What we know, and what we do not
Julian of Norwich is one of the most admired English writers of the Middle Ages, yet her personal history is very thin. We do not know her birth name; “Julian” almost certainly comes from the Church of St Julian in Norwich, where she lived. Her own writing gives her age: she says she was thirty and a half when her visions came in May 1373, which suggests she was born around 1342 or 1343. She does not say where she was born, who her family was or whether she had been married. Scholars have debated whether she was a nun before becoming an anchoress, or a laywoman, without a firm answer.
Almost everything else comes from her book and a handful of outside references, including wills that left small sums to an anchoress at Norwich. A visit by another English writer, Margery Kempe, who sought Julian’s advice around 1413, is among the most useful pieces of evidence that Julian was alive and respected then.
The Showings
In May 1373, Julian was gravely ill, and by her account those around her thought she was dying. A priest held a crucifix before her. Over a few days she experienced a series of sixteen “showings,” or revelations, centered on the suffering of Christ and the nature of divine love. Most came during one day and night; she reports that her illness ended and she recovered.
Julian did not rush to write. She composed a shorter account first, and then, after years, probably decades, of reflection, she wrote a much longer version. The long text contains deeper interpretation and is more theological. In it she says her understanding grew over about fifteen years. It later became known as the Revelations of Divine Love, a title given by later editors.
Several themes recur. She sees God’s love as constant, holding that sin is real and painful yet that God is not angry. Her most famous line is the reassurance that “all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.” She also uses an image of a small thing like a hazelnut held in the palm of her hand to show the fragility of creation and God’s care for it. Another distinctive idea is her description of Christ as mother, which she develops carefully and without departing from orthodoxy. Her style is thoughtful and plain, and she is more reflective than dramatic. Readers interested in how medieval people understood suffering and salvation may find it useful alongside the wider medieval views of sin.
Life in the cell
At some point Julian became an anchoress. An anchoress, or the male anchorite, was a person who took a vow to live enclosed in a small cell attached to a church. The enclosure was marked by a formal ceremony, and the cell typically had a window into the church so that she could watch Mass and receive communion, and another window to the outside where visitors could speak with her. A servant would bring food and take care of practical needs. In Norwich it is believed that her cell stood against the wall of the church, though the original building was damaged in the Second World War and later rebuilt.
This was not a life of isolation in the modern sense. Anchorites were often consulted by townspeople, who sought advice and prayer. Julian seems to have been one such person, and Margery Kempe’s account of her visit describes her as a trusted counselor offering comfort. Church bells and the rhythm of services in the church next door structured her day, in much the way described in discussions of the church bells that marked the medieval hours. A guidebook for anchoresses from earlier in the period, the Ancrene Wisse, gives a good idea of the rules and routines such a woman might follow, although we cannot be sure how closely Julian used it.
The setting: Norwich in her lifetime
Norwich in the late fourteenth century was one of the largest and wealthiest towns in England, supported by trade and the cloth industry and with numerous parish churches. Julian’s lifetime coincided with some severe disruptions. Outbreaks of plague returned in the years after the Black Death of 1348 and 1349, and she was likely a child or a young woman during some of them. The countryside of East Anglia was affected by the revolt of 1381, and Norwich saw its own unrest. She does not mention these events in her writing, but they form the background. The same period saw critics such as John Wycliffe challenge church practice, and the church was concerned about unorthodox teaching, which may help explain why Julian’s writing is careful about orthodoxy.
An early woman author in English
Julian is often described as the first woman to write a book in English, and the claim is usually stated with a qualification: hers is the earliest surviving book in English that is known to be by a woman. Other women may have written before her, but their works did not survive or cannot be attributed with certainty. She was a near contemporary of Geoffrey Chaucer, though her audience and purpose were very different, and she wrote in the Middle English of Norfolk.
The manuscripts of her work are few. The short text survives in one manuscript, and the long text in a few later copies, which seem to have been preserved in part by English Catholic communities abroad after the Reformation. Her book was little known for centuries and was printed in a modern edition only in the seventeenth century. Interest grew enormously in the twentieth century, and she has been read by many Christians and by others interested in spiritual writing. Today she is honored by some churches, including the Anglican and Lutheran traditions, though she was never formally canonized in the Roman Catholic Church. Her feast day is usually given as May 8 or 13, depending on the tradition.
Julian died sometime after 1416, when she is last mentioned in a will, probably in her seventies.