![]() ![]() She would publicly don her religious habit and walk into the cell as into her grave, while the presiding bishop sprinkled ashes in her wake. “The anchoress would be interred in this room in an impressive if rather disturbing ceremony during a Mass for the Dead. In The English Mystics, Karen Armstrong describes what this would have involved: Julian lived in a room next to the church and watched the Mass and received the sacraments through a window in the wall. Many towns liked to have a spiritual recluse living in their community to provide counsel and spiritual advice. After a series of visions, she recovered and entered the church as an anchoress. When she was 30 years old, she suffered a mysterious illness and almost died. Not much is known about her life, but she was born in about 1342 and may have been from a wealthy family that lived in Norwich. Julian of Norwich was a mystic and anchoress of the 14th century and wrote Revelations of Divine Love, the first book to be written in English by a woman. ![]()
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