Former Slave Julia Greeley Is First Coloradan To Be Proposed For Sainthood

By Tori Mason

DENVER (CBS4) - If you were to look Julia Greeley up on Wikipedia, you would only find a small paragraph. But in front of a small Catholic congregation Friday, the Archdiocese of Denver submitted 17,000 pages of evidence to the Vatican explaining why she should be canonized.

A mass was held at Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception Friday morning where those documents were sealed and presented to an official from Rome for review.

Greeley was a freed slave who became known for her charitable work with the poor.

With her little red wagon, Greeley would take medicine, food and clothing to strangers in need. She became known as the "Angel of Charity."

The Archdiocese selected Greeley because of the impact she left on her community. They closed their portion of the investigation Friday and have transferred it to the Vatican for review. That process that could take several years.

Greeley is the first Coloradan to be proposed for Sainthood. Her remains were entombed in the Denver Cathedral this summer on the 100th anniversary of her death.

Tori Mason is an award-winning reporter for CBS4 This Morning. Follow her on Twitter @ToriMasonTV.