On a wintry January day at the old St. Theresa Cemetery in rural Meade County, Janice Mulligan laid a simple wreath of magnolia leaves on the grave of Matilda (Hurd) Chisley — a woman who spent her life in slavery and whose grandson is now a saint in the making.

Matilda, who died in 1836 at age 30, was enslaved on a farm belonging to John Henry Manning.