ABSTRACT
On the morning of Friday, May 13, 1373, three days after being struck down with the illness she had prayed for, a woman of thirty who was called Julian of Norwich, England experienced sixteen visions or “shewings” in rapid succession. Julian was born in about 1343. Evidence of her living as late as 1416 comes from the wills of money made to the anchoress of St. Julian’s Church. In 1377 Carrow consisted of eleven nuns, and Julian’s anchorhold came under its patronage. Her disclaimer in the long text that she was a “symple creature unlettred” belies Julian’s achievement. As the first English woman to write a book, Julian is both a rhetorically adept author and a literary figure of intense appeal. British novelist Iris Murdoch, in Nuns and Soldiers, created a modern Julian character whose visitation from Christ is modeled on the visions of the medieval mystic.
