The upper chapel at the Mother Cabrini Shrine. Golden, Colorado. A Dianne Lima photo.
Neither Dianne nor I knew that a shrine to St. Mother Francis Xavier Cabrini existed in the mountains just southwest of Golden. But, the highway sign on I-70 and the large white statue of Jesus at the top of a hill’s peak quickly rectified our ignorance. Dianne wanted to stop, because she had an interest in the saint and her life. I was curious to stop as well, only because I wanted to find out what a shrine to (what I thought was) a Chicago based saint was doing in the Denver area.
We followed a rather lengthy and winding road nearly to the base of the hill where the statue of Jesus was located. After driving past a couple of large, but non-descript, buildings, we pulled into the Shrine’s church’s parking lot. We exited and went inside the church. Of course, the first room we entered was the ubiquitous gift shop. But, this store was small enough that it didn’t offend my sensibilities like other shrine gift shops have (see almost any other travelogue I’ve written). The chapel itself looked like a relic from the 1970s (high ceiling, semi-circle structure). But, the complex also contained some artifacts from Mother Cabrini. It also gave some background as to how this shrine came to be.
Mother Cabrini came to Denver in 1902 to build a home for orphans and establish a convent for her order of nuns. Mother Cabrini ended up staying in Denver (on and off) for ten years. Not only did she meet her original goals, but also developed a shrine to the Sacred Heart of Jesus near the orphanage. After Mother Cabrini was canonized, devotees build a chapel in her honor and placed the statue of Jesus on the top of the hill overlooking the chapel and the orphanage.
Having learned the background, we left the church and went back to the car. We drove up the hill about a quarter-mile to the other chapel in the complex. This chapel sits very close to a spring which (according to the story) sprang forth out from a rock that Mother Cabrini struck. The spring is still running, although it is dammed and channeled into faucets for easy retrieval by the faithful. The chapel that sits next to this spring has none of the appearance of the church further down the hill. Because it’s carved into the hillside, the chapel seems more like a cave than a building. The few pews in the room are dwarfed by statues of Mother Cabrini and Jesus. Going into it was more like a retreat into nature than entering into a church.
After visiting the chapel, we set off to top of the hill. There are 373 stairs from the parking lot to the top of the hill. Along the way, the faithful can pause about every thirty stairs at one of the Stations of the Cross to meditate and pray (or just catch their breath). At the top of the stairs is the white statue of Jesus which had caught my eye from I-70. I didn’t realize that the statue was standing over one of Mother Cabrini’s relics: a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus that the saint had created out of white rock. The picture is rather large (about 6 feet in diameter). Today, it is covered by Plexiglas to protect it from the elements. Standing on the hill, looking out across Denver and the vast plains, and contemplating the relic created by the saint’s hand did impart a sense of spirituality upon me.
Unfortunately, that was the only sense of spirituality that I felt at the Mother Cabrini Shrine. It didn’t have the crass commercialism that plagues other shrines I’d visited. But, it did feel like a place where people were playing up what little spirituality existed. I enjoyed visiting the shrine for historical reasons. But, I think I will pass on it if I’m ever in the area again.
The Mother Cabrini Shrine is located just off of I-70 west of Denver. It’s open daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. There’s no charge to enter the shrine.
August 15 Home