John of Saint Samson was a French Carmelite lay brother, mystic, spiritual director, poet, musician, and writer. Blind from early childhood, he became one of the principal spiritual figures of the Touraine Reform of the Carmelite Order in seventeenth-century France. He belonged to the Carmelite Order of the Ancient Observance, often called the Great Carmelites, and not to the Discalced Carmelites. He is often described in Carmelite tradition as the soul of the Touraine Reform, which emphasized prayer, silence, solitude, regular observance, fasting, the Divine Office, and interior recollection.