SND Handout

Reading about these two Sisters of Notre Dame was extremely interesting and informative to me. I think that reading this handout was especially important because I did not know much about the Foundresses if this school and the history of the people whom developed the hallmarks that I see posted around me everyday. I had previously heart about Julie Billart, but never heard of Francoise Blin de Bourdon.

 Francoise Blin de Bourdon was born into an aristocratic family but did not let the luxuries and essentially easy life style take her focus away from other people of less social status. She observed that it was quite unsettling to see the shocking differences between the way the lower class lived and the aristocrats lived. She did not support this, and truly cared about all people no matter what their social status was. This amazing and revolutionary outlook of life is one of the key principles that the Sisters of Notre Dame teach which is "respect for all individuals regardless of age, gender, disability, or social class". Francoise lived in way that virtually no aristocrats did at the time, and genuinely cared for others. This is extremely inspirational.

Julie Billart had a much different upbringing than Francoise, but still shared very similar ideals and principles with her dear friend. She was not an aristocrat like Francoise, but rather born into the Third Estate. Julie was able to witness the disparities in the community she lived in. She was unsettled with the fact that some people had so much more opportunity to learn and grow than others just because of their social status.

Although both of these women had incredibly different upbringings, they were still able to connect and establish a new order of Nuns called the Sisters of Notre Dame. Over 216 years later, the principles they established are still influencing many people today. For the time they were develpped these principles were extremely advanced and it is amazing to see how they still apply today