Little known housewife who 'suffered stigmata and slipped into comas where she walked with Jesus' is put on path to becoming California's first saint by Vatican
150
View
comments
Servant of God: Cora Evans was put on the route to becoming a saint by The Vatican in March 2012 and now a team led by family friends is helping to lead the investigation
An unheralded woman who passed away 56-years ago - but experienced feverish visions of Jesus and bore the Stigmata - has been put on the journey to becoming California's first Catholic saint.
Cora Evans lived a quiet life in Boulder Creek in the Santa Cruz mountains but wrote often about her visitations with Jesus, who she dubbed 'The Master' which occurred when she fell into a 'coma-like state'.
Her 83-year-old daughter recalls her mother having the stigmata, which are marks which resemble the wounds of Jesus Christ on the cross, and now two family friends of Evans' extended family are working with the Vatican to help her be canonized.
The Catholic Church has declared Evans a 'Servant of God' which is the first step of four on the path to becoming a fully fledged saint.
For sainthood to be bestowed, two miracles need to be identified and attributed to Evans' intercession after her death in 1957, but that process could take years or even decades.
That is because the miracles may not yet have taken place, but cousins Michael McDevitt and Michael Huston are working closely with the Vatican to ensure the largely obscure Evans does obtain sainthood.
Writings: Humble Cora Evans lived most of her life in the Santa Cruz mountains of California and wrote down all her visions of Jesus
Michael Huston, (left), Father Gary Thomas, (center) and Michael McDevitt, (right), with a photograph of Cora Evans, are photographed inside of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Saratoga, California
'There are theologians reading her writings. We are in the process of gathering testimony’s from people who were eyewitnesses,' said Michael McDevitt, who is custodian of Cora Evans’ writings.
'What it means for our church community is that there is somebody right here in California who lived a life of virtue and sanctity that may one day become a saint.'
How the Catholic Church Canonizes People: From Servant of God to Saint in Four Very Long Steps
The process by which someone becomes a saint is called canonization.
The pope does not make someone a saint - the moniker of sainthood only recognizes what God has already done on Earth.
The process of becoming a Catholic saint is lengthy and can take decades or centuries to finish.
The first step is for a local bishop to read writings of the intended saint and if they feel it to be sufficiently virtuous they are sent to the Vatican and the individual interned as a Servant of God.
The second is for the Congregation for the Cause of Saints to begin an investigation into the possible saints life.
Thirdly, if the panel agrees the Pope will confer the status venerable on the person.
Fourthly is the status known as beatification, which occurs when a posthumous miracle is proven.
Finally, for sainthood to be recognized a second posthumous miracle must be unearthed.
At the center of this story is Cora Evans, who was educated only to middle school standard and experienced powerful visions of Jesus, other saints, and claimed to have visited heaven and purgatory.
Raised a Mormon in Utah, Evans became disillusioned with her faith and joined the Catholic church in her twenties.
Her visions began at the age of three and she claimed to have had seen Jesus who gave her the mission to promote the 'Mystical Humanity of Christ'.
This was based around the idea that Christ is always within us and that we should behave towards one another in the manner that Jesus would have.
Her first mystical experience was an apparition of the Virgin Mary and as well as experiencing the painful stigmata she would often face down her skeptics.
'I would hear people say when they came to the house, 'Who is this woman? She must be a kook. Nobody sees these kinds of things,' her daughter Dorothy Evans said to Mercury News.
'But isn't that human nature? We want to see it and touch it ourselves in order to believe it.'
It was in 1992 that her spiritual adviser, Reverend Frank Parrish handed her writings to his nephew, McDevitt and the journey to possible sainthood began.
'Over the years, I would read Cora's writings and wonder: Why is Mike McDevitt reading this? The pope should be reading this,' said McDevitt, 72, of Half Moon Bay.
The Vatican declared Evans a "Servant of God" in 2012 and is now investigating her claim to sainthood
Her writings expanded on the life of Jesus in the Holy Land during his ministry and others had eleven stories from Jesus' childhood, hitherto untold.
It was two years ago that McDevitt and Huston joined the Rev. Gary Thomas, the pastor at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Saratoga on a journey to The Vatican.
Church officials wanted to know more about Evans and made clear that they were interested in having more saints from the United States.
RELATED ARTICLES
Images from a sci-fi film? No, the 'lost world' of Socotra,... 
Doctor performs emergency tracheotomy with a STEAK KNIFE and...
Share this article
ShareIn March 2012, the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints announced that they were putting Evans on the list of potential saints, marking her with the title of Servant of God.
This means that theologians from the Catholic Church will now examine her life and if they find that she was virtuous they will promote her to the next wrung on the ladder, which is 'Venerable'.
The final two steps to sainthood are far more difficult. The Vatican requires two miracles, usually mysterious medical cures of terminal patients which come from direct prayers to Cora Evans.
Michael Huston, (right), Father Gary Thomas, (center) and Michael McDevitt, (left), are photographed inside of the Sacred Heart Catholic Church as they continue their quest to canonize Cora Evans
'But something is only very rarely accepted as a miracle,' said expert Bill Briggs, author of 'The Third Miracle.'
'The church is all about scientific proof. The process is incredibly intensive, forensic and takes a very long time.'
The process is also very expensive, but McDevitt and Huston have gathered together $700,000 in donations and are holding retreats to spread the word on Evans.
While they claim there is already evidence that miracles have been carried out in her name, the Vatican requires cast-iron proof.
However, the more she is known, the better the chance that prayers to her will cause a miracle to occur, which can be investigated.
Currently, there are only twelve Catholic saints from the U.S. but none are from California.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7pa3IpbCmmZmhe6S7ja6iaKaVrMBwrdGtoJyklWJ%2FdX%2BRcW1rZ3ikwrSx1qKdnmVzpL%2BieaSvmKerXajCp7LEq5ydZaOptqi5wK2YZqiRqbVuj8CloJ%2BnoqO2or%2BMrJiipqRio6LAyJyYp2aYqbqt