JULIAN OF NORWICHCS 665 Christian Devotional Classics

THOMAS MERTON ONCE WROTE…

“Julian is without doubt one of the most wonderful of all Christian voices. She gets greater and greater in my eyes as I grow older and, whereas in the old days I used to be crazy about St. John of the Cross, I would not exchange him now for Julian if you gave me the world and the Indies and all the Spanish mystics rolled up in one bundle. I think that Julian of Norwich is . . . the greatest English theologian.” (Seeds of Destruction)

WHAT IS AN ANCHORITE?

A person who lives in seclusion, usually for religious reasons

Many Christian saints were anchorites who removed themselves from the world to focus on their spirituality

An anchoress spent her days praying, reflecting on God, and providing spiritual guidance for those who sought her counsel

JOHN-JULIAN’S RESEARCH (2009)

Research reveals that, as opposed to monastic practice, anchorites did not take new names. It would be not be common practice for a female anchorite to take or to be given the name of a male saint (e.g., St. Julien of le Mans, the patron saint of St. Julian’s Church).

Rather, churches that sheltered well-known anchorites would assume the name of the recluse.

Julian of Norwich probably used her own baptismal name both before and after her enclosure

Since “Dame” (Latin domina) was the appropriate and common title for a 14th century Benedictine nun or anchoress, the fact that Julian may have been referred to as “Lady” suggest that she may have been an aristocratic woman rather than an ecclesiastical honorific.

As an aristocrat, she would have had available means to provide financially for her own support, which would have been important for a 14th-century bishop, who would have to provide for the anchorite otherwise.

John-Julian’s research has led him to believe that Julian Erpingham became Julian of Norwich.

This Julian married Roger Hauteyn and, childless, was widowed in 1373 (the same year of the Revelations or Showings).

She remarried, this time to Sir John Phelip of Suffolk, and bore him three chidren—Rose, William, and John.

John was born in 1389, the same year her second husband died.

Children of the higher social classes in medieval England were virtually always “fostered out” at an early age and sent to be raised and taught manners by another high-born family.

If this Julian was “our Julian,” she would have dictated the Long Version of her book and entered the anchorhold in 1393.

Her daugher, Rose, married John Glenham around 1393.

Her sons would certainly have been fostered and, thus, she could then have been free to become an anchoress.

She would have been twice widowed by the age of 47, a wealthy woman with a legacy from her first husband and a third of the estate from her second husband, with no apparent motivation for a third marriage.

It is unlikely that she could have remained simply a wealthy widow, since the king had the power to require that a widow under sixty marry in order to keep her wealth in circulation.

Her 4 choices—a third marriage; the position of secular “vowess” (under the vows of chastity but living in the world); entering a convent; or being enclosed as an anchorite.

Given her experience with the revelations and her personal religious devotion, it would seem that anchorite status would have been the most attractive and suitable alternative.

The widely popular Ancrene Wisse, which gave directions for the anchoritic life, declares that a recluse is to “regard any vision…whether in dreams or waking, as…the devil’s guile.” This would make it unlikely that Julian’s visions were received while she was an anchoress.

Julian Erpingham Phelip died in 1414, and would have been an anchorite for up to 21 years

Like many high-born women in 14th-century England, it is entirely possible that Julian could read but not write.

It is virtually certain that Julian dictated her texts. There is evidence of small errors or adjustments in the text, apparently made by a scribe or copyist.

When Julian received her initial visions, then, she would truly have been “unlettered,” knowing Middle English but unable to write it.

However, it seems likely that during the 20 years between her vision and the final long version of her book, as a noblewoman, Julian may have become truly literate—at least in Middle English and, possibly, in Norman French.

ORDER OF JULIAN OF NORWICH

Fr. John-Julian Swanson established the Order of Julian of Norwich in 1985 in Norwich, Connecticut

The purpose of the order is to creatively renew the great traditions of contemplative and mystical spirituality in the Episcopal Church

Julian House, a monastic community, is now located 20 miles west of Milwaukee in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Short-term guests are welcomed

THE REVELATIONS OF JULIAN OF NORWICH Julian is the first woman openly

identified as such to write a spiritual classic in English

Julian is especially provocative because she combines a wide range of theological knowledge with deep spiritual insight

Julian wrote a book based on sixteen religious experiences—the work has turned out to be a classic

The texts reveal a brilliant and able mind grappling with the reality of God

It is important to understand how she understood her experiences and how they stimulated a deeper life with God

Foster and Beebe in Longing for God

JULIAN’S DESCRIPTION OF THE SETTING 30 years old God sent a bodily sickness that lasted four

nights and three days She expected to die on the third day – she

was sad to die because she said, “I would have liked to have lived so that I could have loved God better and for a longer time, so that I could have more knowledge and love of God in the bliss of heaven” (chapter 3).

She assented fully to God’s will with all of the will of her heart

Her body was dead from the waist down – she could feel nothing

But then… (71 in The Complete Julian)

She thought she was dead but finally realized that she lived, desiring to suffer with Jesus, while living in her body, as God would give her grace.

The Showings

REVELATIONS OF DIVINE LOVE

LOVE

One (Chapters 4-9) – Julian sees blood trickling from the crown of thorns on the crucifix and has experiences of the Trinity and Mary “At this same time that I saw this sight of the

head bleeding, our good Lord showed to me a spiritual vision of his simple loving . . . He is our clothing that for love enwraps us, holds us, and all encloses us because of his tender love, so that he may never leave us” (77).

“Also in this revelation, he showed a little thing, the size of a hazel nut in the palm of my hand, and it was as round as a ball. I looked at it with the eye of my understanding and thought: ‘What can this be?’ And it was generally answered thus: ‘It is all that is made.’”

“In this little thing I saw three characteristics: the first is that God made it, the second is that God loves it, the third is that God keeps it.”

“But what did I observe in that? Truly the Maker, the Lover, and the Keeper, for, until I am in essence one-ed to him, I can never have full rest nor true joy. . . . It is necessary for us to have awareness of the littleness of created things and to set at naught everything that is created, in order to love and have God who is uncreated” (77).

“God wishes to be known, and he delights that we remain in him, because all that is less than he is not enough for us . . . And this is the reason why no soul is at rest until it is emptied of everything that is created” (79).

JESUS’ FACE

Two (Chapter 10) – Julian sees the face on the crucifix change color, symbolizing his passion – covered in dry blood and with anguish etching the contours of his face, Christ hangs before her in shadowy darkness. “And thus I saw him and I sought him, and I

possessed him and I lacked him . . . And this is, and should be, our ordinary behavior in this life, as I see it” (95).

“This vision was a teaching for my understanding that the constant seeking of the soul pleases God very much, for the soul can do no more than seek, suffer, and trust, and this is brought about in the soul that has it by the Holy Spirit, but the clarity of finding is by his special grace when it is his will.”

“The seeking with faith, hope, and love pleases our Lord, and the finding pleases the soul and fills it full of joy” (99).

ALL IN ALL

Three (Chapter 11) – Julian sees God in an instant and understands that he is in all things—all Power, all Wisdom, all Love.

Julian ponders the wonder of God, the reality of sin, and the future of humanity. She minimizes the enduring alienation from God that befalls the sinner. She realizes that God alone rules the world and everything in it.

Questions regarding Julian’s understanding of predestination have arisen over the decades and centuries as a result of the 3rd showing.

Julian considers her audience to be her “fellow Christians” all of whom “shall be saved.” Therefore, it can be said that Julian held the very orthodox doctrine that all souls are predestined for heaven, but that they are free to reject that predestination (Swanson, 405).

CHRIST’S BLOOD

Four (Chapter 12) – The fourth showing is the scourging of the frail body of Jesus with abundant shedding of his blood.

Julian sees blood flowing from the wounds on Christ’s body and then vanishing. “It came to my mind that God has made plentiful waters

on earth for our assistance and for our bodily comfort because of the tender love he has for us, but it still pleases him better if we accept most beneficially his blessed blood to wash us from sin. There is no liquid that is made that it pleases him so well to give us, for just as it is most plentiful, so it is most precious” (106-107).

FRIEND AND FIEND

Five (Chapter 13) – God shows that Christ’s Passion defeats the devil (the Fiend). “With power and justice he withstands the

reprobate, who because of malice and shrewdness busies himself to conspire and to act against God’s will. Because of this sight I laughed mightily. . . . I thought how I wished that all my fellow Christians had seen as I had seen, and then would they all laugh with me.”

“After this, I fell into a soberness and said, “I see three things: amusement, scorn, and seriousness. I see amusement in that the Fiend is overcome. I see scorn in that God scorns him and he shall be scorned. And I see seriousness in that he is overcome by the blissful Passion and Death of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was done in full earnest and with weary labor” (110-111).

HEAVEN’S BLISS

Six (Chapter 14) – God thanks Julian for her suffering and shows her the bliss of heaven. Julian recognizes that the Lord God

experiences gratitude himself. Second, she sees that all of us who are in

heaven find joy in recognizing the gratitude God feels when all suffering is finished.

Finally, this bliss remains as eternally new and fresh as it did the first day we experienced it.

Image of God through this vision: “I saw the Lord as a lord in his own house, who

has called all his dear servants and friends to a solemn feast. Then I saw the lord take no special high-ranked seat in his own household, but I saw him royally reign throughout his house, and he filled it full of joy and mirth himself, in order endlessly to cheer and comfort his friends most plainly and most graciously, with marvelous melody of endless love in his own fair blessed face” (111).

WELL AND WOE

Seven (Chapter 15) – God gives Julian alternating experiences of joy (well) and sorrow (woe). The experience of “well” is grace-filled

touching and enlightening, with true certainty of endless joy

The experience of “woe” is temptation by sadness and annoyance of our fleshly life—with spiritual understanding that even so we are protected safely in love—in woe as in well—by the goodness of God

“It is God’s will that we keep us in this comfort with all our might, because bliss is lasting without end, and pain is passing and shall be brought to nothing for those who shall be saved. And, therefore, it is not God’s will that we submit to the feeling of pains, in sorrow and mourning because of them, but quickly pass over them and keep ourselves in the endless delight which is God” (115).

CHRIST’S PASSION

Eight (Chapters 16-21) – Julian sees Christ’s body drying as he suffers bodily death, and shares in the pain caused to all creatures. Her reason suggests to her that she should look up to heaven, but she chooses the dying Jesus as her heaven.

Reading from 117, 119

“How can any pain be more to me than to see him who is all my life, all my bliss, and all my joy, suffer? Here I felt most truthfully that I loved Christ so much more than myself that there was no pain that could be suffered like to that sorrow which I had to see him in pain” (123).

Reading from 123, 125, 131, 133

SUFFERING

Nine (Chapters 22-23) – Jesus affirms his pleasure in suffering for Julian’s sake and shows her three heavens in his humanity.

Reading from 133, 135, 137

SACRED HEART

Ten (Chapter 24) – Jesus shows his heart cloven in two in love The Sacred Heart symbolized the love and

the cleaving or piercing symbolizing the suffering

Julian was one of the earliest mystics to speak of the Sacred Heart – the devotion did not become widespread for several hundred years

“There he showed a fair, desirable place, and large enough for all mankind that shall be saved to rest in peace and love (his wounded side). And with that he brought to mind his dear blood and precious water which he allowed to pour all out for love. And with the sweet sight he showed his blessed heart cloven in two… This heart is to signify the endless love that was without beginning, and is, and shall be always. With this our good Lord said most blissfully, ‘Lo, how I loved thee’” (141).

MARY

Eleven (Chapter 25) – A noble showing of Jesus’ mother

“For after himself, she is the most blessed sight. (But from this I am not taught to yearn to see her bodily presence while I am here, but the virtues of her blessed soul—her truth, her wisdom, her love—whereby I can learn to know myself and reverently fear my God.)” - 143

GLORY

Twelve (Chapter 26) – God reveals himself in glory It is I, it is I; it is I who am most exalted; It is I whom thou lovest; it is I whom thou enjoyest; It is I whom thou servest; It is I whom thou yearnst for; It is I whom thou desirest; it is I whom thou meanest; It is I who am all; It is I whom Holy Church preaches and teaches thee; It is I who showed myself here to thee.

ALL SHALL BE WELL

Thirteen (Chapters 27-40) – God affirms that, despite sin and suffering, all shall be well

“Sin is inevitable, but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well” (147).

“These words were said most tenderly, showing no manner of blame to me nor to any that shall be saved. Then it would be a great unkindness to blame God for my sin, seeing he does not blame me for sin” (149).

Read 161.

PRAYER

Fourteen (Chapters 41-43) – The Lord is the foundation of prayer “First, it is my will that thou have

something, and next I make thee to want it, and afterward I cause thee to pray for it. If thou prayest for it, how, then, could it be that thou wouldst not get what thou askest for?” (191).

Pray inwardly, even though it seems to give you no pleasure, for it is beneficial enough though you perceive it not.

Pray inwardly, though you sense nothing, though you see nothing, though you think you can achieve nothing, For in dryness and barrenness, In sickness and in feebleness, Then is your prayer completely pleasing to Me,

though it seems to give you but little pleasure. And thus all thy living is prayer in my eyes.

Praying is a true, gracious enduring will of the soul, one-ed and made fast to the will of our Lord by the sweet, secret working of the Holy Spirit.

Thanksgiving is also part of prayer—a true, inner awareness, with great reverence and loving awe turning ourselves with all our might toward the actions our good Lord guides us to, rejoicing and thanking him inwardly (193, 195).

REWARD FOR SUFFERING

Fifteen (Chapters 64-65) – God promises Julian that he will be her reward for suffering

“For all this life and this languishing that we have here is only a moment, and when we are taken without warning out of pain into bliss, then the pain shall have been nothing” (303).

“It is most blessed for man to be taken from pain, more than for pain to be taken from man; for if pain is taken from us, it can come again” (305).

“And he also wills that we accept our waiting and our distress as lightly as we can take them, and pay no attention to them—for the more lightly we take them, and the less value we place on them for the sake of love, the less pain shall we have in experiencing them, and the more favor and regard will we have because of them” (307).

FINAL INSIGHTS

God as Father and Mother – 277ff and 407 Sin and the Fall of Humanity “It is proper for us to have three kinds of

knowledge: The first is that we know our Lord God; The second is that we know ourselves, what we

are by him in nature and grace; The third that we know humbly what we

ourselves are as regards our sin and our weakness (333).