Julian of Norwich

Timeline

1. c. 1343–1373Norwich · NorfolkBorn around 1343 in the Norwich area, she experienced the impact of the Black Death in childhood. Her mother and parish priest were present at the time of the showings, indicating she may not yet have been permanently enclosed. It has been speculated that she was educated at the nearby Carrow Priory, though there is no direct documentary proof.
2. 1373Norwich · NorfolkAt thirty she was gravely ill; a priest held up a cross and administered last rites. Over several hours she received fifteen consecutive 'showings' concerning Christ's Passion and divine love, and a sixteenth the following day. Soon after recovering she wrote the Short Text, one of the earliest complete signed works by a woman surviving in the English-speaking world.
3. 1373–1395Cell of St Julian's Church · NorwichShe then became an anchoress in the cell beside St Julian's Church, offering spiritual counsel through her window. By the 1390s wills referred to her as 'Julian the anchoress'. Over decades of meditation she expanded the Short Text into the Long Text of Revelations of Divine Love, developing a theology of sin, divine love, and 'all shall be well'.
4. c. 1395–1416Cell of St Julian's Church · NorwichThe Long Text was completed around the turn of the fifteenth century. Margery Kempe made a special visit, praising her skill in discernment and counsel. A 1413 manuscript still describes her as living, and she received a bequest in 1416; afterwards the cell changed hands, and her date of death is unknown.