Julie Billiart

In Amiens, where she arrived in 1794, Julie Billiart met the Viscountess Françoise Blin de Bourdon, who became her most faithful companion. On February 2, 1804, with Françoise Blin de Bourdon and Catherine Duchâtel, she founded the congregation of the Sisters of Notre-Dame, dedicated to the Christian and free education of young girls, particularly the poorest, and to the training of schoolmistresses. A few months later, in May-June 1804, after a novena to the Sacred Heart, she suddenly regained the use of her legs: cured of her long paralysis, she could henceforth travel and multiply the foundations of houses and schools. The first vows were pronounced in October 1804. Difficulties with the diocesan authority of Amiens led the foundress to transfer the center of the congregation to Namur, in the Southern Netherlands, where she settled in 1809 under the protection of Bishop Pisani de la Gaude; Namur became the motherhouse. Until her death, Mother Julie traveled throughout France and Belgium, opening about fifteen communities and giving the institute its missionary and educational character.

The spirituality of Julie Billiart is summarized in the exclamation attributed to her and adopted by her congregation: "Ah! How good the good God is!". This trust in divine goodness, lived during twenty-two years of immobility and suffering, is at the heart of her reputation for holiness. Her spiritual pedagogy favors simplicity, humility, and abandonment to Providence, which she sought to transmit to children through an education that makes God known and loved. According to several hagiographic accounts, she also lost the use of her speech during the darkest period of the Revolution, before regaining it. Her healing, which occurred after a novena to the Sacred Heart, was perceived by her contemporaries as a sign of divine favor upon the nascent work. A woman of action as much as of prayer, she endured without bitterness the misunderstanding of certain ecclesiastical authorities, manifesting an obedience and patience that struck her sisters. It is this coherence between trial, confident faith, and educational dedication that forms the basis of the veneration that surrounded her immediately after her death.

The process for the recognition of the holiness of Julie Billiart led to her beatification on May 13, 1906, by Pope Pius X. More than six decades later, she was inscribed in the catalogue of saints on June 22, 1969, by Pope Paul VI in Rome; some sources mention the date of June 21, but the majority of sources retain June 22, 1969. Her liturgical feast is celebrated on April 8, the anniversary of her death which occurred in Namur in 1816; in certain regions and among the Sisters of Notre-Dame de Namur, her memory is also honored in connection with her birthday. The cause relied notably on the reputation of holiness maintained since the 19th century within her congregation, which was then in full international expansion. The Roman recognition thus consecrated a model figure of Christian education and trust in trial, in coherence with the attention paid by the Church, in the time of Paul VI, to the founders and foundresses of institutes dedicated to teaching and charity.

The work of Julie Billiart is perpetuated through the congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, which, from the motherhouse established in Namur in 1809, expanded widely after the founder's death, to the point of being present on several continents and in many countries. Faithful to her charism, the sisters dedicate themselves to education, particularly of girls and the most disadvantaged, and to spreading the knowledge of the goodness of God, transmitting the spirit of simplicity and trust inherited from Julie. Namur remains a major site of her memory, where she is honored as a founder and educator. Her spiritual motto, "Ah! how good the good God is!", continues to inspire the communities and educational institutions that claim her. A figure of 19th-century educational holiness, Saint Julie Billiart is thus recognized both as a pioneer of girls' education and as a witness to hope lived in the heart of suffering and revolutionary upheavals.