Julienne de Norwich

1342-après 1416 14th century Feast day: May 8

Trust against all evidence: believing, from the depth of night, that love will have the last word.

Who was Julienne de Norwich?

An anchoress of England, walled by her own choice into a cell built against St Julian's church in Norwich, whose name she took. At thirty, on the edge of death, she received sixteen revelations of the love of God; she pondered them for twenty years before writing her Revelations of Divine Love, the first book written in English by a woman. From her window she counselled passing visitors; from her night she drew a confidence nothing ever disproved.

In their own words

All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.

Revelations of Divine Love, ch. 27 (ed. Grace Warrack, 1901)

He said not: Thou shalt not be tempested, thou shalt not be travailed, thou shalt not be afflicted; but He said: Thou shalt not be overcome.

Revelations of Divine Love, ch. 68 (ed. Grace Warrack, 1901)

Wouldst thou learn thy Lord's meaning in this thing? Learn it well: Love was His meaning. Who shewed it thee? Love. What shewed He thee? Love. Wherefore shewed it He? For Love.

Revelations of Divine Love, ch. 86 (ed. Grace Warrack, 1901)

Prayer oneth the soul to God.

Revelations of Divine Love, ch. 43 (ed. Grace Warrack, 1901)