Finding Christ in Isolation: A Sonnet for Julian of Norwich

By Malcolm Guite, 12 May 2023
A statue of Julian of Norwich by David Holgate, outside Norwich Cathedral, United Kingdom. Image: Poliphilo/Wikimedia Commons.

 

The 8th of May is the feast day of Julian of Norwich, sometimes known as Mother Julian or Lady Julian. She was an English Mystic of the late fourteenth Century, living as an anchoress in Norwich. Her life as an anchoress, finding Christ in isolation, and then finding that Christ transfigured that isolation into a communion of love, has been an inspiration for many in the current lockdown.

Her ‘Shewings’, or Revelations of Divine Love, a series of mystical visions of and conversations with Jesus, remain a source of profound wisdom and a gift to the church, present and future.

Malcolm Guite has written a poem entitled ‘Mother Julian’ about the saint, which you can read and listen to here. The poem is from his book ‘The Singing Bowl’, Canterbury Press, 2013.

Malcolm Guite is a British poet-priest and chaplain of Girton College, Cambridge.

With thanks to Malcolm Guite, where this article originally appeared.

 

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