March 17, 2009Julian of NorwichWho better to launch our celebration of women's history than the endearing Christian mystic Julian of Norwich? Likewise Books had the audacity to claim her as one of our own when we launched our website. Here's what you'll find posted there about Julian; be sure to check out the other like-minded ancestors there too, in the incomplete catalog called "We Too Are Likewise." *** The hermit of Norwich was first spotted by a group of anchorite enthusiasts and a tailor peddling soft linens. Her face is said to have appeared suddenly in the window of a modest hut. As no one in the observing party knew the recluse (and as none wanted to sound foolish), they referred to her as Julian--the name of a nearby parish. Julian, they reported, was enjoying a view of an effigy portraying a slender, effeminate-looking saint. Scholars speculate that perhaps Julian's admiration for this statue and other diminuitive items inspired the first of her sixteen ecstatic visions:
Still others claim that the saintly presence outside her window explains her habit of referring to Jesus as "our Very Mother, Jesus." Julian's birth mother was known among Norwich locals to be "troubled" on account of Julian's strange behavior as a child. It seems the little girl had a way of disappearing.* Years later, though, Julian's mother found relief in a particular passage of her daughter's book Showings. Reading the small book for the first time, this mother was met with an unforeseeable degree of coolness**:
And then:
*** For more on Julian of Norwich see Bernard McGinn, ed., The Essential Writings of Christian Mysticism (New York: Modern Library, 2006), pp. 240-42. *While a mode of disappearance is common in children, there are always a select number of babes that inherit the gift of mystical leaving and are said to go meet with God. **Books generating pleasant coolness or detachment are rare. Posted by Dave Zimmerman
at March 17, 2009 12:36 PM
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