✟ Christian (Catholic) | Silverton, CO

Situated at the base of Anvil Mountain, at an elevation of over 9,300 feet, this impressive 16-foot statue of Jesus overlooks the historic mining town of Silverton, Colorado.

The statue was conceived in 1958 by the Catholic Men’s Club of St. Patrick’s Catholic Church under the leadership of Fr. Joseph Halloran. After selecting the site, they collected donations from Silverton’s citizens. Local stonemasons built the base and grotto with local stone. The statue itself consists of 12 tons of Italian Carrara marble, the same source as Michelangelo’s David. The figure of Jesus is depicted with outstretched arms, the Most Sacred Heart upon his breast and the crown of thorns at his feet.

The full structure was completed in 1959 and dedicated. The top plaque affixed to the base reads:

This shrine erected in honor of CHRIST OF THE MINES by the people of Silverton to ask God’s blessing on the mining industry of the San Juans 1958-1959

In 1978, a seeming miracle occurred. On June 4 that year, high in the mountains above Silverton, Lake Emma breached and flooded the caverns of the Sunnyside Mine. The water pressure was so intense that it shot mining equipment out of the portals and into the air. But June 4 was a Sunday—the miners were not at work. Not a single life was lost. In 1982, a new plaque was added to the base of the statue to commemorate the miracle:

In thanksgiving to Christ of the Mines for deliverance of entire work force when Lake Emma flooded Sunnyside Mine June 4 (Sunday, mine closed) 1978

St. Patrick Centennial
August 15, 1982

The shrine can be found on 15th Street / Scenic Drive in Silverton, a short drive along a smooth dirt road east of State Hwy 550 (the “Million Dollar Highway”) and then a brief hike up a steep hill.

A metal offering box, with three crosses on its hinged top, is located nearby, where pilgrims and visitors leave offerings, prayers, and devotional objects. Note also the shamrock, a symbol of St. Patrick.

Sources: Lynn Arave, Deseret News | Atlas Obscura | Catholic Travel Guide | Linda Wommack, Colorado’s Historic Churches (2019), pp.125-26 (incorrectly calling it “Christ of the Mountains Shrine” and differing with other sources on the height (“twelve feet”) and weight (“five tons”)).

Visit date: July 24, 2024.

» Part of the “Holy Places” series at Blessings of Liberty «

✟ Christian (Protestant evangelical) | Colorado Springs, CO

Nestled in a narrow valley (or “park”) among the red rock formations north of Garden of the Gods, Glen Eyrie Castle is an impressive stone manor built in the Tudor Revival style. Completed in 1904, it served as the home of General William Jackson Palmer, a Brigadier General in the Union Army during the Civil War, president of The Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, and founder of Colorado Springs.

The castle’s predecessor was a much smaller, though still luxurious, clapboard home, where General Palmer and his wife, Mary “Queen” Mellen Palmer, lived with their three daughters. Shortly after Queen Palmer’s death in 1894 (age 44), General Palmer commissioned the design and construction of the castle. As Susan Fletcher and Amy Burch write in The Glen Eyrie Story, “The stunning transformation of Glen Eyrie turned the estate into one of the most spectacular homes in the West” (p.40).

The exterior consists of stone quarried from a local canyon; the windows and doors are carved out of Indiana limestone. Upon entry, General Palmer’s guests were welcomed into a large hall with heads of big game and impressive paintings upon the walls. The first floor featured a drawing room, dining room, library, and General Palmer’s personal den. The basement boasted a bowling alley, billiard room, and steam room with white tile and marble. The castle included “cutting-edge technology of the day, including a central vacuum, elevator, weather register, and a fire hose that ran the three stories of the house” (p.41). It was one of the first homes in Colorado to have electricity, generated by a small coal-fired power plant in the valley, built by General Palmer specifically for that purpose. Tourists flocked to the site to glimpse the beautiful exterior and grounds.

After General Palmer passed away in 1909, the castle changed ownership several times. In 1938, it was purchased by George and Susan Strake of Houston, Texas, owners of Strake Petroleum. The Strakes were devout Catholics and deeply invested in religious causes. In 1946, they hosted the papal secretary Msgr. Giovanni Montini—the future Pope Paul VI—at Glen Eyrie.

After a catastrophic flood in the valley, the Strakes listed the estate for sale at $500,000. The Navigators, an evangelism and discipleship ministry founded in California, and the Reverend Billy Graham expressed interest in purchasing the property together, and the Strakes, to facilitate ministry ownership, reduced the asking price to $300,000. In the end, Graham decided that owning the property would distract from his evangelistic work, and The Navigators purchased it in 1953.

Today, Glen Eyrie serves as the headquarters of The Navigators and the locus of its conference and retreat ministry, where it hosts overnight guests, group retreats, weddings, conferences, summer camps, as well as teas and historical tours. The Great Hall, originally known as the Book Hall, welcomes guests at Christmastime for the annual Madrigal Banquet, a 16th-century-style evening of food and spectacular music, dancing, and entertainment from a talented troupe of performers.

Sources: Susan Fletcher & Amy Burch, The Glen Eyrie Story (2021) | Glen Eyrie (The Navigators) | Colorado Encyclopedia

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✟ Christian (Episcopal) | Colorado Springs, CO

Grace Episcopal Church was formally organized in 1873, erecting a church building at the corner of Pikes Peak Avenue and Weber Street on land donated by the founder of the City of Colorado Springs, General William Jackson Palmer. Twenty years later, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church was organized, with its building at the corner of Tejon Street and Monument Avenue.

In 1923, the two parishes merged to become Grace and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. It remains today a place of worship, service, and community in the heart of downtown Colorado Springs.

The cornerstone for the combined church’s new building on Tejon Street was laid in 1925. The Gothic Revival-style structure was designed by the Boston firm Frohman, Robb and Little, which also designed the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. and Trinity College Chapel in Hartford, Connecticut. The church is laid out in a traditional cruciform plan. Its three-story bell tower was modeled after the Great Tower at Magdalen College, Oxford University. In 1955, a new, south wing was added, designed in a Tudor Revival style.

The church’s interior features 48 stained glass windows designed by nine different artists between 1899 and 2005.

The church’s Welte Co. organ boasts more than 4,000 pipes. Funds for the organ were donated in 1928 by Alice Bemis Taylor in honor of her late husband, Frederick Taylor, with the condition that the organ be used to benefit of all citizens of Colorado Springs, including a number of free concerts each year. This tradition continues today with the church’s Taylor Concerts series. Thanks to Ms. Taylor’s gift, Grace and St. Stephens became a center of musical life in Colorado Springs, fostering the establishment of the Colorado Springs Symphony, the Colorado Opera Festival, the Colorado Springs Choral Society, the Colorado Vocal Arts Ensemble, and the church’s own Jazz in the Garden.

Sources: Grace and St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church | “Get to Know Our Sacred Space” | NHRP Reg. Form (2011)

Tour date: May 16, 2024

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✟ Christian (Orthodox) | Colorado Springs, CO

Located at 2770 N. Chestnut St., this Orthodox church, built in a twelfth-century Byzantine style, is known for its large golden dome. The congregation was founded in 1974 as Saints Constantine and Helen Orthodox Church. While liturgical services were originally held at the Air Force Academy by Orthodox chaplains, the first official service took place on September 8, 1974, the Feast of the Nativity of the Theotokos (“God-bearer”), which inaugurates the Orthodox liturgical year. Less than a year later, the congregation acquired an acre of land on North Chestnut Street, and a building campaign was begun. Ground-breaking occurred in late 1977, and nine months later, the building was complete—the first Orthodox Christian Temple in Colorado Springs. Great Vespers was held on Saturday, July 22, 1978, followed by Divine Liturgy the next morning.

Like many Orthodox churches, Holy Theophany is home to dozens of stunning icons. As Timothy Ware explains in his book The Orthodox Church, an icon is “a religious picture designed to arouse appropriate emotions in the beholder.” But it’s more than that: “it is one of the ways whereby God is revealed to man. Through icons the Orthodox Christian receives a vision of the spiritual world” (p.214). A description of Holy Theophany’s icons may be found in this 471-page guide. They include depictions of biblical scenes and parables, saints, and other stories from Christian tradition.

Source: Holy Theophany Orthodox Church

Tour date: April 18, 2024

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✟ Christian (Nondenominational) | Colorado Springs, CO

Situated on the campus of Colorado College, Shove Memorial Chapel is considered the finest examples of Norman Romanesque architecture in the state. It was commissioned and funded by Eugene Percy Shove, a Colorado Springs businessman who served as vice president and later a trustee of the college. Of New York Puritan and Quaker descent, Shove wanted to honor his clergymen ancestors both English and American, and the chapel’s design was inspired by Winchester Cathedral, where one of his ancestors was ordained in 1600.

After a national architectural competition, Shove and his colleagues selected a Pueblo architect, John Gray, to design the chapel. Gray was born in Scotland, was actually married in Winchester Cathedral, trained in Chicago, and moved to Colorado for health reasons. Before this, he had designed only small residences. Shove Memorial Chapel was his first major building project, yet it is regarded as his most important work, the fullest expression of his talents. Gray well understood how physical space can inspire religious contemplation, directing one’s mind and spirit upward to the divine. He wrote at the time that while a church’s exterior should be impressive, the interior was “the most important part of the structure and properly should receive first consideration.” He wanted the chapel’s design to “recreate that elusive sense of mystery and the devotional atmosphere of the ancient cathedrals.”

Construction was completed and the chapel dedicated in 1931. The exterior is of Indiana limestone, similar to Denver’s Cathedral Basilica. The interior is laid out in the cruciform plan of medieval churches, with the main entrance on the west, a long nave, north and south transepts, and a chancel on the east. The tympanum above the entrance contains a sculpture described by Colorado College professor Timothy Fuller as follows:

[It is] a representation, in carved stone, of Christ enthroned in majesty, surrounded by an aureole, emblematic of light and sanctity, and decorated by winged symbols of the four evangelists. The right hand of the Christ figure is raised in the attitude of benediction. The left hand holds the open gospel book in which, in Greek letters, is inscribed, “I am the truth.”

The north and south aisles of the nave contain ten stained glass windows recounting the early history of Christianity in Britain, featuring St. Columba, St. Patrick, the Venerable Bede, and others. The chancel holds a 40,000-pound pipe organ built by the Welte-Tripp division of the Kimball Organ Company. Of its 3,065 pipes, the smallest is a half-inch in length and weighs less than an ounce, and the largest is 300 pounds and sixteen feet high.

Colorado College was founded in 1874 with the support of the Congregational Church, with the stated purpose of being “a college in which liberal studies may be pursued under Christian influences.” To that end, Shove Memorial Chapel initially hosted weekly religious services, with student attendance required. While the college has long since drifted from any sense of religious mission, the chapel, saturated with Christian symbolism, remains essentially unchanged. It stands today as a living embodiment of, and an enduring testament to, the Gospel.

Sources: Colorado College | NRHP Reg. Form (2005) | Timothy Fuller, “This Glorious and Transcendent Place” (1981)

Tour date: March 19, 2024.

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✟ Christian (Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod) | Westcliffe, CO

Hope Lutheran Church in Westcliffe was designed by its pastor, Rev. John Reininga, and built by local parishioners in 1917. It is home to one of the oldest Lutheran congregations in Colorado, formed by German immigrants in 1872 after they came west from Chicago. The church building was a significant upgrade from the aspen-pole structure where they formerly met. Through changing economic times—the decline of mining, the rise of agriculture, and beyond—the Hope Lutheran congregation remained strong and became a focal point of the community of Westcliffe and of Custer County more broadly.

Among Colorado church buildings, this is a rare example of ornamental concrete block construction, a new construction technique perfected around this time. Using a hand-operated block press, builders made concrete blocks on site with locally available aggregate and water. Though the process was slow—drying and curing could take weeks—it was significantly cheaper than shipping premade blocks from a factory. By changing faceplates on the press, builders could create different surface treatments. In constructing Hope Lutheran Church, parishioners used smooth panel-faced blocks for the first seven courses above the foundation, then rock-faced blocks for the rest of the exterior—a fact evident in the photo above.

The 96-foot tower is topped by a cross and holds a bell. According to a 1997 article in the Pueblo Chieftain, “Each Sunday, the bell is rung by hand to call worshippers to service.” The interior is illuminated by 14 stained glass windows. The church building, which was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 1978, continues to be the home of an active LCMS congregation in Westcliffe.

Sources: Hope Lutheran Church | NRHP Reg. Form | NRHP Reg. Form for First Baptist Church of Moffat (description of ornamental concrete block construction used at Hope Lutheran Church and other sites)

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✟ Christian (Episocopal), ✡ Jewish Nonreligious | Denver, CO

This 24’ x 66’ stone building at the corner of Tenth and Lawrence in Denver is considered the city’s “oldest surviving religious building,” though it is no longer used for religious purposes. It was founded as Emmanuel Episcopal and financed by a Bostonian who wanted to build a church in honor of his daughter. Combining Romanesque and Gothic influences, the chapel was consecrated on September 24, 1877. The congregation moved out in 1893, around the time that west Denver was seeing an influx of eastern European Jewish immigrants. A congregation called Shearith Israel (English: Remnant of Israel) bought the building in 1903 and converted it to a synagogue. It became affectionately known as the “Tenth Street Shul.” After World War II, the congregation declined, and the synagogue closed in 1958, though local businessmen continued to use it sporadically until 1965. In 1973, the Auraria Higher Education Center bought the building and renovated it into a campus art gallery. Now called Emmanuel Gallery, it hosts rotating art exhibits from students, professors, and others.

Yet a Hebrew inscription remains over the front entrance. It reads Beit Knesset Shearit Yisroel, or Shearith Israel Synagogue, a permanent reminder of its religious past.

Sources: Colorado Encyclopedia | Emmanuel Gallery | Amy Shapiro, A Guide to the Jewish Rockies (Rocky Mtn. Jewish Hist. Soc’y, Univ. of Denver 1979)

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✟ Christian (Protestant) | Denver, CO

Founded by an intrepid group of Black freedmen on November 15, 1865, Zion Baptist Church is the oldest African American church in the Rocky Mountain West, and is today a Colorado historical landmark. From small beginnings, the congregation grew to become a pillar of the Black community in Denver and included many of the city’s Black business owners and political leaders. It was a “mother church,” helping to found other Black congregations throughout the Rocky Mountain West. Since 1913, the church has occupied a large brick building in Denver’s Five Points neighborhood, built in the Romanesque Revival style. It has hosted many civil rights leaders over the years, including A. Philip Randolph, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and Jesse Jackson. It celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2015. From its historic location, it continues today to minister to the faithful and serve the community through a variety of ministries and programs.

Zion Baptist Church | Colorado Encyclopedia

✡ Jewish (Reform) | Leadville, CO

Originally constructed in 1884 and restored in 2008, Temple Israel served a large and active community of pioneering Reform Jews until about 1914. Today it houses a museum run by the Temple Israel Foundation, documenting Jewish life in a late-1800s mining town. The building was designed by George King in a style called Carpenter Gothic, complementing St. George’s Episcopal Church across the street. An interpretive sign outside the building calls it a “frontier synagogue,” and online commentary suggests an architectural significance to this term (though I’ve not been able to discover its source or meaning). At an elevation of about 10,000 feet, Temple Israel may be the highest Jewish house of worship in the world.

Temple Israel Foundation | Jewish Museum of the American West

✡ Jewish | Trinidad, CO

Temple Aaron is the second oldest continually operating Jewish synagogue west of the Mississippi. The town of Trinidad was incorporated in 1876 (the same year Colorado became a state), and its first mayor, Sam Jaffa, was Jewish. The local Jewish community formed Congregation Aaron in 1883 and, six years later, laid the cornerstone for this synagogue, a red-brick and stone structure overlooking the town center. According to a 2019 article in HaLapid, the unusual Eastern-Islamic design “was brought to America by German Jews who had been impacted by the Reform Movement in Judaism.” Colorado Public Radio calls it “exotic-revival style.” (Denver’s Temple Emanuel boasts a similar design.) In 2023, Temple Aaron was added to the list of National Historical Landmarks.

Temple Aaron | Jewish Museum of the American West

✟ Christian (Roman Catholic) | Allenspark, CO

Near the southern entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park, set against the backdrop of Mt. Meeker, St. Catherine of Siena Chapel is a literal embodiment of what it means to “build upon the rock.” Set upon a foundation of natural rock—a survivor of the glacial forces that shaped this area—the Chapel was built in 1935 using native stone sourced nearby. It’s named in honor of the fourteenth-century Italian mystic known for her intense fasting and prayer. The surrounding property is called Camp St. Malo—after a sixth-century Welsh saint, with a nod to the donors (Mr. and Mrs. Oscar Malo) who gave the land to the Archdiocese. In 2011, a tragic fire destroyed a conference center on the property. In 2013, 100-year rains triggered flooding and landslides, bringing mud and rocks from the slopes of Mt. Meeker to the base of the chapel, destroying the Pope Saint John Paul II trail in the process. But the Chapel on the Rock stood firm. A rebuilt trail now features the Stations of the Cross, showcasing the artwork of Canadian sculptor Timothy Schmalz. The Chapel is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10 am to 4 pm, and welcomes visitors seeking to pray or enjoy the serene beauty of this place. On site, Tahosa Coffee House serves drip coffee, espresso drinks, and small bites. In December, there’s an Advent Market, with local artisans and vendors, homemade foods, mulled wine, and a warm fire.

Camp St. Malo | Inspired Imperfection

✟ Christian (Roman Catholic) | San Luis, CO

Officially La Mesa de la Piedad y de la Misericordia, or Hill of Piety and Mercy, the Shrine is part of the Sangre de Cristo Parish. A half-mile trail allows visitors to view the fifteen Stations of the Cross—bronze sculptures of Christ’s passion and resurrection, sculpted by Huberto Maestas in 1986. Beyond the stations is a grotto of Our Lady of Guadalupe with sandstone statues of the Virgin Mary and Juan Diego. Atop the mesa is La Capilla de Todos Los Santos, the Chapel of All Saints, a mission-style church.

Catholic Places | Southern Colorado Guide | Sangre de Cristo Heritage Center

✟ Christian | Holy Cross Wilderness Area (Eagle County), CO

Between Vail to the north and Leadville to the south, in the Sawatch Range, rises this unusual 14,005-foot mountain featuring a 1500-foot couloir (vertical cleft) intersected by a 750-foot horizontal bench, forming a Christian cross that keeps snow well into July. Because of its remote location, Mount of the Holy Cross was known largely in rumor and seen by very few until the celebrated western photographer William Henry Jackson took the first-ever photo of it atop nearby Notch Mountain in 1873. Here is Jackson in his own words:

On this day, as usual, I pushed on ahead, and thus it was that I became the first member of the [Hayden] Survey to sight the Cross. Near the top of the ridge I emerged above timberline and the clouds, and suddenly, as I clambered over a vast mass of jagged rocks, I discovered the great shining cross before me, tilted against the mountainside.1

Jackson’s photo was an American sensation, inspiring a famous painting by Thomas Moran (now in the Autry Museum of the American West in Los Angeles) and a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in memory of the tragic death of his wife. Pilgrims flocked to see the cross by climbing Notch Mountain, just as Jackson had done.

A stone hut, the Notch Mountain Shelter, was constructed atop Notch Mountain in 1933 by the Civilian Conservation Corps to shelter hikers and host Sunday masses. It is a single-room building with 18-inch-thick stone walls and a massive stone fireplace inside. CCC workers used mules to haul up timber for the door and roof and glass for the windows, which face west toward the Cross.

According to a Summit Daily article, this was also the birthplace of “handkerchief healing.” At the urging of a Denver pastor, sick people around the country began mailing in handkerchiefs, and the pastor carried them up Notch Mountain, prayed over them, and mailed them back to their owners. In 1932, he schlepped 2000 handkerchiefs, enlisting two rangers to help carry the load.

Between 1929 and 1950, there was a Holy Cross National Monument, but after a rock slide that marred the cross’s right arm, visitation declined, and the area was stripped of the designation and returned to the Forest Service. Today, Mount of the Holy Cross is the centerpiece of the Holy Cross Wilderness Area, created in 1980.

Hikers summit the mountain to “bag” one of the state’s many fourteeners, or they climb Notch Mountain for the iconic view and shelter. Pilgrims still journey here for inspiration, solitude, and prayer. A plaque upon a prominent granite boulder on Notch Mountain reads:

This plaque is in memory of WILLIAM H. JACKSON the pioneer photographer who took the first pictures of THE CROSS on August 23, 1873 from the high point north of here while working for the U.S. Hayden Geological Survey

Plaque placed here June 23, 1963
R.F. Ruhoff E.M. Yeager

Sources: National Parks Traveler | 5280 | EARTH Magazine | Colorado Encyclopedia | See also Clarence S. Jackson & Lawrence W. Marshall, Quest of the Snowy Cross (Univ. of Denver Press, 1952).

Visit (hike) date: June 22, 2024

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✟ Christian (Roman Catholic) | Golden, CO

Situated in the foothills west of Denver, Mother Cabrini Shrine was originally a summer camp for girls. When St. Frances Xavier (“Mother”) Cabrini, founder of the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, purchased the property in 1909, there was no known source of water. Water had to be hauled up to the summer camp from a stream at the bottom of Mt. Vernon Canyon. When the sisters complained to Mother Cabrini that they were dying of thirst—and Colorado summers are quite warm and dry!—Mother Cabrini answered, “Lift that rock over there and start to dig. You will find water fresh enough to drink and clean enough to wash.” They did, and discovered a spring. Today, the spring is housed in an 8000-gallon tank and has never stopped running. The Shrine includes a museum dedicated to the life and missionary work of Mother Cabrini, as well as a stairway of prayer, meditation walk, rosary garden, retreat facilities, and daily Mass. The Shrine is open every day for visitors and pilgrims.

Mother Cabrini Shrine | Catholic Places

✟ Christian (Nondenominational Protestant) | Colorado Springs, CO

Located in the historic Conejos District, a working-class community of Jewish, Scandinavian, and Hispanic immigrants, the original building on this site was built around 1910 as a simple one-story grocery store. Under the leadership of missionary Ruth Chadbourne, it was renamed the Spanish Gospel Mission in 1930 and later renovated in the Mission Revival style. (A bell donated by Colorado College was installed in the bell tower in the late 1940s.) As a nondenominational church, the Mission offered services in Spanish and English, Sunday school, and Bible studies; provided adult education classes in English, sewing, and music; hosted sports teams and Boy and Girl Scouts meetings; provided food to needy children and gifts at Christmas; and hosted various community events. According to its application for the National Register of Historic Places (a designation it achieved in 2009), the Mission was “the only community gathering place in the area” and “became the nucleus of the neighborhood.” The Mission is the sole surviving structure from the Conejos District. Today it is home to the Chadbourne Community Church.

History Colorado | Colorado Springs Pioneer Museum

✟ Christian (Roman Catholic) | Denver, CO

Construction of this Cathedral, in the French Gothic style, began in 1906 and was completed six years later. It was elevated to a lesser basilica—an honorific bestowed by the Pope to designate a church of special historical or spiritual importance—in 1979. The foundation is granite from Gunnison, Colorado; the exterior walls are Indiana limestone; and much of the interior is marble from Marble, Colorado. The altars, pedestals, statues, pulpit, bishop’s throne (kathedra), and communion rail are of marble imported from Carrara, Italy. The 75 stained glass windows, crafted by F.X. Zettler and 50 artisans in Munich, Germany, are considered some of the finest in the world. The Cathedral Basilica hosts three daily Masses and five Sunday Masses, ministers to the local faithful, and serves the surrounding community. It also hosts a regular concert series.

Cathedral Website | Catholic Places

✡ Jewish, ✟ Christian, and Other | Colorado Springs, CO

The Cadet Chapel at the U.S. Air Force Academy is an all-faith house of worship for cadets and staff, with separate chapels for Protestant, Catholic, Jewish, and Buddhist faiths, and two all-faith worship rooms. The 150-foot structure is made of aluminum, glass, and steel chapel; consists of 100 identical tetrahedrons, each weighing five tons; and features 17 spires, a number the Air Force insists has “no significance.” The furnishings and pipe organs were gifts from individuals and organizations. An Easter offering taken at Air Force bases around the world in 1959 funded completion of the interior. The foyer surrounding the interior Jewish synagogue is paved with 1,631 pieces of Jerusalem stone donated by the Israeli Defense Forces. The Chapel hosts up to a million visitors per year.

Cadet Chapel | Atlas Obscura

✟ Christian (Roman Catholic) | Virginia Dale, CO

Home to a community of Benedictine sisters in a verdant valley in northern Colorado, the Abbey of St. Walburga is named in honor of St. Walburga, an eighth-century Anglo-Saxon missionary to what is now Germany. The motherhouse, St. Walburga’s Abbey, is in Eichstätt, Bavaria. The Colorado community was established in 1935 when the Abbess, concerned about the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party, set up several American missions (including St. Walburga Monastery, in Covington, Kentucky and St. Emma Monastery in Greenburg, Pennsylvania). Today, the sisters live in community, raise llamas, farm the land, and welcome pilgrims and guests. As contemplative Benedictine nuns, their primary duty is to pray the full Divine Office, a series of seven prayer services held throughout the day. Prayer services and daily Mass are open to the public. The abbey is also open to guests for day and overnight retreats.

Abbey of St. Walburga | Northern Colorado History

Abbey of St. Walburga ✟ » Virginia Dale, CO

Cadet Chapel ✡ ✟ » Colorado Springs, CO

Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception ✟ » Denver, CO

Chadbourne Spanish Gospel Mission ✟ » Colorado Springs, CO

Christ of the Mines Shrine ✟ » Silverton, CO

Emmanuel Episcopal / Shearith Israel ✟ ✡ Nonreligious » Denver, CO

Glen Eyrie Castle ✟ » Colorado Springs, CO

Grace and St. Stephens Episcopal Church ✟ » Colorado Springs, CO

Holy Theophany Orthodox Church ✟ » Colorado Springs, CO

Hope Lutheran Church ✟ » Westcliffe, CO

Mother Cabrini Shrine ✟ » Golden, CO

Mount of the Holy Cross ✟ » Holy Cross Wilderness Area (Eagle County), CO

Shove Memorial Chapel ✟ » Colorado Springs, CO

Shrine of the Stations of the Cross ✟ » San Luis, CO

St. Catherine of Siena Chapel (Chapel on the Rock) ✟ » Allenspark, CO

Temple Aaron ✡ » Trinidad, CO

Temple Israel ✡ » Leadville, CO

Zion Baptist Church ✟ » Denver, CO