The Saint Catherine of Siena Chapel is located on Highway 7 between Allenspark and Estes Park Colorado at Camp St. Malo, a Catholic Retreat and Conference Center. The founder of Camp Malo, Monsignor Joseph Bosetti’s dream was to build a chapel on the 160 acre property that was donated by the Oscar Malo family. On an evening in 1916 Monsignor Bosetti saw a falling meteor and the following morning he began to search the area for fragments. Walking around the property, he came across a large granite rock and the scripture passage from Matthew 16-18 came to mind when Jesus told Peter “Upon this rock I will build my church.” Monsignor Bosetti began to pray for the money to build the chapel and he also persuaded the Colorado Highway Department, who had planned to dynamite the large rock in order to widen and straighten the highway, to save the granite boulder on which the chapel was to be built. The Malo Family donated the money for the chapel that was designed by Jacques Benedict, a Denver architect. Native stone in the area was hauled by mule carts in the construction of the chapel. The wood statues of Saint Catherine and of Christ the King that stand to the left and right of the altar were carved at the Giacomo-Mussner Studio in Bolzano, Italy. The stained glass pane of Saint Catherine was crafted by Franz Mayer& Sons Glass Works in Munich Germany. The antique sanctuary lamp is from a small chapel in a palace in Rome that Mussolini had ordered to be torn down. There are two medallions of the Madonna and Child that also hang in the chapel. These were owned and hung in the home of Evelyn Walsh Mc Lean, the last private owner of the Hope Diamond. In 1936 the chapel was dedicated by Archbishop Urban Vehr to honor Saint Catherine of Siena and also in memory of Catherine Smith, the mother of Mrs. Malo. Pope John Paul II visited the chapel and gave his personal blessing during his 1993 trip to the World Youth Day in Denver. In 1999 Boulder County designated the chapel as a Colorado Historic Site. |
