The North PacificBoard

Facts About Saint Julie Billiart:

1. Saint Julie Billiart was born Marie Rose Julue Billiart to a family of well-established farmers in Cuvilly, France on July 12th, 1751.

2. As a child, playing "school" was Julie's favorite game. At the age of 16, she began teaching for "real" in an effort to support her family.

3. As a child, she showed a keen interest for religion and for healing the sick and the impoverished.

4. At recess and during her spare time, she taught Biblical parables to various groups.

5. Julie was the fifth of seven children. She attended a little one room school in Cuvilly. She enjoyed all of her studies, but she was particularly attracted to the religion lessons taught by the parish priest.

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

7. She learned to make short mental prayers and to develop a great love for Jesus in the Eucharist.

8. When Saint Julie Billiart was 30 years old, there was an attempt against her father's life. This made her fall ill with a mysterious illness that lasted for 22 years paralyzing her.

9. For the next two decades, she continued to teach catechism lessons from her bed, offered spiritual advice, and attracted visitors who had heard of her holiness.

10. All of her sufferings and pain she offered up to God.

11. When the French Revolution broke out, Julie offered her home as a hiding place for loyal priests.

12. Since she offered her home as a hiding place, she was often hunted down by the authorities.
13. Five times in three years she was forced to flee in secret to avoid compromising her friends who were hiding her.

14. She spent many years hiding in Compiegne, being moved from house to house despite her growing physical pain. She even lost the power of speech for a time.

15. At this time, she had a vision in which she saw Calvary surrounded by women in religious habits and heard a voice saying, “Behold these spiritual daughters whom I give you in an institute marked by the cross.”

16. As time passed and Julie continued her mobile life, she made the acquaintance of an aristocratic woman, Françoise Blin de Bourdon, who shared Julie’s interest in teaching the faith.

17. In 1803, the two women began the Institute of Notre Dame, which was dedicated to the education of the poor, young Christian girls, and the training of catechists.

18. In 1804, the first Sisters of Notre Dame made their vows. That was the same year that Julie recovered from the illness: She was able to walk for the first time in 22 years!

19. Though Julie had always been attentive to the special needs of the poor and that always remained her priority, she also became aware that other classes in society needed Christian instruction.

20. From the founding of the Sisters of Notre Dame until her death, Julie was on the road, opening a variety of schools in France and Belgium that served the poor and the wealthy, vocational groups, teachers. Ultimately, Julie and Françoise moved the motherhouse to Namur, Belgium. Julie died there in 1816 and was canonized in 1969.

🙏 🕊 A Prayer For The Feast Day Of Saint Julie Billiart 🙏 🕊:

🙏 🕊Saint Julie,
through your great devotion
to the Sacred Heart of Jesus,
you were miraculously cured
and favoured by many graces.
By your powerful intercession,
obtain for us above all,
a great trust in God, in all difficulties of life,
the strength to accomplish in all things
the precious will of God
and the special grace
we now ask humbly of you.
Amen. 🙏 🕊