The sister of Notre Dame de Namur

Reflection.

This week was founders week at Notre Dame de Namur University. We celebrated our founders that created this school.
Julie Billiart which was a non/sister and one of the founders of the University. She was born july,12 1751 into the 98% class like most of the people back than. Which meant her family was poor and didn't had too much to offer. She went to church and studied religion studies in school.
The second founder of the school was Francois Blin de Bourdon. She was quite different than julie. Francois was born 1756 into a aristocrat family and raised in a wealthy environment. She studied home economics and was involved with the noble society of france.
But as she got older she needed guidance and she found that in Julie.
St. julie was back than and still is today a feminist revolutionary woman that found the sisters of Notre Dame de Namur.
She started creating school systems for children with the help of Francois. The religious revolution happened during the french revolution and was very controversy. Because back than the Church made the rules and had complete control of the community and the even the world. But because Francois had a lot of money and the church wanted that money they were able to compromise.
Back than it was a complete new tragedy that woman were aloud to speak up, get great education and trying to make a change for themselves and the future generations.
I met some of the sister that are still at our university. It was very interesting and positive talking to them. Some have done remarkable things for other countries and their community. I talked to a sister that had studied home economics like Francois but instead of staying in a comforatble setting of people she knew, she went to africa and helped building schools, houses and thought home economics to less fortunate people. She stayed their for about 10 years and made a remarkable change in peoples life and created a better world for them.
But there are many more sisters that have inspiring life stories to tell. Another example was Dorothy Stang, she also had been a sister of Notre Dame. Dorothy worked in the Amazon of Brazil to help rescuing the rain forest and protecting the land mother earth gave us.
But her story ended rather sad. She received death threats from land owners and loggers and was eventually killed by them as she was protecting land.
She gave her life for our future and will be always remembered as a hero.
I am looking forward to get more involved with the SND and i am sure they will guide me into the right direction.

Sabine