Little is known of this extraordinary Englishwoman apart from what she recorded in the account of her mystical revelations. There she recorded how she had prayed in her youth that she might be granted three graces: recollection of Christ’s passion; bodily sickness; and the spirit of contrition, compassion, and longing for God. At thirty, her prayer was answered when she fell grievously ill. While gazing on a crucifix, she experienced sixteen revelations concerning Christ’s passion, after which her sickness left her.

In these revelations she vividly experienced Christ’s passion. Though his sufferings were terrible, she perceived that they revealed the depth of God’s intimate love for humanity. This vision yielded further reflections on a range of issues, including the value of creation, the power of atonement, and the impotence of evil. Though creation amounted to no more than a hazelnut in the hand of God, its value was measured by the price God paid for it in blood. And in the end, God’s suffering became our joy with the realization that we are “soul and body, clad and enclosed in the goodness of God.” Julian herself was enclosed in an anchorhold—a dwelling attached to the wall of the church in Norwich—that afforded her a safe space to compose her spiritual ruminations.

Julian’s writings affirm the goodness of creation. Her stress on the beauty, friendliness, and love of God contrasts sharply with a theology that stresses the anger and omnipotent judgment of God over a sinful world. Such teachings have earned her a devoted following in our age. Thomas Merton called her, with John Henry Newman, the greatest of English theologians.

“All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”

—Julian of Norwich