Created by Aquinas Student Macayla Jones

Born in 1579, in Lima, Peru De Porres was the son of an Indigenous woman and a Spanish man. His identities crossed racial and class barriers and his life's work was a testament to humility, simplicity, and tireless care for the poor and disenfranchised. De Porres, a Dominican Brother, considered all work to be sacred saying, "everything, even sweeping, scraping vegetables, weeding a garden and waiting on the sick could be a prayer, if it were offered to God."

Julia Greeley, Denver’s Angel of Charity, was born into slavery, at Hannibal, Missouri, sometime between 1833 and 1848. Freed by Missouri’s Emancipation Act in 1865, Julia subsequently earned her keep by serving white families in Missouri, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico—though mostly in the Denver area. Whatever she did not need for herself, Julia spent assisting poor families in her neighborhood. When her own resources were inadequate, she begged for food, fuel and clothing for the needy. One writer later called her a “one-person St. Vincent de Paul Society.” To avoid embarrassing the people she helped, Julia did most of her charitable work under cover of night through dark alleys.

Julia entered the Catholic Church at Sacred Heart Parish in Denver in 1880, and was an outstanding supporter of all that the parish had to offer. The Jesuits who ran the parish considered her the most enthusiastic promoter of devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus they had ever seen.

Born the granddaughter of a slave in Yazoo City, Mississippi in 1937 Bowman grew to become an incredibly influential member of the Catholic church. She was highly educated, completing her Ph.D. in 1972 and spent her life teaching at various grade levels. She became a consultant for intercultural awareness for the Jackson, Mississippi Diocese and founded the Black Catholic Education Foundation which has financially supported more than 150 Black students through college to date. She achieved the miracle of getting all the American Bishops to stand, join hands, and sing in praise together at a conference in 1989.