Julia Greeley: The journey from slavery to Sainthood

Julia Greeley: The journey from slavery to Sainthood, one of six American Black Catholics on the road to Sainthood including Pierre Toussaint, Mother Mary Lange, Henriette DeLille, Augustus Tolton, and Sr. Thea Bowman.


Julia Greeley, was born into slavery, at Hannibal, Missouri, sometime between 1833 and 1848. While she was still a young child, a cruel slavemaster, in the course of beating her mother, caught Julia’s right eye with his whip and destroyed it. This disfigurement remained with Greeley the rest of her life. She became referred to as "one-eyed Julia."

She did not seek revenge. She did not invoke the known use of t the Code of Hammurabi: a "tooth for a tooth." Rather, as Saint Paul's Letter to the Romans "Beloved, do not look for revenge but leave room for the wrath; for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” Rather, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head.” - Romans 12:19

 1865, Greeley was freed during the American Civil War, though not by the Emancipation Proclamation (as Missouri was a border state and had to enact its own emancipation laws after the fact). Greeley moved to Denver and in 1879 became a cook and nanny to Julia Pratte Dickerson of St. Louis, a widow who would later marry William Gilpin – who had been appointed by President Abraham Lincoln as the first territorial Governor of Colorado.

 Julia Greeley was baptized into the Catholic Church on June 26, 1880, at Sacred Heart Church in Denver, and became especially devoted to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the Holy Eucharist, receiving Holy Communion daily. Despite secretly suffering from painful arthritis, she tirelessly walked the city streets distributing literature from the Sacred Heart League to Catholics and non-Catholics alike. Julia was an outstanding supporter of all that the parish had to offer. The Jesuits who ran the parish considered her the most enthusiastic promoter of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus they had ever seen. Every month she visited on foot every fire station in Denver and delivered literature of the Sacred Heart League to the firemen, Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

Julia Greeley: one of six American Black Catholics on the road to Sainthood including Pierre Toussaint, Mother Mary Lange, Henriette DeLille, Augustus Tolton, and Sr. Thea Bowman

Despite working long hours taking care of children, cooking and cleaning, she would often be seen walking at night through the streets of Denver pulling a small wagon of food and supplies, which she would deliver to poor families. 

Greeley spent the majority of her time helping others and completing church duties. When the Gilpins died, Greeley began to do labor work for a number of wealthy white families. With this money she made, she decided to give it all away to people who needed it. She pulled a red wagon through the streets of Denver in the dark to bring food, coal, clothing, and groceries to needy families. She made her rounds after dark so as not to embarrass white families ashamed to accept charity from a poor, black woman.

Whatever she did not need for herself, Julia spent assisting poor families in her neighborhood. When her own resources were inadequate, she begged for food, fuel and clothing for the needy. One writer later called her a “one-person St. Vincent de Paul Society.” 

One of her major acts of kindness was when she donated her own burial plot for an African American man who died. He was going to be laid into a pauper's grave, but Greeley refused to let it happen. After this, many people began to call her the "colored angel of charity" because of her kindness. Because of all her dedication to families in poverty, she was officially named "Denver's Angel of Charity



A daily communicant, Julia had a rich devotion to the Blessed Sacrament and the Blessed Virgin and continued her prayers while working and moving about. She joined the Secular Franciscan Order in 1901 and was active in it till her death in 1918.

As she lived in a boarding house, Julia’s body was laid out in church, and immediately many hundreds of people began filing pass her coffin to pay their grateful respect. She was buried in Mt. Olivet Cemetery (sect. 8, Block 7), and to the present day many people have been asking that her cause be considered for canonization, a request which was finally granted in the Fall of 2016. Denver Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila formally opened the sainthood cause of Julia Greeley, qduring a Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in downtown Denver in late December 2016.

As part of the Cause for Canonization, Julia’s mortal remain were transferred to Denver’s Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception on June 7, 2017