A 31-year-old female with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) presented with fever, headache, seizures and mental status changes. Brain MRI showed T2 hyperintense lesions in the cerebellum and frontal white matter and a lesion in the cerebellum exhibited hemorrhagic changes and peripheral ring enhancement. The MRI features of listerial encephalitis are difficult to differentiate from those of neuropsychiatric SLE and various other diseases. Here, we report a case of hemorrhagic listerial encephalitis in a patient with SLE.