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Julian of Norwich (c. 8 November 1342 – c. 1416) was an English anchoress and an important Christian mystic. Written around 1395, her work, ''Revelations of Divine Love'', is the first book in the English language known to have been written by a woman. Julian was also known as a spiritual authority within her community where she also served as a counselor and advisor. She is venerated in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, and Lutheran churches. == Personal life == Very little is known about Julian's life. Even her name is unknown; the name "Julian" commonly given to her derives from the fact that her anchoress's cell was built onto the wall of the Church of St Julian in Norwich. Her writings indicate that she was probably born around 1342 and died around 1416.〔Beer, F., ''Women and Mystical Experience in the Middle Ages,'' page 130. Boydell Press, 1992〕〔She was certainly still alive in 1413, since the introduction to the ''Short Text'' in the Amherst Manuscript, which is preserved in the British Library, names Julian and refers to her as living, while Margery Kempe visited her around 1414.〕 She may have been from a privileged family that lived in or near Norwich, at the time the second largest city in England. Plague epidemics were rampant during the fourteenth century, and according to some scholars, Julian may have become an anchoress whilst still unmarried or, having lost her family in the Plague, as a widow.〔 Becoming an anchoress may have served as a way to quarantine her from the rest of the population. There is scholarly debate as to whether Julian was a nun in a nearby convent or a laywoman. When she was 30 and living at home, Julian suffered from a serious illness. Since she was presumed to be near death, her curate came to administer the last rites of the Catholic church on 8 May 1373. As part of the ritual, he held a crucifix in the air above the foot of her bed. Julian reported that she was losing her sight and felt physically numb, but as she gazed on the crucifix she saw the figure of Jesus begin to bleed. Over the next several hours, Julian had a series of sixteen visions of Jesus Christ, which ended by the time she recovered from her illness on 13 May 1373. Julian wrote about her visions immediately after they had happened (although the text may not have been finished for some years), in a version of the ''Revelations of Divine Love'' now known as the ''Short Text''; this narrative of 25 chapters is about 11,000 words long.〔Bernard McGinn, ''The Varieties of Vernacular Mysticism'', (New York: Herder & Herder, 2012), p425.〕 It is believed to be the earliest surviving book written in the English language by a woman. Twenty to thirty years later, perhaps in the early 1390s, Julian began to write a theological exploration of the meaning of the visions, known as ''The Long Text'', which consists of 86 chapters and about 63,500 words.〔Jantzen, G. ''Julian of Norwich: Mystic and Theologian,'' pgs. 4–5. Paulist Press, 1988〕 This work seems to have gone through many revisions before it was finished, perhaps in the first or even second decade of the fifteenth century.〔 The English mystic Margery Kempe, who was the author of the first known autobiography written in England, mentioned going to Norwich to speak with her in around 1414. The Norwich Benedictine and Cardinal, Adam Easton, may have been Julian of Norwich's spiritual director and edited her ''Long Text Showing of Love''. Birgitta of Sweden's spiritual director, Alfonso Pecha, the Bishop Hermit of Jaen, edited her ''Revelations''. Catherine of Siena's confessor and executor was William Flete, the Cambridge-educated Augustinian Hermit of Lecceto. Easton's ''Defense of St Birgitta'' echoes Alfonso of Jaen's ''Epistola Solitarii'' and William Flete's ''Remedies against Temptations'', all of which are referred to in Julian's text.〔Julia Bolton Holloway, ''Anchoress and Cardinal: Julian of Norwich and Adam Easton, O.S.B.'' Analecta Cartusiana, 2008〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Julian of Norwich」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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