In In Search of Julian of Norwich Sheila Upjohn treats the story of our lady, Dame Julian, as a detective investigation. She asks the intriguing question that centers on why someone as enlightened as Julian of Norwich should be virtually hidden and unknown for 6 centuries. Sheila determines to trace the route from Julian's life, and the visions described in one of the first books written in English, Showing of Love, through the harrowing journey following her texts from relative obscurity to some prominence in the 21st century.
Upjohn begins the journey to find Julian of Norwich by alluding to "The Case of the Missing Manuscripts" where we learn that after Julian's visions in 1373 she wrote two books, The Short Text and The Long Text. These books went undercover during the reign of King Henry the VIII when he dissolved the structure of the Catholic church in England. Monasteries were closed, looted and their buildings appropriated for the King's new church, The Church of England. Around this time some of Julian's manuscripts were spirited across the English channel to places such as the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. Other copies were found about 200 years later in the Sloane collection and the books were printed and found in a few other places. Although readership of these early copies was low, we find the legendary Florence Nightingale studying it as she cared for the sick and wounded during fighting in the Crimea.
I love that Upjohn describes "The Scene of the Crime" for us. Here she invites us to 14th century England in Norwich, to the monasteries and churches, to the life of recluses and the rules that governed their lives. As an Anchoress Julian would have been subject to these many rules that governed her dress and her activities. She was asked to dress "plainly," and that her clothes be "thick and warm." From one of her windows that looked out onto the street she met with people who stopped by for counseling and insight into their spiritual lives.
Norwich at the time was the 2nd largest city in England and hummed with trade and activity. A seaport town, woolens and other types of cloth as well as other imported goods were unloaded in the bustling ports of Norwich. Norwich was a walled city and within about a square mile could be found at least 6,000 people along with dogs, cats, pigs, goats and other animals. It was teeming with life.
In "Evidence of an Eyewitness" we learn about Margery Kemp, who wrote the first autobiography in English. Margery visited Julian on her travels searching for her own spiritual truth and wrote of the visit in The Book of Margery Kemp. Margery traveled to other parts of England, including York, (where she was tried as a witch in some places--but succeeded in convincing her accusers that she was a true Christian), made pilgrimages to Rome, the Holy land and even found herself following the pilgrimage trail in Santiago de Compostela where she sought greater spiritual understanding.
This text recounts some of the key points in Julian's book such as when God showed her "a hazelnut lying in the palm of [her] hand." That hazelnut contained "all that is made." Julian did not see God as wrathful, but always loving, both a father and a mother to us all. T.S. Eliot, the English poet, included Julian's words in a poem called Little Gidding.
And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well
By the purification of the motive
In the ground of our beseeching. . .
If anyone wishes to start his or her own journey to find the loving spirituality described by Julian of Norwich, Sheila Upjohn's book is a wonderful place to start, to get your feet wet inside the 14th century seemingly so far away, yet when we begin to read, it seems so familiar.
Much of this description of this text was paraphrased from:
Upjohn, S. (2007). In Search of Julian of Norwich. Morehouse Publishing. Harrisburg, PA.
No comments:
Post a Comment