DENVER — Signed by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis in 2020, Cabrini Day is recognized every year on the first Monday in October.
Cabrini Day is the first state holiday named after a woman in Colorado. Colorado replaced Columbus Day with Cabrini Day.
Born in Italy in 1850, Frances Xavier Cabrini was committed to supporting the needy, elderly, immigrants and the less fortunate. She was the first American citizen canonized a saint in 1946 by the Catholic Church.
Mother Cabrini came to the United States in 1889 to help immigrants in Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn. She arrived in Colorado to help Denver’s Italian immigrants 13 years later.
In 1910, Mother Cabrini bought land for a summer camp for orphan girls on Lookout Mountain near Golden. That's the property where Mother Cabrini's shrine is today, and it's where something legendary is believed to have occurred.
"The land had no known reliable source of water, but as the story goes, in September 1912, Mother Cabrini told some of the thirsty, complaining sisters to lift a certain rock and start digging," an article on the Archdiocese of Denver website reads. "The sisters obliged, and uncovered a spring, which has not stopped running to this day.
"Many pilgrims to Mother Cabrini Shrine believe the water has brought about healing and peace in their lives. Coloradans are blessed to have Mother Cabrini Shrine right in their own backyard as a place to visit and learn more about this great saint."
When she was in Denver, Mother Cabrini ministered to Denver's poor Italian immigrants, according to the Archdiocese of Denver. She helped establish 67 schools, hospitals and orphanages across the country before her death in 1917.
Since its establishment in 2020, Cabrini Day hopes to remind Coloradans to be kinder, more compassionate, and seek ways to improve the communities in which we live.
Mother Cabrini Shrine
A retreat and pilgrimage center near Golden whose tall statue of Jesus is visible from Interstate 70, Mother Cabrini Shrine has been hard at work making $4.8 million of improvements to its property.
During the pandemic, the nonprofit started a fundraising campaign to expand its existing chapel, gift shop and add a visitor café. The nonprofit's goal is to raise $4.5 million.