Celebrating our Saint of the Month
Julian of Norwich
Feast Day: 8th May (Anglican & Lutheran); 13th May (Roman Catholic)
Julian of Norwich (c. 8 November 1342 – c. 1416) was an English anchoress and an important Christian mystic and theologian. Her Revelations of Divine Love, written around 1395, is the first book in the English language known to have been written by a woman. Julian was also known as a spiritual authority within her community, where she served as a counsellor and advisor. She is venerated in the Anglican and Lutheran churches. (She was never formally beatified in the Roman Catholic Church.)
Very little is known about Julian's life. Even her name is uncertain; the name 'Julian' is generally thought to have been derived from the Church of St Julian in Norwich, to which her anchorite's cell was joined. 'Julian' was, however, a common name among women in the Middle Ages and could possibly have belonged to the anchoress as well as to the church.
When she was thirty, Julian suffered from a serious illness. Since she was presumed to be near death, her curate came to administer the last rites of the Catholic Church on 8th May 1373. As part of the ritual, he held a crucifix in the air above the foot of her bed. Julian reported that she was losing her sight and felt physically numb, but as she gazed on the crucifix she saw the figure of Jesus begin to bleed. Over the next several hours, she had a series of sixteen visions of Jesus Christ, which ended by the time she recovered from her illness on 13th May 1373. Julian wrote about her visions immediately after they had happened (although the text may not have been finished for some years), in a version of the Revelations of Divine Love now known as the Short Text; this narrative of 25 chapters is about 11,000 words long. It is believed to be the earliest surviving book written in the English language by a woman.
Twenty to thirty years later, perhaps in the early 1390s, Julian began to write a theological exploration of the meaning of the visions, known as the Long Text, which consists of eighty-six chapters and about 63,500 words. This work seems to have gone through many revisions before it was finished, perhaps in the 1410s or even the 1420s.
The first printed version of the Revelations was edited by a Benedictine, Serenus Cressy, in 1670. It was reprinted in 1843, 1864 and again in 1902. Modern interest in the text increased with the 1877 publication of a new edition of the Long Text by Henry Collins.
Revelations is a celebrated work in Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism because of the clarity and depth of Julian's visions of God. Julian of Norwich is now recognised as one of England's most important mystics.
Julian lived in a time of turmoil, but her theology was optimistic and spoke of God's omni-benevolence and love in terms of joy and compassion. Revelations of Divine Love 'contains a message of optimism based on the certainty of being loved by God and of being protected by his Providence' [Pope Benedict XVI, 2010, General Audience]. The most characteristic element of her mystical theology was a daring likening of divine love to motherly love, a theme found in the Biblical prophets, as in Isaiah 49:15
Julian's feast day is 8th May in the Anglican and Lutheran churches and 13th May in the Roman Catholic Church. The Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes Julian of Norwich when it explains the Catholic viewpoint that, in the mysterious designs of Providence, God can draw a greater good even from evil: 'Here I was taught by the grace of God that I should steadfastly keep me in the faith... and that at the same time I should take my stand on and earnestly believe in what our Lord shewed in this time—that all manner [of] thing shall be well.'
Poet T. S. Eliot incorporated the saying that '…All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well', as well as Julian's 'the ground of our beseeching' from the 14th Revelation, into Little Gidding, the fourth of his Four Quartets and in 1981, Sydney Carter wrote the song Julian of Norwich (sometimes called The Bells of Norwich), based on words of Julian.
The University of East Anglia honoured Julian in 2013 by naming the new study centre the Julian Study Centre.
Each year, beginning in 2013, there has been a week-long celebration of Julian of Norwich in her home city of Norwich, England. With concerts, lectures, workshops, and tours, the week aims to educate all interested people about Julian of Norwich, presenting her as a cultural, historical, literary, spiritual, and religious figure of international significance.
Feast Day: 8th May (Anglican & Lutheran); 13th May (Roman Catholic)
Julian of Norwich (c. 8 November 1342 – c. 1416) was an English anchoress and an important Christian mystic and theologian. Her Revelations of Divine Love, written around 1395, is the first book in the English language known to have been written by a woman. Julian was also known as a spiritual authority within her community, where she served as a counsellor and advisor. She is venerated in the Anglican and Lutheran churches. (She was never formally beatified in the Roman Catholic Church.)
Very little is known about Julian's life. Even her name is uncertain; the name 'Julian' is generally thought to have been derived from the Church of St Julian in Norwich, to which her anchorite's cell was joined. 'Julian' was, however, a common name among women in the Middle Ages and could possibly have belonged to the anchoress as well as to the church.
When she was thirty, Julian suffered from a serious illness. Since she was presumed to be near death, her curate came to administer the last rites of the Catholic Church on 8th May 1373. As part of the ritual, he held a crucifix in the air above the foot of her bed. Julian reported that she was losing her sight and felt physically numb, but as she gazed on the crucifix she saw the figure of Jesus begin to bleed. Over the next several hours, she had a series of sixteen visions of Jesus Christ, which ended by the time she recovered from her illness on 13th May 1373. Julian wrote about her visions immediately after they had happened (although the text may not have been finished for some years), in a version of the Revelations of Divine Love now known as the Short Text; this narrative of 25 chapters is about 11,000 words long. It is believed to be the earliest surviving book written in the English language by a woman.
Twenty to thirty years later, perhaps in the early 1390s, Julian began to write a theological exploration of the meaning of the visions, known as the Long Text, which consists of eighty-six chapters and about 63,500 words. This work seems to have gone through many revisions before it was finished, perhaps in the 1410s or even the 1420s.
The first printed version of the Revelations was edited by a Benedictine, Serenus Cressy, in 1670. It was reprinted in 1843, 1864 and again in 1902. Modern interest in the text increased with the 1877 publication of a new edition of the Long Text by Henry Collins.
Revelations is a celebrated work in Roman Catholicism and Anglicanism because of the clarity and depth of Julian's visions of God. Julian of Norwich is now recognised as one of England's most important mystics.
Julian lived in a time of turmoil, but her theology was optimistic and spoke of God's omni-benevolence and love in terms of joy and compassion. Revelations of Divine Love 'contains a message of optimism based on the certainty of being loved by God and of being protected by his Providence' [Pope Benedict XVI, 2010, General Audience]. The most characteristic element of her mystical theology was a daring likening of divine love to motherly love, a theme found in the Biblical prophets, as in Isaiah 49:15
Julian's feast day is 8th May in the Anglican and Lutheran churches and 13th May in the Roman Catholic Church. The Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes Julian of Norwich when it explains the Catholic viewpoint that, in the mysterious designs of Providence, God can draw a greater good even from evil: 'Here I was taught by the grace of God that I should steadfastly keep me in the faith... and that at the same time I should take my stand on and earnestly believe in what our Lord shewed in this time—that all manner [of] thing shall be well.'
Poet T. S. Eliot incorporated the saying that '…All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well', as well as Julian's 'the ground of our beseeching' from the 14th Revelation, into Little Gidding, the fourth of his Four Quartets and in 1981, Sydney Carter wrote the song Julian of Norwich (sometimes called The Bells of Norwich), based on words of Julian.
The University of East Anglia honoured Julian in 2013 by naming the new study centre the Julian Study Centre.
Each year, beginning in 2013, there has been a week-long celebration of Julian of Norwich in her home city of Norwich, England. With concerts, lectures, workshops, and tours, the week aims to educate all interested people about Julian of Norwich, presenting her as a cultural, historical, literary, spiritual, and religious figure of international significance.
