Julie Billiart and Francoise Blin de Bourdon

Julie Billiart and Francoise Blin de Bourdon

Founders of the Sister of Notre Dame (February 2, 1804)

During the French Revolution

This article was definitely an interesting one. Can I just state randomly that my computer is insisting on changing "Bourdon" to Bourbon, I doubt the sisters had much of that...Back on topic, one of the main things I noticed reading this article was how exponentially different these two women were. They could not have been more contrasting. Francoise was from a family of landowners and aristocrats in the second estate. She had a fairly lavish and resourceful childhood attended school in the warm months to learn how to properly take care of a household and family and took up gardening a little later in life. As the text put it "Francoise was getting used to being the only child left with her parents in their large home at Bourdon. Her world was spacious and her freedom of movement within it was complete, but few intimate relationships filled those abundant empty spaces around her." On the other side of the spectrum Julie who, what doctors today say, had multiple sclerosis. She could barely talk and was limited to a chair/wheelchair because she could not move. However, unlike Francoise, Julie was born into a third estate family (the lowest estate) but later down the line mad connections with people from the first and second estate which lead to her going into hiding by affiliation. 
Yet the most interesting items I read about were not until the end of the article. Now, when I think about or hear the word nun or sister, I do not think jail. So I was mildly entertained when I read that Francoise this second estate aristocrat woman had been arrested and imprisoned for, give or take, a year. Obviously it was due to her and her family's status and affiliation to Louis XVI but nevertheless they were in jail. I also found it gripping that Francoise's father was executed by the means of guillotine and, not in the same way but, her husband was also executed closely after. Lastly, I thought it shallow of Francoise because it stated that upon first seeing Julie, Francoise was appalled by her condition, little did she know that Julie would become like her sister and they wold have a progressive and impacting 10+ years together.