Servant of God Julia Greeley: The Cause, in the Record

The Colorado Sun reported on the close of a local phase of Servant of God Julia Greeley's cause for sainthood. A box bound in crimson ribbon and sealed with red wax was on its way to the Vatican, carrying 7,500 pages gathered over a year and a half: the record of a church court that heard twenty-five witnesses, some of whom reported being healed after praying to Greeley; the historical records the Archdiocese of Denver traced back to Hannibal, Missouri, where she was born into slavery; and the memory of a woman who, in the cover of night, pulled a red wagon of coal and food to the poorest families of Denver. The icon Vivian wrote for the Archdiocese of Denver was featured in the story.

Greeley came to Denver an enslaved woman, lived in near-poverty, and gave what little she had to those in need — a witness the Archdiocese took up toward canonization, and one she was, at the time, among the first African Americans to carry to that threshold. To see her face carried in a newspaper, and set in an icon, speaks to the reach of a charity the world did not forget. A giclée print of the Julia Greeley icon is available for your home or prayer corner.

Read the original article at The Colorado Sun

Shop the Julia Greeley Icon Print

Also seen in — the cause for sainthood, in other reporting:

• "Model of Mercy in Denver: The Powerful Story of Julia Greeley" — National Catholic Register (CNA), Jan 28, 2016
• "Could Julia Greeley be one of church's first Black American saints?" — North Texas Catholic, Jun 1, 2022
• "Could Julia Greeley be one of the church's first Black American saints?" — America Magazine, Jun 2, 2022
• "Black Americans on the road to sainthood: Servant of God Julia Greeley" — Western KY Catholic, Dec 1, 2022
• "Servant of God Julia Greeley: The Eucharistic Angel of Denver" — Fr. Blaine Burkey, O.F.M. Cap., The Denver Catholic, Jun 6, 2024
• "Two apostles of the Sacred Heart brought close together in Denver" — André Escaleira Jr., The Catholic Missourian, Aug 20, 2026
• "The powerful legacy of a former slave on the way to sainthood" — Our Sunday Visitor / OSV News, Mar 4, 2024
• "The Catholic Church should canonize these worthy Black Americans" — National Catholic Reporter, Dec 21, 2024

Other mentions — the icon's scholarly & museum record:

• Icon of Julia Greeley — object record, Yale University, Museum of Art, Religion, and Culture (MAVCOR)
• "Julia Greeley, Denver's Angel of Charity" — Alexia Williams, MAVCOR Journal Vol 6 No 3