I have been listening to PD201 as it's included in this quarters courses. So far I have been enjoying it - lots of practical and useful info.
But I came across something he said that I can't seem to verify and I was curious if anyone else here might know.
In Segment 29 on Ascetics, the instructor Gary Thomas says this about John of the Cross.
I think John of the Cross had a bit of the ascetic in him. He never wanted to forget Christ’s sacrificed for him or the fact that he was going to die one day. When you went into his place where he lived and where he prayed, it was a small place, but he would have crucifixes that he had drawn and he also had skulls all over. In fact, he even ate his soup out of a skull that had the holes plugged up because he wanted to remind himself, even when he’s eating, that’s where he would be. That’s sort of the seriousness with which an ascetic approaches their faith.
Thomas, Gary L. PD201 Introducing Spiritual Formation. Lexham Press, 2014.
https://biblia.com/books/pd201thomas/offset/159630
I've been unable to find this referenced anywhere else, both in Logos and in a Google search. In Logos, the only thing that comes up is this very section.
And you can word it differently to get a positive result, though it still only brings up the one resource.
A Google search comes back with:
While Saint John of the Cross is a significant figure in Christian mysticism and his writings often use powerful imagery, there is no historical or traditional evidence to suggest that he ever literally ate out of a skull.
Anyone heard this before? It puzzles me that I can't find this referenced anywhere else. It's not like John of the Cross was some obscure unknown person, and certainly him eating out of a skull would have been something most people writing a biography on him would have mentioned.
