English mystics · 1342–after 1416
Julian of Norwich
English anchoress · the first woman to write a book in English
Julian lived as an anchoress — walled into a cell beside a church in Norwich — in a century of plague and upheaval. After a near-fatal illness she received sixteen “showings,” which she pondered for decades and wrote down in Revelations of Divine Love, the earliest surviving book in English by a woman.
Her vision is radiant with tenderness: God as mother as well as father, love without blame, the whole of creation held safe like a hazelnut in the palm of a hand. “It lasts, and ever shall, for God loves it.”
Into a frightened age she spoke comfort that has never stopped echoing: that love, not condemnation, is the meaning of all things, and that all shall be well.
Julian of Norwich, stained-glass window, Norwich Cathedral (© Amitchell125, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Ways to pray
with Julian of Norwich
