Who are the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur?
The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur exist to make known God’s goodness, especially among the poorest and most abandoned people in the world. Today, Sisters of Notre Dame work with refugees in London, street children in Nairobi, immigrant farm workers in Florida, AIDS orphans in Zimbabwe... and always, women and children, who are among the very poorest.
We work to enable those who are materially poor to obtain what is rightfully theirs, both by working with them directly and by working to change economic and governmental systems. We believe that education in varied forms is the best way to accomplish this goal.
Sisters of Notre Dame are recognized as outstanding educators and, over the years, thousands of Sisters have taught children and adults in 16 countries. Although many Sisters continue to staff schools, others have chosen to work with the homeless, AIDS patients, the elderly poor – and countless others in need of help. All of this activity has one aim: to proclaim in our time, as St. Julie did in hers, that God is good!
Who are St. Julie and Françoise Blin de Bourdon?
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.