JULIOPOLIS
560
JULIOPOLIS
Blessed Julie Billiart
At Amiens, where Julio Billiart had been compelled
to take refuge with Countess Baudoin durinc the
troublous times of the French Revolution, she met
Fran^oise Blin de Bourdon, Viscountess of Gezain-
court, who was destined to be her co-labourer in the
great work as yet unknown to either of them. The Vis-
countess Blin de Bourdon was thirty-eight years old
at the time of her meeting with .Julie, and had spent
her youth in piety and good works: she had been im-
prisoned with all her family during the Reign of Ter-
ror, and had escaped death only by the fall of Robes-
pierre. She was not at first attracted by the almost
speechless paralytic, but by degrees grew to love and
admire the invalid for her wonderful gifts of soul. A
little company of young and high-born ladies, friends
of the viscountess, was formed around the couch of
"the .saint". Julie taught them how to lead the in-
terior life, while they devoted themselves generously
to the cause of God
and his poor. Though
they attempted all
the exercises of an
active community
life, some of the ele-
ments of stability
must have been
wanting, for these
first disciples
dropped off until
none was left but
Fran^oise Blin de
Bourdon. She was
never to be separated
from Julie, and with
her in 1803, in obe-
dience to Father
Varin, superior of
the Fathers of the
Faith, and under the auspices of the Bishop of Amiens,
the foundation was laid of the Institute of the Sisters
of Notre Dame, a society which had for its pri-
mary object the salvation of poor children. Several
young persons offered themselves to assist the two
superiors. The first pupils were eight orphans. On
the feast of the Sacred Heart, 1 June, 1804, Mother
Julie, after a novena made in obedience to her confes-
sor, was cured of paralysis. The first vows of religion
were made on 15 October, 1804, by Julie Billiart,
P>anQoise Blin de Bourdon, Victoire Leleu, and Jus-
tine Garson, and their family names were changed to
the names of saints. They proposed for their life-
work the Christian education of girls, and the training
of religious teachers who should go wherever their
services were asked for. Father Varin gave the com-
munity a provisional rule by way of probation, which
was so far-sighted that its essentials have never been
changed. In view of the extension of the institute, he
would have it governed by a superior-general, charged
with visiting the houses, nominating the local supe-
riors, corresponding with the members dispersed in the
different convents, and assigning the revenues of the
society. The characteristic devotions of the Sisters of
Notre Dame were established by the foundress from
the beginning. She was original in doing away with
the time-honoured distinction between choir sisters
and lay sisters, but this perfect equality of rank did not
in any way prevent her from putting each sister to the
work for which her capacity and education fitted her.
She attached great importance to the formation of the
sisters destined for the schools, and in this she was
ably assisted by Mother St. Joseph (FranQoise Blin rie
Bourdon), who had herself received an excellent
education.
When the Congregation of the Sisters of Notre Dame was approved by an imperial decree dated 19 June, ISOfi, it numbered thirty members. In that and the following years foundations were made in various
towns of France and Belgium, the most important
being those at Ghent and Namur, of which latter house
Mother St. Joseph was the first superior. This spread
of the institute beyond the Diocese of .'Vmiens cost the
foundress the greatest sorrow of her life. In the ab-
sence of Father Varin from that city, the confessor of
the commvmity, the Abb(5 de Sambucy de St-Esteve,
a man of supetior intelligence and attainments but en-
terprising and injudicious, endeavoured to change the
rule and fundamental constitutions of the new con-
gregation so as to bring it into harmony with the an-
cient monastic orders. He so far influenced the bishop,
Mgr Demandolx, that Mother Julie had soon no al-
ternafi\e Iiut to leave the Diocese of .\miens, relying
upon the goodwill of Mgr Pisani de la Gaude, Bishop of
Namur, who had invited her to make his episcopal
city the centre of her congregation, shoidd a change
become necessary. In leaving .\miens. Mother Jidie
laid the case before all her subjects and told them they
were perfectly free to remain or to follow her. All but
two chose to go with her, and thus, in the mid-winter
of ISOO, the convent of Namur became the mother-
house of the institute and is so still. Mgr Demandolx,
soon vmdecei%ed, made all the amends in his power,
entreating Mother Jidie to return to .Vmiens and re-
build her institute. She did indeetl return, but, after a
vain struggle to find subjects or revenues, went back
to Namur. The seven years of life that remained to
her were spent in forming her daughters to solid piety
and the interior spirit, of which she was herself the
model. Mgr de Broglie, Bishop of Ghent, said of her
that she saved more souls by her inner life of union
with God than by her outward apostolate. She re-
ceived special supernatural favours and unlooked-for
aid in peril and need. In the space of twelve years
(1804-16) Mother Julie founded fifteen convents,
made one hundred and twenty journeys, many of
them long and toilsome, anil carried on a close cor-
respondence with her spiritual daughters. Hundreds
of these letters are preserved in the mother-house.
In 1815 Belgium was the battle-field of the Napo-
leonic wars, and the mother-general suffered great anx-
iety, as several of her convents were in the path of the
armies, but they escaped injury. In January, 1816,
she was taken ill, and, after three months of pain
borne in silence and patience, she died with the Mag-
nificat on her lips. The fame of her sanctity spread
abroad and was confirmed by several miracles. The
process of her beatification, begun in 1881, was com-
pleted in 1906 by the decree of Pope Pius X dated 13
May, declaring her Ble.s.sed.
Blessed Julie's predominating trait in the spiritual order was her ardent charity, springing from a lively faith and manifesting itself in her thirst for suffering and her zeal for souls. Her whole soul was echoed in the simple and naive formula which was continually on her lips and pen: "Oh, qu'il est bon. le bon Dieu " (How good God is). She possessed all the qualities of a perfect superior, and inspired her subjects with filial confidence and tender affection.
Sister of Notre Dame, The Life of Blessed Julie Billiart (London, 1909): Clair, La Bienheureuse Mire Julie Billiart (Paris, 1906): Arens, Die selige Julia Billiart (Berlin and St. Louis, 1908) : AuTials of the Institute of the Sisters of Notre Dame (Namur. 1804-1909); Process of the Beatification and Canoniza- tion of the Blessed Julie Billiart (Rome, 1902-05).
Sister of Notue Dame.
Juliopolis, a titular see in the province of Bithynia Secunda, suffragan of Nicsea. The city was founded under the Emperor Augustus by a robber chieftain named Cleon, who was a native of the region; pre- viously it had been called Gordoucome (Strabo, XII, viii, 9; Pliny, "Hist. Natur.", V, xl, 3). The loca- tion of the city is unknown, none of its titulars being known, neither does it figure in any " Notitiie episcopatuum", unless it may be considered identical with Gordoserboi, as Le Quien thinks (Oriens Christ., I, 6-'^9). This Juliopolis must not be confounded
