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Perspective

Servant of God Julia Greeley Featured in New Book on the Sacred Heart of Jesus

Updated: Jul 10

Woman in black hat and beige robe holds a baby in white attire with a rosary. Heart symbol above. Green background with mountains.
(Denver Catholic file photo)

If the Sacred Heart of Jesus beat physically on Earth today, what would it sound like? What would the fire of love that inflames the Sacred Heart look like? How would it manifest in the world?


The words of St. Teresa of Avila come to mind: “Christ has no body on earth but yours.” His heart becomes manifest through his Church, his Mystical Body, through each of us.


Such was the case for Denver’s own “Angel of Charity,” Servant of God Julia Greeley, whose story is featured in The Sacred Heart: A Love for All Times, a new book from Ignatius Press written by Dawn Eden Goldstein.


The former slave was known for her devotion to Jesus’ heart, even worshipping at the church that bears its name in Denver. But beyond her prayerful devotion, Julia incarnated the love of God — the Sacred Heart — in her actions, her willingness to accept suffering and her joy.


“However invisible she may have been to her Denver neighbors, she was glorious in the sight of God as she gave herself fully to spreading devotion to the Sacred Heart and doing works of charity for the city’s poor,” Goldstein wrote.


The “Angel of Charity” would go around with her ubiquitous red wagon, pulling goods for those in need, which she would always deliver in secret to preserve her recipients from their perceived shame over having a Black woman help them.

That sort of prejudice was not uncommon in Julia’s lifetime. Throughout her life, she experienced slavery — even sustaining her permanent eye injury at the hands (or, more accurately, the whip) of a slave master — as well as efforts to bar her from her parish and work because of her race.


Yet, Julia continued to love those around her through prayer and service. She was known among the Denver firefighters for her regular visits to the city’s firehouses — a 20-plus-mile journey, which she would walk despite her arthritis — to spread devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It’s even said that her prayers helped a woman conceive her daughter — the very child that Julia is holding in the only photograph we have of her.


Even with such an impressive resume of service, Denver’s own “Angel of Charity” largely flew under the radar. After her death, thousands made it a point to pay their respects — so many that Sacred Heart’s pastor allowed the five-hour long wake, which made Julia Greeley the first layperson to lie in state in Denver Catholic (and perhaps US) history.


“How in the world all the people learned of her death and of the fact that she was to lie in state is astonishing,” the Denver Catholic Register reported four days afterwards. “The fact that the news spread so quickly, without the assistance of the printed word, is proof of the great love which the Denver public had for this quaint and saintly old character. … Limousines and giant touring cars came carrying the rich to see her. The poor flocked to the chapel in throngs.”


But, when those funeral attendees were asked about the future Servant of God, most couldn’t articulate much about her life, much less her service. While many knew of Julia, they actually did not know her life or works — that was just how quietly and humbly she lived. She was simply known as a loving, radiantly joyful example of faith.


“It seems, then, that many of those who showed up at Julia Greeley’s funeral likely did so not because of what she did — for they didn’t know the details of her life or good works,” Goldstein noted. “Even those who knew her only by sight recognized that Julia radiated the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.”


In her humble, dedicated, loving service to her neighbors, Julia brought to life the flame of the Sacred Heart in her own community, even to the end. Falling ill suddenly on her way to her beloved Sacred Heart Parish, Julia breathed her last as the Feast of the Sacred Heart came to an end.


“Having given her life in service to her neighbors, never holding onto resentment, but going the extra mile to be present for people in need of human kindness, she died the way she lived, in the Heart of Jesus,” Goldstein wrote.


Through her devotion to the Sacred Heart, her charitable service of her neighbors and her joy-filled approach to life, even despite suffering , Julia Greeley — as the other saints and holy individuals featured in Goldstein’s new book — showed what the Sacred Heart of Jesus might look like today, enfleshed in our communities and beating for love of us, even now.


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The Sacred Heart of Jesus: A Love for All Times is available from Loyola Press. For more information, visit their website.

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