I’m not sure when I first heard of Julian of Norwich. It might have been while reading ‘Walking on Water’ by Madeleine L’ Engle (a book which is full of a lot of wisdom, and a lot of wonderful quotes!).
C.S. Lewis, when he read her writings, wrote in a letter that, “I have been reading Lady Julian of Norwich…A dangerous book, clearly. I’m glad I didn’t read it much earlier.”
In 2019, I was able to travel to Norfolk for my dear friend Rachel’s wedding. Rachel, her mother, her younger sister, and I spent a wonderful day in Norwich: going to a religious shop that sold cathedral incense; visiting Norwich Cathedral, and visiting the site of Julian of Norwich’s cell.
I thought at first that her cell was at Norwich Cathedral, but a worker at the cathedral gave us directions to find St. Julian’s church. While her sister and mother went shopping, Rachel and I walked over to the church to visit her cell.
Though some medieval anchoress/ anchorite cells do exist, Julian’s was destroyed in the 1500s during the Dissolution of the Monasteries. In WWII, the church was bombed and heavily damaged during the Norwich Blitz of 1942. After the war, the church was rebuilt and a chapel built in the location of the cell.
Why did C.S. Lewis call this woman dangerous? In reading her revelations, I have found that they are beautiful and profound and somehow difficult to read. It has taken me years to read her writings, digest them and let them distill into my soul.
Her exact birth and death are not known, but Julian was born circa 1343, and died after 1416. When she was 30 years old, she became dangerously ill. She miraculously recovered from her sickness, and told of the visions she receieved when she was almost at the point of death. Not much beyond this is known. Even her name may not have been Julian. She may have merely adopted the name of the saint to whom her church was dedicated.
She is well known for her quote, “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.” But I want to include some of her other quotes here to give a taste of her visions. The following quotes come from the translation by John Skinner.
I myself am not a good person merely because I received these showings; they will only make me a better Christian if I come to love God more…For in truth, I was never shown that God loved me more than the least soul that stands in his grace; indeed I am certain there be many who have had neither sight nor showing save that of the common teaching of holy Church, yet they love God better than I. For when I look to myself as a single individual, then I am nothing. But all my hope comes from being united in one love with all my fellow Christians.
She has beautiful descriptions too, ranging from the blood of Jesus Christ, and sometimes wonderful details of clothing.
I saw the Lord take no place of honor in his house, rather I saw him rule royally there, filling it full of joy and mirth. He himself presided by endlessly gladdening and entertaining his very close friends with every warmth and courtesy, with a marvelous melody of endless love in his own fair blessed face.
To me, her parable of the servant is the most powerful. It was a vision she was granted after asking God to explain sin to her, and the reason for it. In the vision, she sees The Lord and a servant. The servant is ready and eager to do The Lord’s bidding, and starts out hastily and falls into a “boggy dell” and gets greatly hurt:
And then he groans and moans and wails and writhes, but neither can he rise up nor may he help himself in any way. And in all of this, the most mischief that I saw for him was his lack of comfort; for he could not turn his face and look towards his loving lord, who, still very close to him, was his only comfort.
This understanding of sin, as being our hurt and our discomfort is so profound, and that we sin through pain and through not realizing that the Lord is as close to us as he ever was. It is such a beautiful understanding. That we, like the servant, are “blinded in [our] reason and stunned in [our] mind.”
When I read Julian of Norwich, I am amazed by her singleminded devotion to God. How she desired to separate herself from the world by living as an anchoress. She was humble and wanted only to share her revelations with those around her. And this she did. She wrote down her visions, but she was also sought out by people in her community while she lived. She was visited by Margery Kempe, a contemporary English woman who was known as a mystic and who went on many pilgrimages in her lifetime.
Her words come down through the years clear and powerful, and like the presence of God, they are powerful and intense. Visiting her cell was a pilgrimage for me. Norwich was the namesake of the town where my husband Nick was born and grew up, and that added an extra significance for me. I was glad I could bring a souvinir back for him.
Rachel and I are both members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and as we sat within the cell, Rachel (very devout and serious in our religion), said that it felt like we were in the temple. It impressed me that she would make this comparison, and I think she described it perfectly. It was a place of peace and holiness where we felt close to God.
Beautiful! Thank you for sharing your experiences and insight!
T. S. Eliot quotes that headline hope in his Four Quartets.