Almost nothing is known of Julian's life apart from her book. She was born about 1343, and in May 1373, when she was thirty and a half years old, she fell so ill that she was thought to be dying. As a priest held a crucifix before her eyes, she received sixteen “showings” of the Passion of Christ and of the love of God, which came to her over a day and the following night.
She soon wrote a short account of what she had seen. Over some twenty years of prayer she returned to the showings and wrote a much longer version, the Long Text, in English. By then she was living as an anchoress, enclosed in a cell beside the church of St Julian at Conisford in Norwich, from which she probably took her name. People came to her window for counsel, and Margery Kempe visited her about 1413.
Julian of Norwich in the library (1 work)
- Revelations of Divine Love — 1901
The first book in English known to be written by a woman: Julian's sixteen showings of the love of God.