All Shall Be Well
Joan Burkitt-Gray
The words “All shall be well” – or “All will be well” – decorated thousands of lockdown and “love the NHS” rainbows.
They are not anonymous. They were actually first written down by an English saint, a Christian wise woman, living in the busy city of Norwich nearly 700 years ago.
St Julian’s words and her trust that “all shall be well” did not come easily.
She had become an enclosed hermit – an anchoress – after a series of near-death experiences, and possibly also after losing her husband and children to the Black Death, the killer plague of the fourteenth century.
She spent nearly 30 years in her cell, meditating and praying on her revelations and experiences of God’s love, where she also became a much sought-after counsellor.
She is shown holding a little hazelnut, as she saw it in one or her revelations of God’s love, representing the universe cradled in God’s care.
The images below show the painting of St Julian in various states of finish. This represents the fact that Joan broke her back after tripping on a step that she could not see, due to having a visual field defect as a result of advanced glaucoma. The images below show how far she had progressed with her icon paintings before the fall, and her fractured progress due to the unseen risks associated with her visual impairment.
Work in progress 1
Work in progress 2
