Light over the Scaffold and Cell 18: The Redemption of Jacques Fesch — A Catholic Moral Narrative
2026 Victor R. Claveau, MJ Few modern Catholic testimonies illustrate the transformative power of divine grace more vividly than the prison writings collected in Light over the Scaffold: Prison Letters of Jacques Fesch and Cell 18: Unedited Letters of Jacques Fesch, edited and preserved by Augustin-Michel Lemonnier. These letters do not present the story of […]
The Conversion of Constantine.
Asa H. Craig, (Asa Hollister), 1847-1934 Up to the time of Constantine the Great the life of the Christian had been one of deepest persecution. During these three hundred years the strength of Christianity had proved its divine origin. No creed of man, or power of human strength, could have withstood the constant martyrdom that […]
The True Account of Prisoner Claude Newman (1944)
Two weeks before his scheduled execution by electrocution, convicted murderer and death-row inmate Claude Newman converted to the Catholic faith after receiving a Miraculous Medal from a fellow prisoner. In 1942, Claude Newman, a 19-year-old black man, large in stature and mentally challenged, worked as a sharecropper on Ceres Plantation in Bovina, Mississippi. Sid Cook, […]
Eugenio Zolli’s Path to Rome
Stephen Sparrow September 5, 2005 It’s little wonder that biographer Judith Cabaud considers Eugenio Zolli one of the most remarkable men of the twentieth century. Born in 1881 in Ukraine, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Zolli’s baby boy was given the first name Israel. Sixty years later he was chief Rabbi of Rome. […]
Instructions for Converts, and Enquirers
F. M. De Zuleta, SJ. True. principle of the Catholic Faith. — The chief Truths to be believed. — The Sign of the ross. — The Unity and Trinity of God. — The importance of the Knowledge of God. — The incarnation and Death of our Savior. — Errors of Arius, Nestorius, and Eutyches. — Importance of Meditation on […]
Dutch Schultz
By Victor R. Claveau, MJ “Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with me in paradise.” St. Luke, 23:43. Arthur Simon Flegenheimer was born on August 6, 1902 in the Bronx. His parents were both German Jews. His mother, Emma, had tried to raise little Arthur in the orthodox faith. Her efforts […]
Sir Francis Verney, Pirate
Sir Francis Verney (1584 – 1615) was an English adventurer, soldier of fortune, and pirate. A nobleman by birth, he left England after the House of Commons sided with his stepmother in a legal dispute over his inheritance and became a mercenary in Morocco and later a Barbary corsair. Verney was among the most successful […]
Clayton Fountain; The Murderer Who Became a Monk
Clayton Anthony Fountain (September 12, 1955 – July 12, 2004) was an American federal prisoner, member of the Aryan Brotherhood, and convicted murderer. Clayton was born on September 12, 1955, at the U.S. Army Hospital in Fort Benning, Georgia. Clayton was the oldest of six children, having one brother and four sisters, and was named after his father, […]
Servant of God, Jacques Fesch
Guillotined at the age of 27. Servant of God Jacques Fesch (April 6, 1930, Saint-Germain-en-Laye – October 1, 1957, La Santé Prison, Paris) Jacques Fesch was executed for murder in 1957. Now the Catholic Church is considering his beatification. As day dawned over Paris, a slim, dark-haired young man stepped through a doorway into the […]
William Preston Longley, (1851–1878).
William Preston (Bill) Longley, outlaw, son of Campbell and Sarah Longley, was born in Austin County, Texas, on October 6, 1851. By April 1853 his family had moved to Evergreen, in what was then Washington County, where Longley went to school and worked on the family farm. Tales of Longley’s criminal career are a mixture […]