From official newsletter of The Julia Greeley Guild, a ministry of the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Denver

Thirty-eighth Issue 2-16-2023

Amazing Discovery: Possibly The First Sight of Her Love, The Sacred Heart 
We know Julia Greeley joined the Catholic Church in 1880 at Sacred Heart Church at 28th and Larimer in Denver. Whether she had ever been in a Catholic Church before that is another thing we really don’t know for sure.
Quite possibly, however, that was where she first saw an image of the Sacred Heart, to whom she dedicated her life, but it was not the statue now atop the vintage altar reredo.
Just this past month, Father Eric Zegeer, the parish’s new administrator, reached the far end of a huge storage room as part of his already massive effort to deal with a century’s accumulation of “stuff” in the parish offices.
There he beheld the remains of what once was a beautiful painting of the Sacred Heart.
It was providential previous pastors had not found the painting, since the importance of Julia in the parish’s history and the painting’s relation to her, would have not yet come to light, and it well might have been discarded on a trash heap.
The painting Father found was a age-worn canvas on a nine by four and a half foot wooden frame, the lower left side of which was in a charred condition; and six or seven square feet of the canvas was missing, though none of its precious image. With the help of a light behind it, numerous holes in the canvas can be seen.

Use of adjustment possibilities on a modern computers afforded some idea of the possible magnificent colors of the original painting.
In a parish magazine from 1912, Father Eric also found a black and white photo of the painting.
The January 1912 issue of The Monitor also carried a three page article titled “The Fire. Sacred Heart Church,” which began: “Sunday, Nov. 26, 191l, was the most eventful date in the thirty-two years history of the Sacred Heart Church. For on that day, it came very near going down in
history as a thing of the past”.
At 3 a.m., one of the Jesuit priests was awakened by the ringing of the church bells. Looking towards the church, he saw it brightly illuminated. He and the brother sacristan rushed to the church and found it afire. Within 10 minutes Fire Chief Terry Owens, Assistant Fire Chief John F. Healy and three companies of brave firefighters were there, and quickly had the fire extinguished.
Damage to the contents of the church was extensive, but the building itself was saved.
The furnace, gas pipes, and electric wires were found to be entire and intact. It was found later the fire started in the church’s basement chapel, where it short circuited wires controlling the ringing of the church bells. “Or else,” the reporter added, “angel hands must have touched the bells to save the church. At all events they could not have caused the fire. So, all we can say is ‘an enemy hath done this’.”
The very morning of the fire, a Sunday, the parishioners found the building locked with a notice posted that Mass would be held in the auditorium of the parish school – now the Juan Diego Center.
Another three-page article told of the grand celebration had for the reopening of the church on Jan. 21, 1912. It ended by saying Fr. Edward Barry spoke of the wonderful things the church had accomplished in its first 32 years, adding, “It deserves a nobler end than to be reduced to smoke and ashes by the dastardly hand of the midnight ‘fire-bug’.”
Fr. Zegeer has offered the huge painting to our Guild, since it is a second-class relic. Julia probably never touched it with her hands, but we are morally certain she touched it very affectionately with her own damaged eyes.
There would seem to be no way the Guild can restore the painting, but hopefully we can somehow preserve it for future veneration, especially when Julia’s cause moves further along.