Praying With Julian of Norwich

Day 3: The Life of Julian of Norwich

Although Julian’s life wasn’t as outwardly exciting as some other great mystics, there is a lot in her teaching and experience of God that continues to challenge us today.

Who Was Julian of Norwich?

Julian of Norwich was born in England in 1342, the 14th century. That is about all the personal information we are sure of. We don’t even know if her name was really Julian or whether she took that name from the church of St. Julian she lived next to. We aren’t even sure when she died. We don’t know about her family, her education or where she lived before she wrote her famous book.

The main thing that we do know is that Julian was an anchorite, which was a type of hermit. Anchorites had small rooms or cells called anchorholds built next to a parish church. An anchorite did not leave her anchorhold which may have had 2 or 3 rooms. Julian would have had a window so that she could see the Mass in the Church, a second window where she could communicate with a servant and finally a window where she could do counseling with people who came seeking her help and wisdom.

We don’t know much of what her life was like; she didn’t think it was important to write about. Even though we don’t know much about her personal life, we do know a lot about the time and the circumstances in which Julian lived. Norwich, England was a large commercial center of its day, and St. Julian’s church where she had her rooms was probably right in the middle of town. During her lifetime she would have seen several epidemics of the plague in which thousands and thousands of people died. She lived during the time of the 100 Years War between France and England and was living during the Peasants Revolt which resulted in widespread famine and political unrest in England. This was also the time of intense change and division within the Church. During Julian’s life-time the papacy was split apart and there were two and sometimes three men claiming to be the Pope of Rome. These were the times in which she lived.

What Kind of Woman Was Julian?

Although Julian was physically isolated in a time of degradation, death and unrest, through her faith and the visions and insights granted to her by God, she was able to see beyond and transcend her times and circumstances. It is Julian who is famous for saying: "And all shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well." She wasn’t just being optimistic, her experience of God led her to know on a fundamental level that there was more to life than the horrors, the destruction and corruption of her day. She saw that God was present and would make all things well. Julian had a deep experience of God’s love that assured her that God had not abandoned His people, but was still present to them in love. We know all this from what she writes about her experience of God.

Julian says that at one point in her life she prayed for three things, for three gifts from God. First, she wanted to "enter into the spirit of Christ’s passion." Second, she asked for "bodily sickness in youth, at age 30" and finally, she asked for the gift of "three wounds" which she called "the wound of true contrition, the wound of natural compassion and the wound of full hearted longing for God." As we’ll see, this may be a good example to be careful what you pray for, because you may get it!

Julian’s Showings

Julian did get what she wanted. First, over a period of 3 days in May 1373, when she was thirty and one half years old, she almost died. First she was paralyzed, then she lost her ability to speak. They sent for the local priest to give her last rights and he put a cross before her face so she would be comforted by it. Then she began to lose her sight and could only see the cross. When she became short of breath, she knew she was dying.

But then suddenly, just as she was on the verge of death, she began to recover and her life was changed forever. On May 8, 1373 she received sixteen "showings" or visions from God. These weren’t really visions as we would think of them, a parade of images, like a movie, but more like experiences or insights. Over the next couple of days she had sixteen of these showings or insights.

She wrote these down and then spent next 20 years of her life meditating on, entering into these "showings," asking God to teach her through them. From these years of trying to understand what she saw during those two days, that she wrote her book, the "Revelations of Divine Love", the fruit of twenty years of contemplation, which is still widely read today.

Exercise: 

Spend some time reflecting on these questions. Don’t hurry through them, but take some time to enter deeply into Julian’s story and the story of your own life.