Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/636

 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