Frances Xavier Cabrini first came to Denver in the early 1900’s. It is only in Colorado that she is affectionately known as “Mother Cabrini” for her compassion and care of children in our city. Her life and legacy are honored at the Mother Cabrini Shrine, located on the land outside Golden she purchased to establish the Queen of Heaven Orphanage. It is in this place she purchased that pilgrims are invited to follow in the footsteps of Mother Cabrini.

Frances Xavier Cabrini was born in Italy in 1850 and arrived in the United States in 1889 with a clear calling to care for the poor, especially immigrants and children. Her life and work were always in motion as she made 24 trips across the oceans and established 67 institutions in North, Central, and South America. Mother Cabrini died unexpectedly in 1917 at the age of 67. Ten years after her death, the process of beatification was begun, and in an unprecedented short time, Frances was canonized a saint in 1946. Having become an American citizen, Saint Frances Cabrini was the first naturalized North American saint.

Mother Cabrini first came to Denver in 1902 to care for immigrants and their children, many of whom were working in the nearby mines. In a letter dated December 23, 1902, to one of the Sisters in Chicago, she wrote, "I am happy to have a mission in the Rocky Mountains where I always desired to go. God be blessed!" In 1909, Mother Cabrini purchased land near Golden and established the Queen of Heaven Orphanage. The hillside property became a refuge for children and a place of prayer. Mother Cabrini explained to her superior that the property cost so little because of a lack of water.

The lack of clean water was challenging for the Sisters. The water from a stagnant pond had to be boiled before it could be used. When Mother Cabrini visited in 1912, a Sister wrote: "She walked over to a large red rock and touched it with her cane. She then said, "Even here beneath this rock there is true water, pure and good, for children to keep clean. Dig a small hole, for beneath this rock is water fresh and light that all can drink." A spring was discovered where Mother Cabrini encouraged the sisters to dig, and it continues to flow today.

That same year, the last time Cabrini would be in Colorado, she, the Sisters, and the girls of Queen of Heaven Orphanage climbed to the top of the mountain to enjoy a picnic. Mother Cabrini asked the Sisters and girls to gather white rocks and bring them to her. They arranged them in the form of a heart with a cross and crown of thorns. The arrangement of white stones remains today at the top of the stairs under the statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

After the death of Mother Cabrini, the property transformed into a place of pilgrimage and devotion. In 1954, the 373 steps leading up to the top of the Mount of the Sacred Heart were completed in just 67 days. The stairway follows the path Mother Cabrini took to the top of the mountain. This stairway is marked by the Stations of the Cross, with each station a stone mosaic depicting the suffering and Passion of Jesus. A museum is in the original water pump house and shares the life of Mother Cabrini with a recreated bedroom and artifacts from her life. Inside the beautiful chapel, completed in 1970, there are stained-glass windows that visually narrate Mother Cabrini’s life from her early calling to her work among immigrants and her journey to Colorado.

An unanticipated aspect of the Mother Cabrini Shrine is the multi-cultural nature of those who come to this sacred place. On my visit, there were multiple languages spoken in prayer along the stairway and sung in spiritual songs near the spring. The mosaic in the chapel of Jesus, Mother Cabrini, and children representing multiple ethnicities is appropriate for a woman whose mission was to care for immigrants and children in so many different countries. The Mother Cabrini Shrine is a sacred place.