A few years ago I was blessed to be able to visit my daughter, Amelia, in Colorado and we took a trip to visit the Shrine of Mother Cabrini. It was a lovely drive and hard to imagine the nuns who first took the long hike up the mountain to their new home!
https://mothercabrinishrine.org/
“Mother Cabrini loved the mountains of Colorado. The foothills west of Denver held a special attraction for her. During her journeys in 1902 to visit the Italian workers and their families in the Clear Creek, Argentine, and South Park mining districts, Frances X. Cabrini discovered a property on the east slope of Lookout Mountain owned by the town of Golden.
No reliable source of water was known to exist on the property at that time, although there were two fine barns and a springhouse built in the 1890s. In 1909–1910, she negotiated the purchase of this property as a summer camp for her charges at the Queen of Heaven Orphanage in Denver, CO.
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. They enjoyed the freedom of the outdoors and recreational activities in addition to tending the animals and performing farm chores.”
The spring is still there and you are invited to take a drink from it, or take some home. It is said it contains healing properties but who knows. I do know the chapel is lovely and the view of the mountains spectacular. If you are in the area, consider making the trek up the mountain as those nuns once did.
Our good friend, Joan, has a lovely book about her –
And, finally, have you seen the trailer to the movie planned about her remarkable life?
https://www.angel.com/movies/cabrini
I am so looking forward to it!
