When Mary Saved a Soul

THE INCREDIBLE CATHOLIC MIRACLE OF CLAUDE NEWMAN
This is one of the most powerful Marian conversion stories in modern Catholic history — a miracle connected to the Miraculous Medal, Our Lady’s intercession, and the grace of Holy Mother Church.

In 1944, a young prisoner named Claude Newman — with no Christian upbringing and no understanding of the Catholic faith — encounters a mysterious lady glowing with peace. She speaks one invitation that opens the door to his salvation:

"If you would like me to be your mother, and you would like to be my child, send for a Catholic priest."

Transcript

A young man on death row wakes up in the middle of the night. Someone has touched his wrist. He opens his eyes and sees a beautiful lady standing beside his prison bed. She says one sentence that will change his life. If you would like me to be your mother and you would like to be my child, send for a priest. He screams for a priest. The guards panic. The inmates wake up and no one can explain what happens next. This is the incredible and widely attested story of Clode Newman and the miraculous medal that changed a man's soul on the eve of his execution. Hey, welcome to episode 5 of our Advent series where we're exploring Marin apparitions in preparation for Christmas. The year is 1942, Mississippi, the deep south, and a young African-Amean man named Clo Newman, only 19, is sentenced to death for murder. By every outward appearance, Clo's life, it's over. No schooling, no Christian background, no hope. He spends the nights in a crowded death row barracks with hardened criminals. But one night, a small medal, the kind people wear around their necks, launches one of the most astonishing conversion stories in American prison history. Clo gets into an argument with one of the other inmates. The tempers fly, arguments ensue, and the other inmate takes this mail that's around his neck and throws it to the ground. Clo picks it up. He doesn't know what it is, but he feels drawn to it. It's a miraculous medal, the devotional medal designed in 1830 after the apparition to St. Katherine Labour. And that night, everything changes. Clode wakes from sleep to a gentle touch on his wrist and sees her, a lady bright and beautiful, filled with peace. She says 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." Clothe bolts upright, screaming for a priest. Father Robert Olirri arrives the next morning and Clo begs to be taught the Catholic faith. But something strange is happening. Clode, completely uneducated, already knows things that no one had taught him. the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, the reality of mortal sin, and the basics of confession. When the priest asks how he knows such things, Clo just points up and says, "The lady told me." Father Olirri is stunned. He had been praying for a sign of God's mercy. And suddenly, death row is turning into a catechism classroom. And now comes the moment that shakes the priest to his core. Clode gently reminds Father Ori of something from years earlier. A private vow the priest made to Mary while he was lying in a ditch during the war. A promise known only to him and God. She told me that if you doubted or showed hesitancy, I was to remind you that lying in a ditch in Holland in 1940, you made a vow to her, which she's still waiting for you to keep, to build a church in honor of our lady's immaculate conception. How could you know that? The priest whispers. Clode shrugs. The lady told me. Clode grows in faith rapidly. He forgives everyone. He prays constantly. He becomes peaceful, even joyful. And then he does something extraordinary. He offers his upcoming execution for the conversion of another inmate, a man who hated him and mocked his newfound faith. Clo asked for one final request, a celebration with the other prisoners to rejoice in God's mercy and what Mary has done in his soul. The warden grants it. On the morning of January 12th, 1944, Clo Newman walks calmly to the electric chair. Witnesses say he was radiant, smiling, beaming with happiness. He tells the chaplain, "I am going to heaven. I want everyone to know that he dies moments later full of hope trusting entirely in God's mercy and Mary's motherly love.

The inmate Clo prayed for the the one who hated him suddenly had a change of heart. He begged for confession and was reconciled to God. Father Olirri later said that Clo's transformation was one of the greatest signs of grace that he had ever witnessed in his priesthood. This is the story of Clo Newman and the miraculous medal that opened heaven on death row. A couple thoughts on the miraculous medal. Um question for Janelle. Have you always worn one? Cuz I I see you're wearing one today. So now I try to always be wearing a miraculous metal whether it's like on the actual necklace that I'm wearing or I have one on my scapular that I wear all the time. Um but I think I started like wearing one consistently just before we got married because somebody had given you a really big medal of the miraculous metal. That's how it happened. Yeah. Remember remember that? And then I so I started wearing that in 2009 and I think I've been wearing one ever since. And it was a beautiful one. Yeah. It was really big. And then one day, this is when we were married, we had children. I was at the lake on the dock, my parents dock, and my necklace was really long and it dangled between two planks on the dock. And I got up and the chain broke and the metal plunged to the bottom of the lake. My brother and Ken searched for it for like hours and never found it. That's okay. And that's right. That's right. Yeah. And then I had I had been looking for another big one like that and a friend of mine found one at some a Maran apparition site across the world and I got another one. Another with the miraculous medal has been present in our life besides you wearing one. I I have wear wore one until uh a month ago when you lost it. It's disappeared. I don't know. I'll get another one. And when we were building this house before we started framing the foundation was just poured. Wasn't back filled. It was Oh yeah. It wasn't back filled and it was cold. It was freezing. Super cold. We came out to this the house site here. It was December, I think. Late November. It was super cold. Not like this year. Yeah. And we had St. Benedict medals and miraculous medals all along the foundation. So the wanted our house be on the foundation of our lady looked after by her and also St. Benedict. Um wonderful grace is associated with this sacramental. So, in this Advent season, uh, question for you. Are you wearing the miraculous medal? Mhm. And I'm really curious if anybody's had little miracles with them because I know people will like put them under the beds of maybe some of their loved ones who maybe need a conversion or slip them into the pocket of somebody or right and we just think about this conversion story that we just heard. That's part of the reason why we wanted to share with you is to elevate your faith in the power of our lady's intercession regarding the sacramental. Our our faith is so rich. We have so many avenues of grace to us. Mhm. And like our lady, she wants those graces, those rays to be poured out on us, but we just need to ask for them. Regarding that, our lady to St. Catherine, have a medal struck after this model. All who wear it will receive great graces. It should be worn around the neck. Great graces will be given to those who wear it with confidence. You need your medal. Go find them. I'll go find a way. So in closing, oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.