2023/150: For Thy Great Pain Have Mercy on My Little Pain — Victoria MacKenzie

I wanted my mind to be driven deep into God like a nail. [loc. 787]

This short novel examines the lives of the two great medieval female mystics from Norfolk, Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe. The two met at least once, around 1413, when Margery visited Julian in her anchoress' cell at St Julian's Church in Norwich. Victoria MacKenzie posits that, on this occasion, Julian handed the manuscript of her Revelations of Divine Love to Margery for safekeeping.

Most of this short novel is composed of alternating scenes from the two women's viewpoints: Julian looking back on the life she left behind to become an anchoress, and the ritual 'death' by which she withdrew from the world to be immured in her tiny cell; Margery complaining of being misunderstood, harassed and hounded by the townsfolk of what was then just plain Lynn. They are very different people. Julian's intensity, her almost obsessive pacing and prayer, contrasts strongly with Margery's performative faith, her public conversations with Jesus, and her frequent clashes with the religious establishment. Julian sees the world, and God, in the song of the blackbird in the hazel tree outside her cell; in a snowflake melting in the palm of her hand; in the company of her cat. Margery weeps for Christ in church, and is unable to get enough of being shriven for her sins. She's called a heretic, but she has experienced visions of Christ, and she's sure that some day she will be in heaven with Mary and Jesus and the apostles. And when they meet, there is an instant connection, a shared understanding that each has experienced revelation.

This would make an excellent play: the voices are so strong and distinctive. (The quotation at the top of this review is from Julian's narrative: Margery says, quite early on, 'as I began to tell of this sin, my confessor was sharp with me, telling me not to take all day, and then I could not get the sin out' [loc. 185].) And it's refreshing to read historical fiction which focuses tightly on the characters, rather than exploring the world around them. There are just enough hints of life in medieval Norfolk (the wandering musicians who Margery hears at the inn, the whispers of plague that reach Julian in her cell) to remind us that this is not our time.