Timeline:
1816:
April 8, Death of Saint Julie
April 10, Julie is buried in the cemetery of the town.
1817: Mgr Pisani de la Gaude gives verbal permission to bring Julie’s coffin to the motherhouse. In the garden, a small oratory is erected over the vault.
1838: Mère Saint-Joseph is buried in the vault.
1842: Mère Ignace is buried in the vault. Because of floods, Julie’s coffin is damaged, and her bones are placed in a smaller casket.
1852:
Building of the Garden Chapel dedicated, as the original oratory, to the Holy Heart of Mary. Caskets put into the vault in front of the altar. 15
1854: Blessing of the Chapel by Bishop Dehesselle
1880: Floods
1882: Because of successive floods, the sisters had to build a raised annex for the graves of the first three Mother Generals.
1906: After the beatification of Julie, her reliquary was put under the altar.
1907: A statue of Julie in Carrara marble was put on the place of her former tomb.
1940-1944: Chapel damaged by the bombings
1948: Complete restoration of the Chapel, thanks to the generosity of the American missions, particularly of California. Two sacristies were appended and two gothic windows were inserted in the wall above the tombs. 16
2012: The creation of the Heritage Centre in Namur and the removal of the reliquary of Saint Julie and the bodies of Mère Saint-Joseph and Mère Ignace from the Garden Chapel to the sanctuary and sacristy of the Church of the Motherhouse. The altar and the oak statues as well as the Carrara marble statue of Julie are also moved to the Church.
The neo-gothic style and the altar made of oak seem to have come from the same workshop. Only the Virgin Mary is signed on its base: “François de Tombay, sculptor, 1854. The altar contains the relics of the saintly martyrs: Saint Amand and Saint Clement. After the beatification of Mère Julie in 1906, the reliquary was placed under the altar. On the panels which surround it, we see the statuettes of great founders of religious orders recalling the life of the Church and the tradition in which Julie worked.
List of Statues:
1. SAINT LOUIS DE GONZAGUE
2. SAINTE ANNE
3. SAINT JOSEPH
4. VIERGE
5. SAINT JEAN
6. SAINTE THERESE D’AVILA
7. SAINT STANISLAS
8. SACRE-CŒUR
9. SAINT FRANÇOIS D’ASSISE
10. SAINT GREGOIRE LE GRAND
11. SAINT AUGUSTIN
12. SAINT IGNACE
13. SAINT FRANCOIS DE SALES
14. SAINT NORBERT
15. SAINT VINCENT DE PAUL