OK I just got it fixed. I solved the problem by moving the spring xml files to classpath-root. I think I used "classpath:**/" wrong. I'm very new to this java things.
For those of you who may have found this via a web search - this problem may occur if somewhere on your classpath there exists an older version of the applicationContext.xml file
(either resident on the server or in some other location on your classpath) which may not be updated when you update the application during the edit and deploy process.
To solve the problem, perform a search on your system, locate any applicationContext.xml file - open it, if the file is associated with your application, verify that it references beans which you've added in your most recent iteration of development.
If not, and you prefer not to delete these files, update their contents by copying and pasting the most updated applicationContext file into the ones which are found. I hope this makes sense.