Juan San Pedro Ustárroz

In 1593, Father John of Jesus-Mary participated in the Chapter of Cremona, which was marked by the definitive separation between the Discalced Carmelites and the Calced Carmelites. That same year, he was appointed master of novices in Genoa. In 1597, he was transferred to Rome to join the commission tasked with drafting the Constitutions of the new Congregation of Italy (known as the Congregation of Saint Elijah). He infused it with the spirit of the Pastrana novitiate and Teresian spirituality. From 1600 to 1611, he served as vicar of the convent of Santa Maria della Scala in Rome. In 1605, he was elected second Definitor General and master of novices, then Definitor General in 1608.

During his Roman years, he formed a deep spiritual friendship with Saint Joseph Calasanz, the founder of the Pious Schools. John of Jesus-Mary became his spiritual advisor and confessor. To support and encourage the teachers of the first free Roman schools intended for poor children, he wrote a pedagogical treatise in 1606 entitled Liber de pia educatione (published in 1613). This text, which synthesizes the principles of a benevolent Christian education, would exert a notable influence on Calasanzian pedagogy.

In 1611, he was elected Superior General (Prepositus General) of the Congregation of Italy of the Discalced Carmelites. During his mandate, he promoted the expansion of the Order in Europe (notably in Poland, Germany, and France) as well as in the missions of the Orient. He definitively clarified that the missionary impulse is an integral part of the Teresian charism and founded a missionary seminary for this purpose.

In 1614, at the end of his term as Superior General, John of Jesus-Mary retired to the convent of San Silvestre in Monte Compatri, near Rome. He spent the last year of his life there in solitude, contemplation, and prayer. He died there holily on May 28, 1615, at the age of 51.

In 1619, during the exhumation of his remains ordered by Father Domingo de Jesús María, his body was discovered to be incorrupt. His mortal remains are still preserved and venerated in a chapel of the church of the convent of San Silvestre in Monte Compatri.

The cause for the beatification of John of Jesus-Mary was introduced in Rome. Following a diocesan inquiry conducted from 1996 to 1998, Pope Francis authorized, on November 25, 2021, the promulgation of the decree recognizing the heroic nature of his theological and cardinal virtues, thereby officially conferring upon him the title of Venerable.

John of Jesus-Mary remains one of the major figures of the second generation of the Teresian Carmel. A prolific writer, he authored approximately 80 works of theology, exegesis, and spirituality. His most famous work is the Schola di Oratione, published in Rome in 1611, which enjoyed immense editorial success and was translated into French as early as 1615 under the title Le Paradis de l'Oraison, contemplation et mortification. Through his writings, he became a pedagogue of contemplative prayer, insisting on the close union between contemplation and mortification to attain the perfect love of God and neighbor. His spiritual and pedagogical legacy also left a lasting mark on the beginnings of the Pious Schools of Saint Joseph Calasanz.