<Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> Dark Night of the Soul (Spanish: La noche oscura del alma) is the title given to a poem of the 16th - century, Spanish poet and Roman Catholic, Discalced Carmelite mystic, priest, and Doctor of the Church St. John of the Cross, OCD . The author did not entitle his poem, on which he wrote two book - length commentaries: The Ascent of Mount Carmel (Subida del Monte Carmelo) and The Dark Night (Noche Oscura). </P> <P> The poem of St. John of the Cross, OCD, in 8 stanzas of 5 lines each, narrates the journey of the soul to mystical union with God . The journey is called "The Dark Night" in part because darkness represents the fact that the destination, God, is unknowable, as in the 14th century, mystical classic The Cloud of Unknowing, which derives, as does St. John's poem, from the works of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite in the 6th century . Further, the path per se is unknowable . Salí sin ser notada, estando ya mi casa sosegada, St. John writes in the first verse of the poem, which verse in its entirety is translated: </P>

Who wrote the dark night of the soul