Sisters of Notre Dame During The Revolutionary Era (Week 5)

February 8, 2018

The SND handout was basically explaining the Sisters of Notre Dame’s experiences and ideas during the revolutionary era. What I learned is that the Sisters had a strong commitment to make sure that those in need were able to get an education. This really related to me because the article mentions not only those that are poor, but also those with disabilities and challenges that make it hard for them to get an education. I myself have a learning disability and ADHD and it has been a challenge for me and my educational career all my life. This made personally made me feel connected to Notre Dame and it really made me appreciate the path that they carved for me.

This was the time of the French Revolution and the ideas during this period were very traditional. Women of the church were to follow and respect the religious hierarchy and be respectful. Julie Billiart and Francoise were our two founders are were said to be complete opposites. Despite their differences, they shared a special bond and friendship. In this case, opposites really do attract. Sometimes differences compliment one another and can create a healthy relationship.

Francoise Blin de Bourdon was born in 1956 and came from a family of landowners. Francoise was born when the revolution was taking place and many ideas were being challenged. The French economy and tax system was not in a good place at the time, many were losing their jobs and enlightenment thinkers wanted to improve this with their new ways. Francoise father looked up to these thinkers and valued their opinions. Francoise attended a boarding school ran by nuns for many years that stressed the idea of becoming good wives and mothers. She was mainly raised by her grandmother and would often go into the villages on their estate and make sure they were well. They would often take care of them when they were ill and this process made Francoise realize her privilege and appreciate what she had. She believed that good nutrition was the base of any other human activity and often preached that. As a pre-teen, Francoise moved away from home to finish her education at an institution lead by a women named De Merici. The school often preached the idea of taking control of your own self and women freedom. Before this revolution, men were in control of women sexuality. Francoise and her school believed that you should not have “to choose virginity without disengaging from the world”. During this time, if a women decided to not marry, they were to hide away from the world in a monastery, whereas if men did not want to marry they had no consequences. Francoise wanted to fight for the choice of virginity and equality. Later on, De Merici died, and so did her ideas. The school now followed more traditional values and favored the men-lead lifestyle. They taught these women how to be good mothers, wives, or nuns. I believe that Francoise’s ideas and teachings stemmed mainly from the original teaching that De Merici taught. Francoise lived a very luxurious life at home and it was obvious that it was not her, she also had no desire to get married. After feeling like she experienced what she needed to, she decided to become a nun.

Julie Billiart was raised in a very opposite upbringing, she lived in a small cottage, and her parents were laborers. This semester we learned about the three social classes during this time, that being the clergy and church people, then the aristocracy and nobility, and then “the rest” who made up 98% of the population and paid almost all of the countries taxes. Billiart was apart of “the rest”. During the enlightenment era, education was valued and seen as more opportunity. School costed money and many of her peers were not able to afford to go but she was, since her father owned his own shop and was able to make it happen. Billiart was so giving and would teach the people in her village the material that she had just learned at school. She had a passion for making sure poor children had the same opportunity for an education. During her teenage years, her family began to struggle financially due to her father’s shop being broken into and robbed. In order to help out her family, she took on a job at a farm. To make things even more difficult, her father was almost killed in an attempted murder, she also began to develop a muscular disease that affected her body greatly. After a failed attempt at helping her disease, she began to have paralysis and frequent seizures.

Later on the two sisters finally met in 1794 while living under the same roof. In such a desperate time in their lives, they needed each others company and helped motivate one another. They both had a desire to help those in need and felt connected to religion.

I am a believer in faith and I truly think that these two crossed paths for a reason and needed to meet one another. They had similar values and morals that by coming together they could become powerful and teach their ideas. Their ideas are planted in our University and how it functions and I think that they both seem like the most giving people and I am proud to attend the school that they founded.

I found it interesting that during all of this, this revolutionary era was taking place. It is interesting hearing about how personal lifestyles were impacted by how things were back then. We constantly read about how life was then in our textbook, but reading about it from a personal perspective made it more interesting and understandable.