Mother Cabrini, Miracle-Worker

Well, I said she answered my prayers, so I’m going to give a fond remembrance of Mother Cabrini’s shrine in lovely Golden, Colorado.

Situated on top of a foothill west of Denver, the shrine requires a long, long climb up a difficult, bumpy road to reach it. In fact, the shrine is trying desperately to raise money to fix it.

The lady at the gift shop said that only about a dozen people come to visit the shrine on weekdays, with a few more on the weekends. It didn’t used to be that way. When the shrine and 22-foot statue of Jesus was erected in the 1950s, thousands of people gave money and blessings. Their names are engraved and commemorated on countless plaques, benches and other adornments around the shrine.

It’s rather a pity, as the shrine not only offers a great place for prayer, but amazing views in all directions. But before I get to the photos, let’s learn a bit about Frances X. Cabrini, America’s first saint.

Born in 1850 in a small Italian village, she contracted smallpox at a young age and was thus denied entry into the Daughters of the Sacred Heart, an influential Catholic order. She worked as the mother superior in an orphanage, but when it closed down in 1880, her life took a larger turn.

She and a few other nuns established the Institute of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart, and would go on to found several dozen – yes, several dozen – schools, orphanages, and other institutions serving the greater good around the world.

After only a few years in Italy, the Missionary Sisters caught the attention of Pope Leo XIII, and he sent her to America. Here she is depicted in a stained glass window in the chapel, on a steamboat to the New World:

In New York, she organized catechism and educational classes for the Italian immigrants. She would go on to found institutions in Chicago, Philadelphia, Seattle, New Orleans, every corner of the United States and down into South America. She became an American citizen in 1909.

Mother Cabrini died of complications from malaria in Chicago, reputedly while preparing a traditional Christmas treat for local children. Her remains are enshrined at another, smaller shrine, part of Mother Cabrini High School in Manhattan. She was beatified in 1938, canonized in 1946 by Pope Pius XII, and remains the patron saint of immigrants.

She first came to Golden in 1902 to visit the Italian immigrants working in the nearby mines. She bought this property in the foothills between 1909 and 1910 to create a summer camp for orphan girls. The lot included a farming operation, with poultry, other livestock and dairy cows, and during the summer months, groups of about twenty girls would spend several weeks at the camp.

But I’ll get to more of that in a bit. Now for some pictures and a mini walking tour.

The first thing you see when coming to the shrine is the chapel where Mass is offered daily. In the late morning, streams of light came through the high windows, spotlighting people praying in the pews. It was quite breathtaking, even if my photo is somewhat lacking:

After the chapel, visitors simply follow the road down into a small valley between two hills. The first thing you see is a small park for meditation. I’m sorry, but it looked more like a mini-golf establishment than a meditation garden. Rather than add to the peacefulness of the environment, it showed poor planning, with a tragic-looking fountain and uncomfortable benches:

But that was the only negative thing I really had to say about the shrine. After the garden, a path leads up from the road to the top of the hill, where the statue of Jesus stands. Called the Stairway of Prayer, it follows the path Mother Cabrini took. Of course, it also reflects the stations of the cross that Jesus experienced on his way to crucifixion, with each station composed of stone mosaics from Italy.

It’s 373 grueling steps in the hot sun, but it’s worth it to get to the top. Here’s the view of Denver:

And here’s the statue of Jesus, which greets travelers as they traverse the interstate below:

On her last visit to Golden in 1912, Mother Cabrini took several sisters and a few of the children from the orphanage to this hill. They gathered white stones and arranged them in the shape of a Heart surmounted by a cross, the sign of Jesus’ heart. With the smaller stones, she formed a crown of thorns on the highest promontory, overlooking the city.

The stones are still there, preserved for all to see. The heart is replicated all over the shrine, with the prayerful creating their own, smaller hearts along the path and on memorials. Cabrini’s heart now sits beneath a case of glass and metal, which makes photographs difficult. It also makes it impersonal, which is unfortunate, but without it, people would probably take stones with them, or the wind and rain would destroy it. But here it is:

Finally, there’s the grotto, my favorite part of the shrine. It includes a spring, which is considered a testament to Mother Cabrini’s power. There was little to no water on the hilltops, and in 1912, the sisters complained to Mother Cabrini that they were dying of thirst. It is said that she answered, “Lift that rock over there and start to dig. You will find water fresh enough to drink and clean enough to wash.”

The spring has never stopped running, and now flows from four faucets into a steel trough. Many pilgrims believe the water has healing powers – in fact, the lady at the gift shop informed me that they had just healed an inoperable tumor on a woman. There is a handy paper-cone dispenser for pilgrims to take a drink, but if you want to take water with you, you have to buy it from the gift shop.

I probably should have taken a photo, but it wasn’t especially pretty, which was sad for a spring with such an amazing story, reminiscent of Moses striking a rock for water.

I’ll end this post with a photograph of the inside of the grotto. Built to resemble the grotto in Lourdes, France, it’s a beautiful, quiet place. And it’s obviously popular, as hundreds of votive candles flickering below the Virgin Mary.

I said quite a few prayers here – for my computer, for sick friends, for well friends, and for many other reasons. And I honestly think Mother Cabrini may have had a hand in answering them. After all, who else but God can navigate the terrifying world of computer repair?