JOHN (MOULIN) OF SAINT SAMSON. - Carmelite mystic, highly esteemed, b. at Sens on 19 Dec. 1571, d. at Rennes on 14 Sept. 1636. Having become blind at the age of three, he devoted himself, while still a youth, to the spiritual life, having the works of the greatest masters of the spirit read to him. Having divested himself of his family's possessions in order to practice evangelical poverty in the world, he came into contact with the Carmelites of Paris; from there he passed to the convent of Dol, where he was received as a lay brother at the age of 35. At that time the Touraine reform was being brought to completion, and he became its spiritual master through oral teaching and through numerous writings; under his guidance a host of distinguished mystics was formed. G. has been called the French "John of the Cross."
Characteristic of his spirituality is the decisiveness with which he carries the foundations of Catholic mysticism to their ultimate consequences. God is an infinite sea to which all creatures, like rivers, must return; an immense furnace of love in which we must all be burned. An indispensable condition is the death and spiritual annihilation of the creature. The mystical life is nothing other than God apprehended ineffably; its soul is fervent love, whence a certain voluntarism in G. The mystical life is necessary for Christian perfection; outside of it only one path to holiness remains open: the path of tribulations. Therefore G. extends the vocation to the mystical life to all, and assures that it will be granted to all if they have faithfully exercised themselves in virtue, at least at the end of life.
The works of G. were collected by the Carmelite Donaziano of St. Nicholas, in 2 folio volumes: Les oeuvres spirituelles et mystiques du divin contemplatif f. Jean de St-Samson (Rennes 1658-59). Among the many other partial editions and collections of maxims, the two most recent are to be noted: M. Van den Bossche, Actes de la vie chrétienne (Paris 1938), and S. M. Boucheraux, Directions pour la vie intérieure (ibid. 1947).
Bibliography3 works
Bertolomeo M. Xiberta