Julia Lacy Armstrong is an oblate of the Order of Saint Benedict and has lived for the last thirty or more years under its Rule. She grew up in the fifties on a small farm in Southern Michigan, raised as an only child by her deeply spiritual parents and maternal grandmother who believed that religion was too important to be dictated to anyone you love, and encouraged her to find my own way. She has spent the last 79 years doing so.

She began as a professional actor, where she learned the art and psychology of communicating with an audience you cannot see. From there, the love of nature and plants steered her into a graduate degree in botany. It in turn sent her to Colorado, where she performed ecological surveys for a large engineering firm, often spending many days alone in wilderness areas. In the mid seventies, was introduced to the world of Early Music. As one of the few then-available players of the Irish Harp (built for her by her father) She performed with a small ensemble from whom she learned to understand and love the music of the High Middle Ages, both sacred and secular. Discovering her singing voice in her early thirties, she also enjoyed a modest career as a concert soloist, singing with the Austin Symphony, the Dallas Symphony, and eventually with the Robert Shaw Festival Singers.

Meanwhile, she took her law degree from the University of Texas School of Law, where she met Roy, her law partner and spouse of 40 years. She has lived in Taos County with Roy and a sequence of beautiful dogs for the last 25 years.