Julie Billiart, SNDdeN (12 July 1751 – 8 April 1816) was a French Catholic nun, educator, and cofounder of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur.

She was born in Cuvilly, a village in Picardy, in northern France. She was paralyzed and bedridden for 22 years, but was well known for her prayer, her embroidery skills, and her education of both the poor and the nobility, especially her work with young girls. She had to flee Cuvilly after the start of the French Revolution and escaped to Compiègne, where the stress she experienced resulted in another illness that took away her ability to speak, and where she received a vision foretelling that she would found a new religious congregation that would eventually become the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. In 1794, she met the French noblewoman and nun, Françoise Blin de Bourdon, who became Billiart's co-founder and close associate, in Amiens.

In 1804, Billiart and de Bourdon established the Sisters of Notre Dame in Amiens, where they and other nuns dedicated themselves to the care and education of young girls. Billiart, who was called "Mother Julie", was healed of both her paralysis and her speech and went on to found schools and homes for poor girls in France and Belgium. As of 2020, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur worked in 16 countries on five continents. Billiart died on 8 April 1816 in Namur. She was beatified on 13 May 1906 by Pope Pius X and canonized on 22 June 1969 by Pope Paul VI.

Early life

Julie Billiart was born on 12 July 1751, in Cuvilly, a village in Picardy, in northern France, to farmer and shop owner Jean-François Billiart and Marie-Louise-Antoinette Debraine, who were "strong Christian parents". She was "held in such high esteem for her virtue and piety as to be commonly called, 'the saint of Cuvilly. hearing the words, "These are the daughters that I will give you in an Institute, which will be marked by my cross", which she believed was a "guide for her future".

In October 1794, she moved to a small apartment in Amiens, where she met the French noblewoman and nun, Françoise Blin de Bourdon, whom Billiart recognized as one of the nuns in her vision in Compiègne. The foundation was made for what would, under the auspices of the Bishop of Amiens, become the Sisters of Notre Dame, a "society which had for its primary object the salvation of poor children" Her story "resided in obscurity" for decades.

The first miracle that supported Billiart's rise to sainthood occurred on 20 November 1919, in Namur, when a man named Homer Rhodius was healed of renal disease after prayers to Billiart and the use of a relic, provided by his daughter and a nun of the Namur branch of the Sisters of Notre Dame, Sister Marie-Ludovica.

References

  • "Canonization of St. Julie Billiart (1751-1816)": 1969 YouTube clip (no sound)