Don’t look for any religious symbolism here – it was only a freak act of Mother Nature, says Sister Ilaria.

The nuns at Mother Cabrini Shrine in Golden were thanking God on Sunday that no one was hurt when a bolt of lightning shot out of the sky and struck their 33-foot statue of Jesus.

The lightning bolt broke off one of Jesus’ arms and a hand and damaged one of his feet, sending marble plummeting to the ground during a Saturday afternoon storm.

“There were pilgrims up there on the hill,” Sister Ilaria said. “The biggest miracle is no one got hit with the falling debris.”

The statue of Jesus, which had one hand pointing to his “sacred heart” and the other outstretched, sits atop a mountain near the shrine in the foothills of Golden. Drivers on Interstate 70 can see the statue in the hills, and at night, light illuminates the white marble.

Jesus, wearing a robe and glancing down, is 22 feet tall with an 11-foot base.

Sister Bernadette was doing paperwork in her office when she heard the crackle of lightning.

“We did hear a bang, but we didn’t realize it was the statue,” she said.

The sisters hoped to have a structural engineer inspect the broken statue this week to determine whether it is fixable. The historic piece is irreplaceable – it was sent from Italy in five stackable sections in 1954.

“We run on donations here, so we really have to look at the cost and see what will happen,” Sister Bernadette said.

The sisters were thankful the falling marble did not break through a plexiglass shield that covers a heart made by Mother Cabrini.

Thousands of people visit the shrine each year to pray and pay homage to Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American citizen canonized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. In the 1930s, she established the shrine as a summer camp for orphaned children.

Visitors climb the 373 stairs to the sacred heart statue, “praying as they go,” Sister Bernadette said.

Staff writer Jennifer Brown can be reached at 303-954-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com.