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JULIAN OF NORWICH (c.1342 – after 1416ce)
On 8 May 1980 Julian of Norwich was commemorated as a saint for the first time in the Church of England. Julian was a visionary – a fact that places her in continuity with the women visionaries who flourished on the Continent during the 13th and 14th centuries.
Very little is known about Julian’s personal life apart from the fact that by 1394 she was an anchoress enclosed in her cell at the Church of St Julian in Norwich. In May 1373 she received a revelation, consisting of 15 ‘showings’ and one more ‘showing’ the day after. Her book, commonly known in modern times as Showings or Revelation(s) of Divine Love, survives in two recensions.
The nuns at Carrow, a Benedictine Priory in Norwich, educated Julian although she claims to be ‘unlettered’ by which it is thought to have meant that she had little or no knowledge of Latin. The exercise of anglicizing her thoughts worked to Julian’s advantage and she employed the colourful images that sprang from the wide assortment of English dialects. The flexibility of this new language, allowed her to express her message with a rhetoric and sentence structure that had never been used before her time. Her ingenious use of language continues to stand out because many of her linguistic devices and images have never been repeated.
In the process of stretching and bending her words she developed a new way of talking about God. She expanded and clarified traditional Church teaching on the Trinity, the role of Jesus in the Trinity, and the mystery of iniquity by means of her precise choice of vocabulary and her sensitivity to biblical and medieval imagery.
Besides the political upheaval going on at the time, a stream of natural disasters made their mark on the land and affected Julian’s teaching. Most of the literature of this period reflects a spirit of pessimism arising from the suffering inflicted by a scarcity of food, the bubonic plague and unemployment. Julian’s writings provided a welcome contrast to this contemporary strain of gloom. Like many of these authors, she touched on the themes of agony and grief, but she managed to present these miseries within a vision of a better life, not only in heaven, but in the foreseeable future as well. She urged her fellow believers to look beyond their uncomfortable predicaments and encouraged them to cope with their misfortunes by paying attention to their neighbours and extending compassion to everyone else in need.
On 8 May 1373 (in her 31st year) during a severe illness, Julian received the series of 16 shewings of our Lord. She became an anchoress (a woman dedicated to religious life) living permanently alone in a cell attached to St Julian’s Church in Norwich and she took her name from the Church which would have been approximately 400 years old at that time.
For twenty years, Julian meditated on the visions she had received and at length she recorded them and their meaning as The Revelations of Divine Love. This is the first book known to be written by a woman in English and is now acknowledged all over the world as one of the great classics of spiritual literature.
Julian stressed the goodness of creation and emphasized the compassion and reverence that God has for every creature. Julian insists in her teaching that we should see God primarily as All Loving: “Would’st thou know the Lord’s meaning in this thing? Know it well. Love was his meaning”
Through her own sufferings and the appalling suffering of her time with all its bewilderment, she fulfilled St Paul’s injunction to be ‘suffering, yet always rejoicing”. Julian was convinced that “all shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.”
Despite her uncompromising convictions, Julian’s anthropology and theology maintain an affirmative tone. This positive thrust is grounded in her understanding of creations as the self-revelation of the Creator. Her anthropology emerges from the creature’s fundamental relationship with its maker. She emphasized the enduring nature of this primary relationship by noting that anyone who loves his creatures into being certainly intends to care for them and provide for their needs – whatever they may be.
21st Century women and men who are seeking the same peace and security that their 14th Century counterparts desired can discover the same sense of affirmation and acceptance in the knowledge that God loves them too and desires to share a life of intimate communication with them. Julian’s teaching promises today’s men and women the opportunity to re-shape their perception of everyday life. It offers a chance to lift our pain out of a problem-oriented context and see how much such difficulties are actually crucial components of the great mysteries of the Creation, Cross and Resurrection.
The Cell that can be seen today at the Shrine of Julian of Norwich is built on its original site marked by two fragments of the old foundation and is furnished as a chapel. It is a place of pilgrimage and prayer for people from all over the world.
 
Julian’s Cell Today Church of St. Julian, Norwich UK
PROGRAM FOR 2008
The Fellowship of Julian of Norwich meets at St Andrew’s Anglican Church, Lutwyche 4 times a year to celebrate our faith in Christ and to study Julian’s Theology.
All are welcome at 9.30am 673 Lutwyche Road, Lutwyche.
Enquiries: The Reverend Sandra Kjellgren – 3857 5734
Sat 8 March 2008 9.30am
Sat 3 May 2008 9.30am
Sat 9 August 2008 9.30am
Sat 8 November 9.30am
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