The decision to consider Julia Greeley for canonisation was announced by a Denver Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila during Mass at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception in Denver this week.
Born a slave in Missouri during the 1840s, Greeley became free after the Civil War and moved to Colorado where she worked as a nanny for a prominent official.
Sometimes referred to as Denver's "Angel of Charity", she was often seen walking at night through the city, pulling a little red wagon of food and supplies for poor families.
Mary Leising, who leads the Julia Greeley Guild to raise awareness of Greeley, described Julia Greeley as "a model for me."
Leisring, who is also the director of black Catholic ministry for the Denver Archdiocese went on to say: "We're all called to be saints, and it just goes to show that an ordinary person can become extraordinary.
"For some of us, she's already a saint."
Following Archbishop Aquila's announcement, an inquiry will now be held into Greeley's life and, if her life is deemed of particular Christian virtue, she may be conferred the title of "Venerable".
Beatification and canonisation are the next steps, however, each honour requires the attribution of one and two miracles, respectively.
Julia Greeley died in Denver in 1918.