Julian of Norwich (c. 1342-1416 ) was a medieval mystic who, after being largely unknown for centuries, is having an upswelling of popularity today. At the age of thirty, during a near-death illness, she had 16 visions of Christ. She wrote down a short version of her visions at the time and became an anchoress, a person who lives a life of prayer in a cell attached to a church. She contemplated those visions for 20 years and wrote a longer book about them, called Revelations of Divine Love.

One of the things she wrote was how the love between mother and child is as close as we can understand in an earthly way of the love between Jesus and his children. (Isaiah 49:15).

In one of her visions, she was asking Jesus about sin. She wrote, "But Jesus, who in this vision informed me of all that is needed by me, answered with these words and said: 'It was necessary that there should be sin; but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.'"

She has never been officially canonized or even beatified, but she is quoted in the Catechism, spoken of with approval by Popes, and widely regarded as a Saint by the faithful laity, as Hildegard of Bingen was for centuries before being recently canonized. Julian is the unofficial Patron Saint of contemplatives and cats, the latter because it is believed she had a cat as a companion in her cell. "Future" Feast Day: May 13.

There is much online about this holy woman you might enjoy exploring. This stained glass is from St. Julian Chapel in Norwich (pictured), which was rebuilt after being destroyed in World War II.

We should probably mention what we like about this stained glass, why we think it's so pretty. It is the delicacy of the image and colors, the way Jesus's crucifixtion is shown as the Tree of Life, Juliana's wonder at her Lord and his look to her during his Passion. All Shall Be Well is scrollling down above her, and we believe that to our roots: All Shall Be Well.

** IMPORTANT ** The image is smaller than the paper! There is a white border of about 0.5" inch for 5x7", 1.3" for 8.5x11, or 1.6" for 11x14" pictures. The border gives the prints a finished look, and lets them look good in frames without using a matt.

- Acid-free paper
- Archival pigments, rated to last for generations.
- Cardboard backer
- Above story of the art
- Enclosed in a tight-fitting, crystal clear bag.

Thanks!
Sue & John

"In order to communicate the message entrusted to her by Christ, the Church needs art." ~ St. Pope John Paul II

Original image is out-of-copyright. Descriptive text © by Sue Kouma Johnson - Classic Catholic Art.
The copyright on this image is owned by Evelyn Simak and is licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license. In that same spirit of sharing, we do not copyright our extensive refinements of this image.