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American Catholic History

Cora Evans: Mystic, Visionary, Convert from Mormonism

American Catholic History

Noelle & Tom Crowe

History, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Education

5724 Ratings

🗓️ 10 July 2025

⏱️ 19 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Cora Evans grew up a good Mormon, but had a crisis of faith during her wedding at the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City. She and her husband left the Mormon faith, and eventually became Catholic. This led to hardships as they were shunned for their apostasy. They had to flee Utah for California where they lived the rest of their lives. Cora's conversion came about in part because she had been having visions of the Blessed Mother since she was very young, but it wasn't until she spoke with a Catholic priest when she was 30 that she realized who this "beautiful lady" who visited her was. Her mystical experience grew in intensity, and eventually included many visits by Jesus himself, whom she alwasy called "The Master." Jesus gave her the mission of spreading devotion to the "Mystical Humanity of Christ," and he charged her to write and document her experiences. She had never written much, and wasn't highly educated, but she was obedient and she wrote about what Christ revealed to her. Her experiences came to the attention of the Church in Los Angeles, and the archbishop had Jesuits and other priests visit her to test the authenticity of her visions. Her responses and understanding convinced the experts and the archbishop that her visions were genuine, but that they were private revelations, not to be publicized at least during her lifetime. Eventually her writings filled boxes and boxes worth of manuscripts about her experiences. Some have been published, including one published under the title Refugee from Heaven. Those who carry on her work still offer conferences and retreats to help people live a life according to the Mystical Humanity of Christ.  In 2010 her cause for canonization was officially opened, giving her the title of Servant of God.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello and welcome to American Catholic History.

0:09.2

If you like our podcast, be sure to follow us, give us a five-star rating and a great review

0:15.2

wherever you get your podcasts.

0:17.6

And please become a supporter at Americancathichistory.org slash support.

0:22.8

I'm Newell Heister Crow.

0:24.5

And I'm Tom Crow.

0:25.8

Today we're talking about Cora Evans, who was a wife, homemaker, and mother.

0:32.8

But nowadays we call her servant of God because of her profound love for God and the deep spiritual gifts she enjoyed throughout her life.

0:43.1

Yes, Cora's story is one of the more remarkable ones we'll tell, but it's remarkable because of how simple it is while also being so profound.

0:54.0

Well, those go together more often than people might think.

0:57.0

Yeah, they do.

0:58.0

All right, well, let's just dive right into it. Let's tell her story.

1:02.0

Sure. So she was born Cora Jorgason in July 1904 in Utah.

1:08.0

She was baptized and raised a Mormon. But from an early age, she was different.

1:14.1

As early as three years old, she began having mystical experiences, but she didn't realize

1:19.1

they were mystical experiences until much later in life.

1:22.7

And this is one of the first remarkable things about her story. Later in life, once she had had intimate experiences

1:29.8

of the Blessed Mother and the Saints, she was able to look back on these early experiences

1:34.4

and realize that they were visions of Mary in particular. It's just amazing to consider.

1:39.8

When she was 19 years old, she married McClellan Evans, and their wedding really was the turning

1:45.2

point in her life. The wedding ceremony was conducted in the monumental Mormon temple in Salt

1:50.6

Lake City with all of the elements of a Mormon wedding ceremony. But the ceremony itself had an

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