BILLIART, JULIE (MARIE ROSE), ST.

Religious foundress; b. Cuvilly, Picardy, France, July 12, 1751; d. Namur, Belgium, April 8, 1816. Daughter of an owner of a small shop, Julie resided in what is now the French department of the Oise. After hardships occasioned by the failure of her family's small business and the shock of witnessing the attempted murder of her father, Julie became unable to walk for 22 years. During her illness she developed her contemplative and apostolic interests by counseling and teaching those who visited her. During the French Revolution she gained a reputation for harboring nonjuring clergymen and refusing the services of constitutional priests. Her life imperiled, she was forced to take refuge in Amiens. There she met Françoise Blin de Bourdon, later Mother St. Joseph. The two, under the direction of Joseph varin d'ainville, undertook the foundation of a religious community that developed into the Notre Dame de Namur Sisters. In 1809 the motherhouse was transferred to Namur, Belgium, where Mother Julie, as superior general, established sound ascetical and educational traditions. She also started seven other houses. The Sisters of Notre Dame of Amersfoort, Netherlands, whose first postulants were trained by Mother St. Joseph, regard Mother Julie as their foundress. So do the Sisters of Notre Dame of Coesfield, Germany. Mother Julie was beatified May 13, 1906 and canonized by Paul VI June 21, 1969.

Feast: April 8.

Bibliography: j. clare, ed., The Life of Blessed Julie Billiart (2d ed. St. Louis 1909). m. g. carroll, The Charred Wood: The Story of Blessed Julie Billiart (London 1952). f. charmot, In the light of the Trinity; the Spirituality of Blessed Julie Billiart (Westminster, Md. 1964). m. f. mcmanama, As Gold In the Furnace: The Life of Blessed Julie Billiart (Milwaukee 1957). m. halcant, Educational Ideals of Blessed Julie Billiart (New York 1922). mother saint joseph, The Memoirs of Mother Frances Blin de Bourdon, tr. sister m. godfrey (Westminster, Md. 1975). r. murphy, Julie Billiart, Woman of Courage: The Story of the Foundress of the Sisters of Notre Dame (New York 1995). a. richomme, L'appel de la route (Paris 1968).

[j. bland]