Julia Greeley

v. 1848-1918 19th century

Giving at night to spare the shame of the one who receives; a charity that refuses to be seen.

Who was Julia Greeley?

Born into slavery in Missouri, she lost an eye as a child to a slaveholder's whip aimed at her mother. Free, working as a maid in Denver, she went out at night pulling a little wagon of coal and food to poor families, many of them white, whom she did not want to shame. Every month, on foot, she went round the city's fire stations to leave the men an image of the Sacred Heart.

In their own words

My Communion is my breakfast.

Reply to Fr. McDonnell, reported in the Denver Catholic Register, June 1918