Today is Easter Sunday! If I may be permitted, it is also the feast of St. Julia Billiart, foundress of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. Since my old friend Sister Barbara is a SSDN, I think we should study St. Julia and praise the good God. St. Julia "knew how to believe and how to love" - Cardinal Sterckx. She suffered through the Reign of Terror incumbent upon the French Revolution and it was during this traumatic time that she became paralyzed when a gunshot came through the window, scaring her though hitting no one. For 22 years thereafter she was confined to a wheelchair or her bed, and then after all the tension had settled down, after years of prayer and care of the sick on her part, after establishing an order for the education of girls, she made a novena at the urging of her spiritual director at Amiens. On the feast of the Sacred Heart during this novena, the priest said: "Mother, if you have any faith, take one step in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus." She did and she walked . . . a complete cure. Now, I am not one to disbelieve in miracles and I am more than willing to give all the credit to Christ, but I think that her original illness was psychosomatic and not at all a physical one. I don't know; I'm no expert.
She wasn't long to remain at Amiens, since intrigue followed her there. A young priest who became the new spiritual director of the order (technically called an "institute") wanted to change all the rules. He was a good man but rash and opinionated; when corrected, he turned against Julia. He had the ear of the bishop as well, and she was asked to leave the diocese. She and her teaching sisters (among whom there was no difference in treatment between choir and lay sisters, a radical departure at the time) departed for Namur, where the bishop and people joyously welcomed them. They were later invited back to Amiens, but found it too inconvenient to move, thus they became the Institute of Notre Dame of Namur.
She died peacefully on this date in 1816 after 7 years teaching in Namur. Her favorite expression was: "Qu'il est bon le bon Dieu!"
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