Following the pattern of the early desert fathers and mothers, Julian set herself apart from the world to live a life of prayer and communion with God. It may have been at this time that she became an anchoress.Īs an anchoress, Julian retired from the world to live in an enclosure – anchorhold – in the side of a church. Julian spent the next twenty years contemplating those visions, eventually writing the long version of the same volume and becoming the first woman to write a book in the English language. Soon thereafter, she transcribed what she had seen in the short version of Revelations of Divine Love. The visions, referred to by Julian as “showings,” occurred over a course of hours. She felt herself to actually be at the foot of the cross with Mary and other women. When it seemed she was at the point of death, Julian received a series of visions of Christ on the cross. Julian’s prayers were answered at the age of thirty through an unusual and unexplained illness. Her third prayer was for “three wounds”: true contrition, loving compassion, and full-hearted longing for God.
Her second prayer was for a physical illness so severe that she herself and those around her would think she was dying. Of the passion of Christ, not merely on an intellectual level, but at a level of personal participation. Julian, in her search for God, prayed three prayers. It is unlikely that she was a nun, but she was obviously a devout woman.
She may have had some connection with the Benedictine nuns at Carrow Abbey and possibly some education there. Her name was probably taken from church records and no one is certain if it was Juliana or Julian. Julian, a mystic and anchoress, was born in 1342, possibly in Norwich. Each guide provides a brief biography of the classic’s author, a section on historical context, a short outline of the classic under discussion, reflection and analysis, and questions for personal spiritual reflection.
This guide is one of a column series that invites Adventist readers to reflect on important classics of the Christian spiritual tradition.
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