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A Brief
History of Camp St. Malo . . .
For over
eighty years, the land at the eastern base
of Mount Meeker in the Rocky Mountains has
been special to the Catholic people of Colorado.
One can say that there is even a sense of
the holy attached to the place – and
the huge rocks on which the statue of Christ
now stands.
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It
was an August night in 1916 when
Msgr. Joseph J. Bosetti saw a fiery
meteor fall from the sky. An avid
mountaineer and, at the time, a
young assistant pastor at the Cathedral
of the Immaculate Conception in
Denver, Msgr. Bosetti later related
that the meteor seemed to fall into
the aspen and pine-covered forests
at the foot of Mount Meeker.
He
never found the meteor, but at dawn,
did discover an impressive lichen-covered
rock formation. Bosetti regarded
this as a message from heaven and
vowed to build a chapel on the site.
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He obtained
permission from William McPhee, a wealthy
Catholic lumberman who owned the site, to
convert 160 acres and St. William's Lodge
into a summer camp for the choir boys at
Immaculate Conception Cathedral. In 1934
the Malo family donated $90,000 to build
the main lodge and an additional $15,000
for the camp’s beautiful stone chapel.
It was christened St. Catherine Chapel in
honor of Mrs. Malo’s mother, Catherine
Smith Mullen – and in honor of St.
Catherine of Siena. With the Malo’s
generous donations – ultimately over
$175,000 – Msgr. Bosetti built a first-rate
camp.
Over the
next several decades, thousands of boys,
aged ten to eighteen would enjoy the camp,
and many seminarians from the St. Thomas
Seminary in Denver served as camp counselors.
In 1972, girls began attending the camp
as well and enjoyed summers at St. Malo
for the next twelve years.
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In
1984, Camp Saint Malo closed for major
renovation. It reopened in 1987 with
over $5 million in improvements and
a new name – the Saint Malo Conference
Center. The pioneer structure, St.
William’s Lodge, was replaced
by a larger, more modern facility.
In
1993, Pope John Paul II stayed
at Saint Malo during his World Youth
Day visit to Denver. Photographs of
his visit appear throughout Saint
Malo and his prayer-filled walk through
the Rocky Mountains was commemorated
with a plaque on the Saint Malo grounds.
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Today, Camp Saint
Malo Catholic Retreat, Conference & Spiritual Center
provides a religious and spiritual place
for all denominations. The Church of Northern
Colorado and her people have been formed
by this beautiful land, and it is here that
thousands have deepened their faith in the
mystery of Jesus Christ. Here in the extraordinary
creation of God, they have experienced a
spiritual kinship with all creation renewed
in Christ.
Msgr. Bosetti
said it all when he reflected on the significance
of Saint Malo: "The religious atmosphere
of the camp cannot fail to make an everlasting
impression."
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