Julie Billiart

Marie Rose Julie Billiart was born on 12 July 1751 in the village of Cuvilly in Picardy, France, the sixth of seven children of Jean-François Billiart, a farmer who also kept a small shop, and Marie-Louise-Antoinette Debraine. The household was of modest prosperity and firm Catholic practice. From childhood Julie showed a marked piety and a gift for instruction: she learned the catechism thoroughly and, while still young, gathered other children to teach them. Around the age of fourteen she made a private vow of chastity. In 1774 an attempt was made on her father’s life when shots were fired into the family home. The shock of that violence, coming after earlier hardships that had already strained the family’s means, precipitated a long and severe illness. She gradually lost the use of her legs and for more than two decades was largely confined to bed, offering her suffering in prayer and continuing to teach catechism from her room.

During the French Revolution she refused the Civil Constitution of the Clergy and sheltered non-juring priests, which exposed her to denunciation. She was forced to leave Cuvilly and lived in hiding, first in Compiègne and later in Amiens. In 1794 she met Françoise Blin de Bourdon, Viscountess of Gézaincourt, a noblewoman who had herself been imprisoned during the Terror. Their spiritual friendship became the nucleus of a new religious family. With the encouragement of Father Joseph Varin of the Fathers of the Faith, Julie and Françoise established in Amiens in 1804 the Congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame, devoted to the Christian education of girls, especially the poor. In June of that same year, after a novena to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Julie suddenly recovered the power to walk, an event her community regarded as miraculous.

Tensions soon arose with the bishop of Amiens and with a clerical superior over the government, the rule, and the apostolic character of the young institute. Unwilling to see its original spirit altered, Julie accepted the invitation of Bishop Joseph Pisani de la Gaude of Namur. In 1809 she and a group of sisters transferred the motherhouse to Namur. From that city the congregation spread, opening schools in several towns of the region. As superior general she insisted on simplicity of life, confidence in divine Providence, and preferential service to poor children, forming her sisters in a spirituality centered on the cross and on the education of youth as a work of faith.

Julie Billiart died in Namur on 8 April 1816. The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur continued to expand after her death and in later generations established houses in Europe, North America, Africa, and elsewhere. She was beatified by Pope Pius X on 13 May 1906 and canonized by Pope Paul VI on 22 June 1969. Her liturgical feast is kept on 8 April. She is invoked especially by the sick and by those engaged in the education of the poor. Her remains are preserved at the motherhouse of her congregation in Namur.