JULIAN OF NORWICH

Friday, May 8, 2026

Sts. Matthew & Mark, Barrington, R.I.

 

Julian of Norwich is among the most profound of the spiritual writers known collectively as the English mystics of the fourteenth century. Her great work, the Revelations of Divine Love, is the earliest surviving book written by a woman in English.

 

Born around 1342, Julian likely grew up amidst the devastation of the Black Death, which killed about half of Norwich’s population. On May 13, 1373, at the age of thirty, she fell severely ill. Believing she was on her deathbed, she received the last rites. As she gazed upon a crucifix held before her, she received sixteen consecutive visions—or "shewings"—of Christ’s Passion, the Holy Trinity, and the Blessed Virgin Mary. Soon after, she wrote down these visions in what is known as the “Short Text” of the Revelations of Divine Love.

 

Following her recovery, Julian decided to become an anchoress—a type of recluse who lived in a small cell attached to a church—in her case, St. Julian's Church in Norwich. She probably took the name "Julian" from this church. Anchoresses were "walled in," devoting their lives to constant prayer and meditation, though they remained part of the community, offering counsel through a window open to the street outside.

 

After meditating on these visions for 15 years, she received another set of revelations explaining their meaning. Beginning in 1393, she wrote these down in what is known as the “Long Text.” She summed it all up in the memorable words, “Love was his meaning.”

 

As a counselor, Julian was renowned for her wisdom and compassion. Many visited her to seek her spiritual counsel, including the fervent mystic Margery Kempe in 1413. 

 

Julian’s theology is celebrated for its optimism, depth, and vivid imagery. She saw that God is pure love, devoid of wrath, holding all creation together by this divine benevolence. She described seeing "a little thing, the size of a hazelnut" in her palm, understanding it to be all that is created, held in being solely by God's love.

 

Julian is well known for emphasizing God’s maternal side, describing Jesus as “our true mother.” She understood Christ’s sufferings on the cross as a kind of labor pains, bearing us into eternal life. Like a nursing mother, Christ feeds us in the Holy Eucharist with his bodily substance.

 

Julian taught that sin, while causing suffering, is a necessary part of the drama of creation, fall, and redemption. Perhaps her most famous insight was that, despite the presence of sin and suffering in the world, still, "All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well."

 

Julian emphasized that the soul’s growth and safety depend on remaining “fastened and joined” to the Church. She insisted that her revelations, while intensely personal, were not meant to replace or contradict established Christian doctrine. She famously wrote: "I yield me to our mother Holy Church, as a simple child oweth."

After Julian’s death in 1416, her writings fell into obscurity and were preserved mostly in monastic manuscripts and, after the Reformation, in the private libraries of a few English Catholic families. They were published for a wider audience only in the early 1900s. At that time, Anglican writers such as Evelyn Underhill and T. S. Eliot did much to bring her to public attention.

 

After St. Julian’s Church in Norwich was almost destroyed by a direct hit during the Blitz on July 2, 1942, the medieval foundations of her cell were rediscovered. When the church was rebuilt, the cell was reconstructed and dedicated as a shrine on May 8, 1953. It has since become a worldwide pilgrimage destination.

 

Though Julian was never formally beatified or canonized as a saint, the Roman Catholic Church commemorates her on May 13, and the Anglican Communion on May 8. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, published in 1992, quotes her on the mystery of sin and divine providence. Pope Benedict XVI considered her a crucial figure in the history of theology, highlighting the spiritual life’s central message: "God is love.”