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This Friday’s mission hero is a 19th century home missionary, Julia Greeley.
Nobody knows exactly when Julia was born, for she was born in slavery, and slave births were often unrecorded. However, many believe she was born a slave in Hannibal, Missouri between 1833 and 1848. As a slave, she was treated brutally by her masters. Once, a whip being used to beat Julia’s mother caught Julia in the eye and destroyed it.
Freed from slavery in 1863, Julia went to work with the family of William Gilpin, the first territorial governor of Colorado. The family brought Julia to Denver in 1878.
Eventually, she left Gov. Gilpin’s service and did odd jobs around the city of Denver. She also found her way to Sacred Heart parish in Denver where she converted to Catholic Christianity in 1880. She was a daily communicant and an active member of the Secular Franciscan Order starting in 1901. She also became a very strong promoter of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Although she was very poor, earning between ten and twelve dollars a month cooking and cleaning, Julia spent much time gathering food, clothing, and other needed items for the poor. Often, she would do her good deeds at night so as to not embarrass those she served. One person called Julia a “one-person St. Vincent de Paul Society” because of her charitable works.
Julia also had a great devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. She was known for walking every month to twenty different firehouses in Denver to give felt badges of the Sacred Heart and tracts to firemen. 
Julia Greeley died on June 7, 1918, the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus that year. It is estimated that she was around eighty years old. Before she died, she was able to celebrate the Sacrament of the Sick.
After her death, her body lay in state in a Catholic church for five hours, during which a constant stream of visitors came to pay their last respects to this amazing woman.
Fr. Blaine Burkey wrote a book about Julia Greeley called, In Secret Service of the Sacred Heart, which was also made into a documentary.
The Catholic Church proclaimed Julia to be a Servant of God in 2014.
