Restoration of the lightning-damaged, 22-foot-tall statue of Jesus at Mother Cabrini Shrine is underway.
“After four months of research, working with our insurance company, engineers and contractors, the restoration process has begun,” Sister Bernadette Casciano said today in a press release.
In May, lightning sheared off one of the statue’s arms and a hand, and damaged a foot.
Repairs are expected to cost about $200,000, and insurance will cover $120,000 of the total, Casciano said.
The statue, shipped to Colorado from Italy in five stackable sections in 1954, sits on an 11-foot base and is visible along the Interstate-70 corridor through Mount Vernon Canyon, southwest of Golden.
Thousands of pilgrims and visitors every year climb the 373 steps to visit the shrine and view the “Sacred Heart” statue.
Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini was the first U.S. citizen canonized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church.
In the 1930s, she established the shrine as a summer camp for orphaned children.
The statue is supported and maintained only by donations and sales from the shrine’s gift shop.
Donations may be made to the Sacred Heart Statue Restoration Fund, 20189 Cabrini Blvd., Golden, 80401.
Staff writer Kieran Nicholson can be reached at 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
