Mother Cabrini Shrine, Golden, Colorado, United States

In 1909 – 1910, Mother Cabrini Shrine, Golden, Colorado negotiated the purchase of some land in Golden to be used as a summer camp for her charges at the Queen of Heaven Orphanage in Denver, Colorado. A farming operation, with poultry, other livestock and dairy cows, was established and maintained by three of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart who set up living quarters in the loft of the larger barn. During the summer months, groups of about twenty girls, according to age, would spend several weeks at the summer camp.

All of the water needed for drinking and cooking had to be brought up to the summer camp from the stream at the bottom of Mount Vernon Canyon. In September 1912, the sisters complained to Mother Cabrini that they were dying of thirst and there was no water to be had. 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, which is housed in an 8,000 gallon tank, has never stopped running. A replica of the grotto of Lourdes, France, was built over this spring in 1929 and was demolished and replaced in 1959 by the present one, built of sandstone.

It was during Mother Cabrini’s last visit to the foothills in 1912 that she and a builder, Thomas Eckrom, drew up the plans for the Stone House that would serve as a dormitory for the girls. The house was to be built of native rock. She called the sisters who were with her and said, “daughters, I dropped my cane go back and find it. Where you find it make a sign with stones because that is where the house is to be built.”

The land was on a level spot overlooking the city of Denver. Each evening the girls would load a cart, drawn by a donkey, with stones from a nearby quarry for the next day’s building activity. The construction of the Stone House commenced in the fall of 1912 and was finally completed in 1914.

The house was used as a summer camp for the girls from the Queen of Heaven orphanage. The ground floor of the Stone House has the chapel, sleeping quarters for the supervising Sisters, a living room, an entry area with main staircase, a back staircase, and several small utility areas which remain basically unchanged. The second and third floors were open dormitory areas. Upon the closing of the Queen of Heaven Orphanage in 1967, the summer camp became a year around retreat facility, and a place for small prayer gatherings. Today, the Stone House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

A spacious new Queen of Heaven Orphanage was dedicated in 1921 in Denver at 48th Avenue and Federal Boulevard. Until 1967, it was home to 160 – 317 girls each year before foster care replaced the orphanage. Upon the closing of the orphanage in 1967, the summer camp in Golden became a year-round retreat facility.

Mother Cabrini died at 67 years of age in 1917 in Chicago, Illinois. She had established 67 institutions throughout the United States and in South and Central America. Her work continues through the ministry of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart. Frances Xavier Cabrini was canonized on July 7, 1946, the first United States citizen to be so honored. On her last visit to the site in 1912, Mother Cabrini had gathered white stones and formed a sacred heart on the highest promontory on Lookout Mountain, overlooking the city of Denver.

In April 1948, a St. Frances Cabrini Shrine Committee was incorporated, and a 22-foot statue of Christ was mounted on an 11-foot base at the site, now known as the Shrine of the Sacred Heart, or the Cabrini Shrine. Next to the original Stone House, a convent was completed on the site in 1970 for the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart. It contains a chapel dedicated to the Sacred Heart, has an exhibit of artifacts and clothing used by Mother Cabrini, and accommodations for visitors.

In the Jubilee Year 2000, alumna of the Queen of Heaven orphanage will hold a reunion in Denver to acknowledge those sisters who gave of themselves for the girls of Queen of Heaven, and to bring national and worldwide attention to the life’s work of Saint Frances Cabrini, especially to her legacy at the Cabrini Shrine in Golden.