Julie Billiart (12 July 1751 – 8 April 1816) was a French nun, saint, educator, and founder 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". Billiart's childhood was "remarkable;" she knew the catechism by heart by the age of seven, when she began teaching it to her friends. She received a rudimentary education at the village school run by her uncle and received her First Communion, was confirmed, and took a vow of chastity when she was nine years old. She knew that she wanted to enter the religious life by the time she was 14. Billiart was admired for her "beautiful embroidery and lace", which she sold in her family's store and donated to local churches and to the nearby Carmelite convent. When she was 16, "[m]isfortunes overtook the Billiart family;" their store was robbed and they was never able to recover financially. She found work as a farm worker and would teach her co-workers hymns, lecture about faith and virtue, and share Bible stories. She was "held in such high esteem for her virtue and piety as to be commonly called, 'the saint of Cuvilly'".
In 1774, Billiart witnessed the shooting of her father as they worked in the family store; the traumatic experience resulted in a "mysterious illness". She became paralyzed and by 1784, due to poor medical treatment, was confined to her bed as "a helpless cripple" for 22 years. Despite being bedridden, she "exercised an uncommon gift of prayer", spending four or five hours a day "in contemplation" and received the Eucharist daily. She also spent her time making linens and laces for the altar, teaching both poor peasants from Cuvilly and noblewomen from Picardy, and preparing village children for their First Communion.
Life and work
In 1789, the French Revolution broke out; Billiart, as Loyola Press put it, "conducted her defiance from her bed", helped protect a non-juried priest, and refused to cooperate with a priest loyal to the Revolutionary government and persuaded the entire village to boycott him, so with the help of one of her noblewomen students, she was forced to escape Cuvilly. She had to hide from revolutionaries by hiding under a mound of straw in the bed of a wagon; a farmhand helped Billiart, her niece, and caregiver escape to Compiègne. The stress of being so far away from home, the worry for her friends who risked their safety to protect her, and the grief over the loss of her father and her friends, the Martyrs of Compiègne, sixteen Carmelite sisters who were guillotined in 1794, resulted in another paralysis that took away her ability to speak. While in Compiègne, she received a vision about founding a new religious congregation, 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".