Julie Billiart & Francoise Blin de Bourdon

The two sisters whom found Notre Dame de Namur are Julie Billiart and Francoise Blin de Bourdon. Julie Billiard was born in 1751 in Cuvilly, France and attended a small school in her village. Soon she had to stop going to school and start working to help support her family. Throughout her childhood she loved to help so she helped in the fields with the hay making and enjoyed speaking to the other villagers. Unfortunately, Julie lived through the horrors of the French Revolution and became paralyzed for 23 years due to a shock after her father's shop was broken into and merchandise was stolen and ruined. Lucky her great friend, Madame Pont, brought Julie to chateau at Gournay-sure-Aronde. However, the revolutionaries were hunting for Julie and she hid in a hay cart. During this time, Madame Baudoin introduced Julie to Francoise Blin de Bourdon, who was to became a close of friend of Julie and the co-foudress of the Sisters of Notre dame de Namur. Francoise was born in 1756 in Picardy, France. Unlike Julie, Francoise was educated first by governesses and later at the Benedictine and Ursuline schools. Prior to the Revolution, as Vicomtesse Blin de Bourdon, Francoise had devoted her life to the good management of her estates and to caring for the poor and sick. After the death of Robespierre, Francoise was freed from custody and her friend, Madame Baudoin, brought Julie Billiard and her niece, Felitite to Amiens. Francoise helped Julie by reading and feeding her. Francoise and Julie became great friends and became the two foundresses' sisters at Notre Dame de Namur. Before I did not know much about the fundraises' sister, but now after reading and going to Notre Dame de Namur University I learned about what the sisters had accomplish. The University serves the students and the community by providing excellent professional and liberal arts programs. The school itself is a diverse and all together a learning community that challenges each member to carefully apply values and ethics to their personal experiences. The sisters created a learning and developing environment to the University and inspired many people the core values of having  a community, diversity, excellence, goodness, integrity, and serving. These are all great aspects to have and I believe when people follow this then they will be successful in life. What I have been observing when I got to the campus is the excellent professors, advisors, and staffs. They all work hard to encourage students to be successful after graduation.