The Miraculous Conversion Story of Prisoner Claude Newman

Vivificat! - A Catholic Blog of Commentary and Opinion ^ | 8 July 2005 | Teófilo

[Teófilo]

Folks, in my forays looking for good iconography sites I stumbled upon the Mount Angel Abbey Icon Gallery. The icons there had been written--like Holy Scripture, icons are "written," not "painted"--by Br. Claude Lane, Benedictine. Within this gallery I found this icon Br. Lane wrote in honor of Claude Newman, a prisoner in Mississippi's death row back in 1944. Newman's story is quite remarkable and deserves your reading. This remarkable story was published in the March 2001 issue of Catholic Family News and was authored by John Vennari.

According to a Fr. O'Leary, a priest-chaplain at that Mississippi jail,

Claude Newman was a negro man who worked the fields for a landowner. He had married when he was 17 years old to a woman of the same age. One day, two years later, he was out plowing the fields. Another worker ran to tell Claude that his wife was screaming from the house. Immediately Claude ran into his house and found a man attacking his wife. Claude saw red, grabbed an axe and split the man's head open. When they rolled the man over, they discovered that it was the favorite employee of the landowner for whom Claude worked. Claude was arrested. He was later sentenced for murder and condemned to die in the electric chair.

While he was in jail awaiting execution, he shared a cell-block of some sort with four other prisoners. One night, the five men were sitting around talking and they ran out of conversation. Claude noticed a medal on a string around another prisoner's neck. He asked what it was, and the Catholic boy told him that it was a medal. Claude said, "What is a medal?" The Catholic boy could not explain what a medal was or what its purpose was. At that point, and in anger, the Catholic boy snatched the medal from his own neck and threw it on the floor at Claude's feet with a curse and a cuss, telling him to take the thing.

Claude picked up the medal, and with permission from the prison attendants, placed it on a string around his own neck. To him it was simply a trinket, but he wanted to wear it.

During the night, sleeping on top of his cot, he was awakened with a touch on his wrist. And there stood, as Claude told the priest later, the most beautiful woman that God ever created. At first he was very frightened. The Lady calmed down Claude, and then said to him, "If you would like Me to be your Mother, and you would like to be My child, send for a priest of the Catholic Church." With that She disappeared...

Please, continue reading here.

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[Teófilo]

Typos, grammar and expression errors, are all mea culpa.

[Salvation]

I have seen Brother Claude's work. Extraordinary!

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[Salvation]

In fact, our parish has asked him to do an icon of our patron saint for our 40th anniversary celebration in three years!

[Pyro7480]

Wow, what a miracle! Thanks for sharing. :-)

[halieus]

"Many souls go to Hell" said Our Lady of Fatima, "because they have no one to pray and make sacrifices for them."

I respectfully submit that this would not be the action of a just and loving God.

[Claud]

I respectfully submit that this would not be the action of a just and loving God.

It might, however, be the action of a impious and hate-filled man.

Maybe God's alleged "injustice" would be better defined as forcing a soul who utterly and completely hates Him, to nevertheless spend eternity in His Presence. Hell would be a mercy in comparison, no?

[NYer]

And there stood, as Claude told the priest later, the most beautiful woman that God ever created.

What a powerful story! Thank you for posting it.

His description of Mary reminded me of another convert's story. Roy Schoeman was a Jew, wandering along a beach who suddenly found himself in the presence of God.

"I saw that the meaning and purpose of my life was to worship and serve my Lord and Master, in whose presence I found myself. I wanted to know His name, so that I could worship Him properly, so that I could follow "His" religion. I remember silently praying "Tell me your name. I don't mind if You're Apollo, and I have to become a Roman pagan. I don't mind if You're Krishna, and I have to become a Hindu. I don't mind if You're Buddha, and I have to become a Buddhist. As long as You're not Christ, and I have to become a Christian!" (Jewish readers might be able to identify with this deep-rooted aversion to Christianity, based on the mistaken belief that it was the "enemy" which lay behind two thousand years of persecution of the Jews.)

" A year to the day after the initial experience, I went to sleep after saying that prayer, and felt as though I was woken by a gentle hand on my shoulder, and escorted to a room where I was left alone with the most beautiful young woman I could imagine. I knew without being told that she was the Blessed Virgin Mary. "

This image reminds him particularly of the appearance of the Blessed Virgin Mary in his dream.

CONVERSION STORY

[Romish_Papist]

Thank you for posting it. Choked me up a bit.

[Cap'n Crunch]

WOW

[sassbox]

wonderful and inspiring story! Does anyone know if there is a movement underway to canonize Claude Newman?

[VeritatisSplendor]

If you go to the links, you will find that he did not kill a man attacking his wife, but lay in wait for his grandmother's husband (who is said to have been abusive to her). And if there is that discrepancy, one must wonder what else in the priest's account may have been in error.

It is a beautiful story, and I pray that the part the priest witnessed, the time in prison, is true.

Mrs VS

[Lady In Blue]

Bump for a later read. Thanks.

[halieus]

"Many souls go to Hell" said Our Lady of Fatima, "because they have no one to pray and make sacrifices for them."

I respectfully submit that this would not be the action of a just and loving God.

It might, however, be the action of a impious and hate-filled man.

Maybe God's alleged "injustice" would be better defined as forcing a soul who utterly and completely hates Him, to nevertheless spend eternity in His Presence. Hell would be a mercy in comparison, no?
___________

Thanks for the reply. However, I was not addressing the idea of hell.

Rather, I strongly reject the idea that God would send someone to hell simply because that person had no one to "pray and make sacrifices for (him)". Is God that evil and/or impotent that He'd allow such a thing?

Is God not completely in control of where we're born, who we're born to? And if God is completely in control, and He creates a human being knowing that no one will "pray and make sacrifices" for him, God has created a human with the intention of sending him to hell.

I reject that as blasphemy.

God has given us a choice -- our own, personal choice. My God would not allow someone to go to hell because of the lack of actions by another individual. God is concerned about the choices I make, and THAT is what determines my fate. Do I choose God or do I reject him? Whether others pray for me is irrelevant.