She was the foundress of the Sisters of Notre Dame. When she was sixteen her parents lost their money and she was forced to take on heavy manual work to help the family survive. Then a worse disaster struck. She was sitting in the room with her father when someone attempted to shoot him through the window. The shock of this left her with a nervous paralysis that gradually worsened and eventually left her unable to move.

She would later continue to teach and to give spiritual advice from her bed. During a parish mission special prayers were said for her recovery. Encouraged by the prayers she took her fist steps again after 22 years. It was a huge turning point in her life. From then on she travelled all over France opening convents and schools and centres for the training of teachers. With her order they were all to lead an interior life in the midst of external work. The poor always remained Julie’s first and main concern.

Despite her lack of education she developed a lovely spirituality. Its essence was complete dependence on God which produced a ‘simplicity’. Her order spread to the U.S, England, Africa, China, Japan and Latin America. She was canonized a saint back in 1969.

One of her favourite prayers went as follows:

May Jesus Christ live within us and as for me may I no longer live but for his pure and holy love. May this love consume me every instant of my life so that I may become a victim of love.