At age 30, gravely ill, Julian experienced sixteen visions of Christ's Passion that became the foundation of her later book, the earliest surviving English-language work by a woman.
On 13 May 1373, Julian of Norwich, then about thirty and a half years old, lay gravely ill and was believed by those attending her to be close to death. A priest was summoned to administer last rites, and a crucifix was held before her eyes as was customary. It was in this moment, suspended between life and death, that Julian began to experience a series of sixteen intense visions, or "shewings," centered on the suffering and love of Christ, the nature of sin, and the assurance of divine compassion.
These visions unfolded over several hours on that single day, and Julian recovered from her illness shortly afterward. She spent the rest of her life contemplating their meaning, eventually recording them first in a shorter account and later, roughly twenty years afterward, in a greatly expanded theological reflection known as the Long Text.
The significance of this single day cannot be overstated: it produced the raw experiential material for Revelations of Divine Love, widely regarded as the earliest surviving book written in the English language by a woman. Julian's insistence on God's motherly, non-punitive love — famously distilled in the line "all shall be well" — represented a theological perspective unusual for her era, one shaped directly by the events of this day. Her illness-turned-revelation became a foundational moment in English mystical literature and Christian theology, influencing spiritual writers for over six centuries.
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