Revelations of Divine Love

About this book

Julian of Norwich (c. 8 November 1342 - c. 1416), also called Juliana of Norwich, was an English anchoress and an important Christian mystic and theologian. Her Revelations of Divine Love, written around 1395, is the first book in the English language known to have been written by a woman. The Revelations of Divine Love (which also bears the title A Revelation of Love - in Sixteen Shewings above the first chapter) is a 14th-century book of Christian mystical devotions written by Julian of Norwich. It includes her sixteen mystical visions and contemplations on universal love and hope in a time of plague, religious schism, uprisings and war. Published in 1395, it is the first published book in the English language to be written by a woman. During her early life, the Black Death hit the city of Norwich three times. It is estimated that the plague killed about a third of England's population in one single epidemic. People died so quickly and in such numbers that "the dead could not receive proper burial and in the worst of times, lay stacked in carts like so much cordwood, or in hastily dug pits on the edge of town, or simply where they fell, in the streets". Seeing these images may have affected Julian, who was just six years old when the plague first hit Norwich. Although she does not speak of the plague directly, her book shows a deep sensitivity to suffering and dying.