In the news last month: the move to canonize a California woman, mother, and mystic, Cora Evans, has been sealed with wax by the U.S. bishops and sent to Rome for formal consideration.

All this was at the behest of the Diocese of Monterey, California, which opened the process of canonization in 2010.

As Our Sunday Visitor reported, “The diocese held a closing session of the cause’s diocesan phase January 22 following Mass at the San Carlos Cathedral celebrated by Bishop Daniel E. Garcia of Monterey. During that session, the cause’s documentation was ceremoniously sealed with wax ahead of its transfer to the Vatican. The seal will be broken by Vatican officials when the cause’s Roman phase officially begins.”

That will be this spring.

Evans was a mystic through and through, originally hailing from Utah and among other revelations, receiving alleged details on the Life of Jesus.

Fascinating is the account of how, according to these visions, Jesus gave Mary a glimpse of her future apparitions — and their purpose — just before His death on the Cross.

The entry is in Evans’ journals and is called “The Last Hour,” describing what she quotes the Lord as calling “important future events.”

Even with one who is up for canonization, mystical interpretations of Jesus’ life should be taken just as that: an interpretation, capturing the feeling, essence, and holiness, perhaps, but not necessarily details that can always be taken literally. Discrepancies have been indicated in the revelations of various mystics who have “seen” the birth, life, and death of Our Lord.

But the book, Refugee from Heaven, which we have carried for years, is undeniably vivid, often intense, and we take particular note here of the surprisingly accurate portrayals by Evans — who died in 1957 — of what was to become a great outbreak in the Blessed Mother’s appearances in the last part of the twentieth century unto our own time.

“’There will be many great ages of faith as well as ages of great coldness to Me as I repose on the altars of time,” the Lord supposedly told Mary in the weeks preceding His Crucifixion. “In the generations of little faith you may participate as an active mother of the people by your personal appearance in apparitions, through which you may warn them of their neglect of Me in the tabernacle.’

“One after another they unfolded before her eyes, as if time were but a fleeting moment,” Evans had written. Were these Mary’s apparitions? And would they be followed by one of Jesus Himself?

“Then like a huge scroll coming to an end, Mother Mary gasped for breath as she watched the greatest apparition of all. Its magnitude and beauty were beyond human understanding and wisdom. The whole world seemed to be swallowed in the light of a golden vapor, which in no way bore any resemblance to the glow of the earthly sun. It resembled in its mystery of light a huge monstrance tipped over the earth to such a degree that the Host could be seen by everyone in the world.”

This calls to mind other reputed revelations, especially those given to Saint Faustina of Poland and the 1990 prophetic utterance. (“I will come not as a man of flesh, but like My mother, who already nurses Me and holds Me in her arms, as a light and power. I will manifest Myself in a series of supernatural events similar to the apparitions but much more powerful.”) [See the current “special report” for current alleged prophecies.]

Intriguingly, the mystic/housewife added, “The center of the imaginary monstrance appeared to be above the nations of China and India. Thin vapors, like bead-like fire, rained upon the earth from the center of the golden light.

“Millions of people saw that apparition, yet none were harmed or frightened.”

That apparition — which obviously has not yet come to pass — would represent, she claimed, a “glorious age” of faith and peace, one that would last “several hundred years.” This aligns with later revelations of an era of peace.

The Golden Age also would see its end, however, as “satanic powers of hell” would possess people and “through them cause diabolical miracles to appear as God-given,” she said she was shown. “Wars and terrible persecutions will take place all over the world,” and priests would be hunted down until the very last one. “During the last hour, the atheistic soldiers will delight in their search for the one last priest,” Evans prophesied, quoting Jesus. “Through the latest scientific inventions, the complete world of people will know the minute details in regard to this search. When his death is announced, a worldwide celebration, long planned, will supposedly begin with such hilarity and joy that history, even if it had the time, could not boast its equal.”

At the last hour, said Cora — in writings that were reviewed by the Church in California — the last priest would be found celebrating Mass in a cave with a few faithful.

Are we to take this literally or metaphorically?

“The Master stopped speaking; sorrow had overcome Him,” she wrote. Our Lord instead sat quietly beside His mother, who whispered, ‘Blessed are the worshippers in any age of time who are not afraid to die for You.’

“Mother Mary bowed before Jesus and kissed His Feet, whispering her willing consent to appear in future apparitions according to His Will for the good of the human race,” claimed Evans, who added that He then showed Mary a “pearl that had fallen from John’s lips.”

Evans, a stigmatic, wrote down what she said were the details of Jesus’ life after ecstasies that in some cases lasted hours.

[resources: Refugee From Heaven]