, and Aramaic) at the university.
length_constraints:number_sentences[14], detectable_content:number_placeholders[7]