Thinkers Timeline

Julian of Norwich was an English Christian mystic and theologian. She is thought to be the first woman to have written a book in English that has survived. She was born around 1342, probably in or near Norwich, England. Norwich at that time was one of the largest cities in England, a centre of trade and learning. Almost nothing is known about her early life. We do not even know her real name. The name Julian comes from the church of St Julian's in Norwich, where she later lived. In May 1373, when she was thirty years old, she became seriously ill. She thought she was going to die. While she lay close to death, she received a series of sixteen visions, which she called 'showings'. They came to her over the course of a day and night. She recovered from her illness and wrote down what she had seen. This first version is now called the Short Text. She then spent about twenty years thinking about what the visions meant. She became an anchoress. An anchoress was a woman who lived in a small cell attached to a church, dedicated to prayer and spiritual counsel. Her cell had a window onto the church so she could receive communion, and another window onto the street so she could speak with visitors. After two decades of reflection, she wrote a much longer version of her book, the Long Text. It is now called Revelations of Divine Love. She is known to have been alive as late as 1416, when she would have been about 74. She probably died not long after. She was famous enough in her lifetime that the pilgrim and writer Margery Kempe visited her for spiritual advice.