The Life of Blessed Julie Billiard, Foundress of the Institute of Sisters of Notre Dame

This book was published in 1909.PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION AMONG the remarkable servants of God who in recent times have exercised signal influ- ence in the cause of religion, and who, by their labours in the education of the young, have pro- moted and extended the knowledge and love of our divine Lord, and formed loyal children of holy Church, a primary place must be assigned to the Venerable Servant of God, Mother Julie Billiart, the Foundress and first Superioress- General of the distinguished Institute of "the Sisters of Notre-Dame de Namur." In the follow- ing pages the reader is made acquainted with the leading events of her life from A.D. 1751 to A.D. 1817, in which latter year it pleased God to crown her arduous labours by a holy death. Few persons have been endowed with a char- acter and personality so strongly marked, or with qualities so admirably adapted to the great and noble work which Almighty God called upon her to perform. That work was nothing less than the establishment of a society of holy religious consecrated to Him by vows, and devoted to the promotion of His greater glory by the education of children of all classes, training up schoolmistresses, and by aiding the clergy in their apostolic labours according to their institute and calling. In reading the life of this Venerable Servant of God two great truths are forcibly impressed upon us; truths often inculcated in the sacred writings of the Old and New Dispensations, and exemplified in the lives of the great and good, the special friends of God, as well before as since the coming of our Blessed Lord into the world. The former of these truths regards the merci- ful and loving Providence of God towards His chosen people under the Old Law, and towards His holy Church, the Kingdom of His well-be- loved Son, in the New Dispensation. This He manifested in an especial manner, by raising up in times of great danger or adversity those who under His guidance, and endowed by Him with the necessary qualifications, repelled the dangers, and successfully converted adversity into prosperity and glory. This truth will not be called in question by any one who is even slightly acquainted with the action of God in regard to His people; but we may illustrate by one or two instances. Six hundred and fifty-seven years before the coming of Christ, the Almighty chose His servant Judith, a holy widow, who by penance and prayer,and much fasting, prepared herself to carry out the work, to fulfil the destiny for which He called her, namely that of being the saviour of His chosen people.* She went forth from the city of Bethulia, strong in her confidence in God, un- daunted by the appalling difficulties of the under- taking, faithful to the call of heaven, and cut off the head of Holofernes, the leader of the army of Nebuchadonosor king of the Medes. Dismayed and panic-stricken, the soldiers fled, and in their wild confusion fell to mutual slaugh- ter, from which but few escaped to tell the story; and thus her people were freed from the Medish yoke.One hundred and fifty years later, when Assu- erus was king of Persia and " ruled the nations from Ethiopia even to the Indies," his wicked minister Aman concerted a plot for the destruc- tion of the Jewish nation, in the twenty-fourth year of their captivity at Babylon. It was then that the Providence of God made use of Esther in order to frustrate the impious designs of the enemies of her nation and save them from anni- hilation. Read more