Julian of Norwich

Julian was an English anchoress whose Revelations of Divine Love became the first book known to have been written by a woman in English. Her mystical visions, received during a grave illness in 1373, proclaimed a central assurance that “all shall be well.” This phrase has become one of the most recognized phrases in Western Christian spirituality.

The church did not recognize Julian as a saint near the time of her death; it took over five hundred years for her contributions to the English church to be recognized. Her memory was preserved almost entirely through manuscript transmission of her work Revelations, which survived in a small number of copies through a Parisian monastery. She was virtually forgotten from the Reformation until the early 20th century, when scholarly interest revived her work. Her inclusion in Anglican calendars is a modern recovery rather than a continuous tradition. The cell at St Julian's Church, Norwich, destroyed in WWII bombing and rebuilt in 1953, has became a minor pilgrimage site in the modern period, in recognition of her historical place as the first woman to author English devotional literature and the theological value of her writings.

Almost nothing is known of Julian's life beyond what her own writings reveal and a handful of documentary references confirming her existence as an anchoress at St Julian's Church, Norwich. Her real name is unknown; 'Julian' derives from her church. On May 8, 1373, at approximately age thirty and during a severe illness she believed to be terminal, she experienced sixteen visions (“showings” in her terminology) centered around Christ's passion and God's love.

She produced two accounts: the Short Text, written shortly after the experience, and the Long Text (c. 1393), a sustained theological meditation composed over twenty years of contemplation. The Long Text is the first extended prose work known to have been written by a woman in English and represents a remarkable theological achievement. She originally wrote in Middle English that you may be familiar with from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, readable and beautiful, different, but typically understandable to a modern English reader with a bit of effort and a good edition with a few notes. Julian grappled with the problem of evil, the nature of sin, and the relationship between God's love and human suffering, arriving at her famous assurance that 'all shall be well.'

Margery Kempe, the English mystic, visited Julian around 1413 and recorded their conversation in The Book of Margery Kempe, providing external confirmation of Julian's reputation as a spiritual counselor. Norwich parish records and wills mentioning bequests to an anchoress at St Julian's confirm her historical existence. Julian's work was largely lost during the Reformation and was not widely available until the twentieth century, when it was recognized as one of the great classics of Christian mystical literature.

The most complete manuscripts that survive are from the Paris manuscript, BN Fonds Anglais 40, copied c. 1580.

Windeatt's edition adapted into modern English is highly regarded and readable.

If you would prefer a reproduction of the original Middle English prose and some nostalgia to high school English class, you can find it here.

Many cheap, OCR facsimile, or public-domain editions titled simply Revelations of Divine Love are based on Grace Warrack’s 1901/1907 translation, which is historically important and widely available online. This edition often gives readers the Long Text only in an older devotional English style, not both forms and more liberties. It does however have the virtue of being free and in the public domain and can be found here on CCEL.

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