Julian of Norwich and Physical suffering

"In this naked word sin, our Lord brought to my mind, generally, all that is not good, and the shameful despite and the utter noughting[2] that He bare for us in this life, and His dying; and all the pains and passions of all His creatures, ghostly and bodily; (for we be all partly noughted, and we shall be noughted following our Master, Jesus, till we be full purged, that is to say, till we be fully noughted of our deadly flesh and of all our inward affections which are not very good;) and the beholding of this, with all pains that ever were or ever shall be,—and with all these I understand the Passion of Christ for most pain, and overpassing. All this was shewed in a touch and quickly passed over into comfort: for our good Lord would not that the soul were affeared of this terrible sight"

In 'Revelations of Divine Love,' Julian of Norwich addresses both physical and spiritual suffering. She is dwells extensively on, and is deeply sympathetic towards, earthly and boddly suffering and dying. This essay will explore the ways in which Julian understands the relationship between corporeal pain and spiritual growth, as well as the ways in which this discussion is framed contextually by both her own illnesses and the plague and disease ridden society into which she wrote.