Who are St. Julie and Françoise Blin?
We are founded on friendship: St. Julie Billiart’s friendship
with God and
with Françoise Blin de Bourdon. Even as a child, Julie experienced God’s friendship and did all she could to develop her relationship with God. She worked hard to help her family, and she was also committed to service, visiting the sick in her hometown of Cuvilly, France.
While she was still a girl, her father was attacked and thieves robbed him of many of the goods in his small shop. Responding to this family crisis, the enterprising Julie took some of the remaining cloth to a nearby town, where she succeeded in selling them.
The attack on her father traumatized her, however, and perhaps as a result, she gradually became paralyzed. Eventually it was difficult for her even to speak. This paralysis lasted for 22 years. In spite of these and other trials, Julie continued to trust in “the good God.”
Even while she was paralyzed, St. Julie attracted people through the way she talked about God and encouraged them in their relationship with God. They were drawn to her wisdom and
goodness, and to her joy in the midst of suffering.