Can A Black Plague-Era Author Be a Spiritual Guide in Our Current Pandemic? Holy Cross Religious Studies Professor Explains

In a recent commentary for America Magazine, Mahri Leonard-Fleckman, assistant professor of religious studies at Holy Cross, writes about the timely relevance of the work of Julian of Norwich, an English anchorite of the Middle Ages, who lived through the Black Plague. What can her conviction that "all shall be well" teach us about living through a pandemic?

According to Leonard-Fleckman, Julian of Norwich - who wrote the earliest surviving book in the English language written by a woman, "Revelations of Divine Love," after decades of self-isolation - teaches us to believe that change will come if we begin our own introspection and self-awareness.

"Transformation will happen within and through our world for 'all things' but not without our own inward work and outward response," said Leonard-Fleckman. "Julian's is no passive promise, no kumbaya statement. It necessarily involves human action, human purification."

To read the full article, go to AmericaMagazine.org.