6The fourteenth-century anchoress known as Julian of Norwich offered fervent prayers for a deeper understanding of Christ's passion. The holy woman's petitions were answered with a series of divine revelations that she called "showings." Her mystic visions revealed Christ's sufferings with extreme intensity, but they also confirmed God's constant love for humanity and his infinite capacity for forgiveness.
Julian of Norwich's Revelations have had a lasting influence on Christian thought. Written in immediate, compelling terms, her experiences remain among the most original and accessible expressions of medieval mysticism. This edition contains both the short text -- which is mainly an account of the "showings" themselves and Julian's initial analysis of their meaning -- as well as the long text, completed some 20 years later and offering daringly speculative interpretations.