Voices and Visions

1
Voices and Visions

• Many people have reported mystical experiences
  involving voices and/or visions
• Some well known examples
• Julian of Norwich, St Francis of Assisi, Joan of
  Arc

2
Julian of Norwich (c1342-1416)

• Julian of Norwich is considered to be one of the
  greatest English mystics. Little is known of her
  life aside from her writings. Even her name is
  uncertain, the name "Julian" coming from the
  Church of St Julian in Norwich, where she
  occupied a cell adjoining the church as an
  anchoress. At the age of thirty, suffering from a
  severe illness and believing she was on her
  deathbed, Julian had a series of intense visions.
  
• These visions would twenty years later be the
  source of her major work, called Sixteen
  Revelations of Divine Love (circa 1393). This is
  believed to be the first book written by a woman
  in the English language.
• (Source http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_of_No
  rwich)

3

• Although she lived in a time of turmoil, Julian's
  theology was optimistic, speaking of God's love
  in terms of joy and compassion as opposed to law
  and duty. For Julian, suffering was not a
  punishment that God inflicted, but was a means he
  used to draw us closer to himself.
• This was different from the prevailing views of
  her time, which typically saw afflictions like
  the Plague as divine punishment. Because of her
  intimations that beyond the reality of hell-fire
  is yet a greater mystery of God's love, she has
  also been referred to in modern times as a
  proto-universalist.

4
.but all shall be well, and all shall be well,
and all manner of things shall be well

• Her great saying, "Sin is behovely, but all shall
  be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of
  things shall be well", reflects this theology. It
  is also one of the most individually famous lines
  in all of Catholic theological writing, and
  certainly one of the most well-known phrases of
  the literature of her era.
• She is commemorated by both the Evangelical
  Lutheran Church in America as a renewer of the
  Church and the Anglican Church on May 8 and by
  the Roman Catholic Church on May 13.
• A modern statue of her has been added to the
  facade of the Anglican Norwich Cathedral.

5
Links http//www.umilta.net/julian.html http//en
.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_of_Norwich http//www.l
uminarium.org/medlit/julian.htm
6
St Francis of Assisi (1182-1226)

• Rebellious toward his father's business and
  pursuit of wealth, Francis spent most of his
  youth lost in books (ironically, his father's
  wealth did afford his son an excellent education,
  and he became fluent in reading several languages
  including Latin).
• He was also known for drinking and enjoying the
  company of his many friends, who were usually the
  sons of nobles.
• His displays of disillusionment toward the world
  that surrounded him became evident fairly early,
  one of which is shown in the story of the beggar.

7
Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337), Basilique
Assise, Legend of St Francis, Renunciation of
Wordly Goods
It is said that when he began to avoid the feasts
of his former companions, and they asked him
laughingly if he was thinking of marrying, he
answered "yes, a fairer bride than any of you
have ever seen" meaning his "lady poverty", as
he afterward used to say.
8

• He spent much time in lonely places, asking God
  for enlightenment. By degrees he took to nursing
  lepers, the most repulsive victims in the lazar
  houses near Assisi. After a pilgrimage to Rome,
  where he begged at the church doors for the poor,
  he claimed to have had a mystical experience in
  the Church of San Damiano just outside of Assisi,
  in which the Icon of Christ Crucified came alive
  and said to him three times, "Francis, Francis,
  go and repair My house which, as you can see, is
  falling into ruins."
• He thought this to mean the very ruined church in
  which he was presently praying, and so sold his
  horse together with some cloth from his father's
  store, to assist the priest there for this
  purpose.
• Francis then spent many years establishing a
  religious order and living a life devoted to
  prayer
• see http//www.newadvent.org/cathen/06221a.htm
• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_of_Assisi

9
Stigmata

• While he was praying on the mountain of Verna,
  during a forty day fast for Lent, Francis was
  reported to have received the Stigmata on 13
  September 1224, the Feast of the Exaltation of
  the Cross. "Suddenly he saw a vision of a seraph,
  a six-winged angel on a cross. This angel gave
  him the gift of the five wounds of Christ." This
  is the first known account of the stigmata.
  However, no one knew about this occurrence until
  after his death, when Thomas told a crowd of
  Franciscans that he had witnessed this account.

10
From now on, let no one make trouble for me for
I carry the marks of Jesus branded on my
body. Galatians 617.
11

• Suffering from these Stigmata and from an eye
  disease, he had been receiving care in several
  cities to no avail. In the end he was brought
  back to the Porziuncola. Here, in the place where
  it all began, feeling the end approaching, he
  spent the last days of his life dictating his
  spiritual testament. He died on the evening of 3
  October 1226 singing Psalm 141. His feast day is
  observed 4 October.
• On 16 July 1228 he was pronounced a saint by the
  next pope Gregory IX, the former cardinal Ugolino
  di Conti, friend and protector of St. Francis.
  The next day, the pope laid the foundation stone
  for the Basilica of Saint Francis in Assisi.
• (Source http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_of_As
  sisi)

12
Links
St Francis http//www.newadvent.org/cathen/062
21a.htm http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_of_As
sisi Stigmata http//www.newadvent.org/cathen/1429
4b.htm