Friday, April 08, 2011

Naomh An Lae - Saint Of The Day

St Julie Billiart (1751-1816) foundress of the Sisters of Notre Dame

Loved to teach catechism

Julie was born at Cuvilly, a village of Picardy, in the diocese of Beauvais, France. 

When she was seven, she knew the catechism by heart, and used to gather her companions around her to hear them recite it and to explain it to them. 

Recognizing something 'special' in her, the priest secretly allowed her to make her First Communion at the age of nine, when the normal age at the time was thirteen.

Paralysed and confined to bed for twenty-two years 

Julie was held in very high esteem for her virtue and piety and was commonly called, "the saint of Cuvilly".

When twenty-two years old, a murder attempt on her father gave her such a shock that her lower limbs were paralysed and she was confined to bed for twenty-two years. 

During this time, she received Holy Communion daily, spent four or five hours in contemplation and the rest of the day making altar linen and lace. 

She also gathered the village children around her bed to teach them catechism in preparation for First Communion.

Viscountess Françoise Blin de Bourdon

During the French Revolution Julie Billiart had to take refuge at Amiens, and it was here she met Viscountess Françoise Blin de Bourdon, a thirty-eight years old woman who had spent her youth in piety and good works. 

She had been imprisoned with all of her family during the Reign of Terror, and had escaped death only by the fall of Robespierre. She was not immediately attracted by Julie (paralysed and almost speechless), but eventually grew to love and admire her for her wonderful gifts.

A small company of friends of the viscountess (young and high-born ladies) was formed around the bed of "the saint". Julie taught them how to lead an interior life, while they devoted themselves generously to the causes of God and the poor. 

Though they attempted all the exercises of an active community life, some of the first disciples dropped off until only Françoise Blin de Bourdon was left.

Institute of the Sisters of Notre Dame

In 1803 under the auspices of the Bishop of Amiens, Julie and Françoise decided to found a the Institute of the Sisters of Notre Dame, a society for the Christian education of girls and the training of religious teachers. Their first pupils were eight orphans. 

Several young persons offered themselves to assist the two superiors. They did away with the distinction between choir sisters and lay sisters and put each sister to work in a situation which best suited her. 

On the feast of the Sacred Heart, June 1, 1804, Mother Julie, after a novena made in obedience to her confessor, was cured of paralysis. 

Other houses of the order were set up in Ghent and Namur and they set up the mother-house in Namur.

Later life, death and canonisation

In the space of twelve years (1804-16) Mother Julie founded fifteen convents, made one hundred and twenty journeys, many of them long and toilsome, and carried on a close correspondence with her spiritual daughters. Hundreds of letters are preserved in the motherhouse. 

In 1815 Belgium was the battlefield of the Napoleonic wars, and the mother-general suffered great anxiety, as several of her convents were in the path of the armies, but they escaped injury. 

In January, 1816, she was taken ill, and died after three months of pain borne with patience. 

Her reputation for sanctity spread and was confirmed by several miracles. She was beatified by Pope Pius X in 1906 and canonised by Pope Paul VI in 1969.

Spirituality and influence

Julie's spirituality was captured by the simple and naive formula which was continually on her lips and pen: Ah, qu'il est bon, le bon Dieu (Oh, how good he is, the good God!). 

Today, the Sisters of Notre Dame work with refugees in London, street children in Nairobi, teaching in Korea, immigrant farm workers in Florida, AIDS orphans in Zimbabwe... and always, women and children, who are among the very poorest.