ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — An Italian-born nun who challenged Billy the Kid, calmed angry mobs and helped open hospitals and schools in New Mexico territory took a step Friday toward sainthood with documents about her purported good deeds being sent to Rome.

In a public ceremony in Albuquerque, the Archdiocese of Santa Fe formally closed its inquiry on why Sister Blandina Segale should become a saint and sealed its findings. Church Investigators presented piles of documents they say collaborate the stories about the nun’s legendary clashes with Old West outlaws and her heroic actions to protect Hispanics and American Indians.

Pamphlets and prayer cards of Sister Blandina Segale sit on a table at the Catholic Center in Albuquerque, N.M. The Associated Press

They also sealed documents about miracles attributed to Segale, who died in 1941.

It’s the first time in New Mexico’s 400-year history with the Roman Catholic Church that an inquiry was completed in the state on the cause of beatification and canonization.

Investigators uncovered letters from governors and a former archbishop urging the nun to write a book about her experiences, said Allen Sanchez, president and CEO of CHI St.Joseph’s Children – a community health organization – and the petitioner for the cause of Segale’s sainthood.

Segale, a nun with the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati, came to Trinidad, Colorado, in 1877 to teach poor children and was later transferred to Santa Fe, where she co-founded public and Catholic schools.

In New Mexico, she worked with poor and sick people, including immigrants. She also advocated on behalf of Hispanics and Native Americans who were losing their land to white swindlers.

Segale worked as an educator and social worker in Ohio, Colorado and New Mexico and later published a memoir, “At the End of the Santa Fe Trail,” about her life.

But it was her encounters with Old West outlaws that became the stuff of legend and the subject of an episode of the long-running CBS series “Death Valley Days.” The episode, titled “The Fastest Nun in the West,” focused on her efforts to save a man from a lynch mob – a true story, the inquiry panel concluded.

Another story says Billy the Kid and his gang once found Segale in a covered wagon they tried to rob. The nun had previously convinced the “Kid” not to scalp four doctors so he recognized her and abandoned his holdup.

Sanchez said church investigators found a descendant of a passenger in the covered wagon who confirmed the story.

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