A former Golden Gloves boxing champion from Pennsylvania has joined the ranks of those who claim that they see saints, hear from the Lord, and have been blessed in a special fashion through the intercession of Mary.

His name is Jack "Marie" Smith, he is from the old coal-mining area of Wilkes-Barre, and the alleged phenomena that swirl around him have caused him to "drop out" from the world and minister full-time in a speaking ministry.

A boxer until 1963, Smith, 63, once fought heavyweight champion Joe Frazier at the Allentown Fairgrounds (a split decision in an AAU sanctioned fight) and rubbed elbows with the likes of Floyd Patterson.

He also had owned nightclubs, operated in real estate, functioned as a private bail bondsman, and even ran for mayor of Wilkes-Barre, according to the Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader -- back in worldly days that did not exclude brushes with the law and acquaintanceships with the Runyonesque mob-like characters who frequented northeastern Pennsylvania.

"I've been there," says Smith, who stands 6'3" and weighs 300 pounds.

And that's why what happened to him, he says, is so against his nature.

"It began with my wife seeing angels with me," he told Spirit Daily. "As a boy I was very devout, but believe me, I got away from it. I was armed for the world. Now all I do is work for Him. God has put it into my heart to trust Him. And I've put everything else aside. I don't have any visible income, no retirement, no insurance, we live day to day, but He always comes through and we have peace and harmony -- joy -- in our house."

That's a small home in an old city and to Smith -- who once had "a lot of money" -- it's all he needs. His life took an especially strong turn on October 13, 1991, while visiting an alleged (and controversial) site of apparitions.

It was there his wife saw the angels and from that point there was one thing after another -- allegedly, of course, and for your considered judgment.

Today this former boxer-businessman asserts everything from images that bleed to the odor of sanctity. "People love it when they smell the roses around me," he says, referring to "worldly" friends.

Such is John "Jack" Smith, and we have no reason to doubt his sincerity. What the newspaper confirms is that this was a rough-and-tumble guy who had been arrested for a number of times for fights -- usually helping someone else -- and never convicted.

Now this skilled fighter says things like, "Can you love the attacker? Can you forgive the attack? If the answers are yes -- you're on the right track."

His only jail time has been for the pro-life cause, including 23 days following famous protests at abortion clinics in Western New York during the early 1990s.

For Smith, it has been a life filled with grace and trials, some tragic. A young son once drowned in their pool -- Jack found him -- and while Smith was still in mourning -- according to the Times-Leader -- he rescued a woman who was drowning in a local lake (and was later given an award of heroism for it).

Tragedy struck again in the early 1990s, when a stepson was arrested for murder and eventually convicted of a third-degree charge.

It was during that agony that Jack Marie Smith decided to take time off and visited the place where apparitions were supposed to take place and his heart caught on fire.

Well off, he was planning to take a year-long vacation but has never gone back to work, and has happily exhausted his resources.

"My days were centered around the Eucharist and these hours in the Passion," he has written of his experiences. "Jesus came to me frequently, vividly, as if I was actually there. On one occasion, Our Lord Jesus was before me and I was there in the crowd in the narrow street."

Today he lives on donations from speaking engagements and mission work as he spreads word of His passion for God, Jesus, and the Blessed Mother.

"The important thing is to stay little," says this hulking man. "The moment I think I'm something myself, I'm in trouble. Just as we have nothing to do with our existence, so we cannot give life to anything we do on this earth by ourselves."

His mystical secret? "I go to Jesus through the Sorrowful and Immaculate Heart of Mother and thereby enter deeper into the Heart of Jesus than ever possible on my own."

The Rosary is Jack's constant companion, even while sleeping, and Smith emphasizes the urgency of praying 15 decades daily.

"God has put it into my heart to trust Him," says Jack, who says he saw an image of Jesus turn purple and pulsate while he heard the words, "Trust Me, trust Me, just trust Me. Tell them to trust Me and I will lead them through everything."

That's the message he got when his antenna went up and that's his message to us as events in the world, in nature, and in our own lives quicken. "We're coming into that time," he says of what is unfolding around us. "I'm not thinking I'm hearing Him, I'm hearing Him," emphasizes the former athlete in describing what his locutions are like.

He says he hears from Jesus, Mary, and saints like Padre Pio, who has "visited" his home. During the Rosary, says Jack, he experiences "bone-deep" suffering for the rejection of Mary and the Rosary by Protestants and others. "Where you honor My mother, you honor Me twice," he believes the Lord told him in reference to this.

He says he has been shown Heaven, hell, and purgatory. He also has seen Mary as Our Lady of LaSalette, Guadalupe, Fatima, Akita, the Immaculate Conception, and Mother of the Most Precious Blood.

A man once took a photo of him and when it was developed Smith was a silhouette and where his heart was there appeared a light that looked like a heart and on the upper left quadrant of his face was gold dust and a form that resembled the Virgin of Akita -- who likewise warned about the times we are in. "Essentially everything flows from Fatima," he believes. 

We present it for your consideration. His then-bishop issued a letter encouraging his ministry and among the places he has visited was New Orleans, which he warned was facing disaster. Before September 11, Smith says he had a vision of New York, but could not see the Twin Towers, just the Empire State Building. There was smoke. He now sees the world as "sleeping at the wheel" -- especially as regards our political leaders.

"Its obvious to those who have eyes to see," he says. "The conditions are set for the world to turn on the United States."

Smith claims that Jesus has appeared twice to say that "there is little time." He doesn't envision the 2006 hurricane season like last year, but events will unfold, he warns.

It is an "era of wars." The economy "will erode." China will grow all the more powerful. He says he has been shown visions of China trying to invade -- farfetched as that may now seem. "I've had so many visions of that," says the former boxer-businessman-politician. "I had so many visions it would weaken me."

But the main message is hope. Jack Marie Smith exudes joy. Sometimes it sounds like he can't contain himself. With fifteen decades a day of the Rosary, he stresses, we are protected. He has that image that has wept blood as a reminder that the supernatural is all around us and sees Jesus like a famous photo taken at the Grotto of the Milk in Bethany [left].

He has also battled the evil one -- who proves to be more of a match even than Joe Frazier, the famous fighter who was heavyweight champion.

A few months after a wonderful encounter with the Holy Ghost, writes Jack, Jesus permitted the evil one to assault him "in body and spirit."

"It was in the summer about four in the morning when this assault started. Joanne and I were asleep in our bedroom with the windows open.

"I heard a voice call me and looked toward the window. There outside the window was the shadowy silhouette of a good friend of mine, a man who I trusted and was my confidant. It was his voice and he was speaking to me. 'I need to talk to you,' the voice said. I responded, called him by name, and said, 'Come on in.'

"A split second later he was in my room, at the foot of my bed looking at me. I could not see any features, only his silhouette. No words were spoken, but a sense of uneasiness swept through my body, and I sat up, looked at him, and hollered, 'You're not my buddy!' With that, he was all over me. I saw him actually come over me. He pinned my body on the bed. I could not move. I could not breathe. With a great force he jammed my jaw closed and twisted it to the left -- turning and pinning my head. I was being suffocated.

"At the same time, a weight increasingly heavier was over my whole body. So much so that I thought that in a few moments I would splinter into a million pieces. I knew then who was with me and I knew my only resource. I could not open my mouth to call out the name of Jesus. I was given the grace to be able to hum the name Jesus, so I hummed 'Jesus' as loud as I could.

"The power of His Name cannot be disguised or diluted. Heaven and earth will all pass away and His Name will remain. With that, the enemy was vanquished and my first of many encounters like this had passed. I knew then that I could not delay. God had permitted me to see how easily the enemy could defeat me if I stayed by myself. He showed me how strong I could be by just calling His Name. I really did try to change my life. My lifestyle was so much against change. Money, popularity, power, and all the trappings that go with these things called me away from Jesus."

During one vision, he saw the earth covered with blood and heard it "moaning."

Again, we submit it only for your consideration.

Adds Jack of his own take on events, "Jesus Christ is coming. He has promised that not even the gates of hell will prevail against His Church, and now is the time. In this spirit of preparation, The Blessed Mother has come again and again to warn us, to teach us, and to guide us. Who is listening? I tell you simply and honestly, because I am a simple person, now is the time. I speak to you from my heart and for the sake of the salvation of souls."

He quotes Mary as saying in October of 1994, "I came to Fatima and asked for reparation. Again I come and I seek willing souls to make reparation. Please, dear children, you must stop offending God. I have warned you of wars, of natural disasters, famine, droughts, floods, epidemics and suffering of every kind and you fail to understand that God wants you to amend your ways."

05/25/06

[Smith can be reached by writing him at 127 Hanover Street, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania 18702 As always, we urge prayer and fasting before laying on of hands or appearances by any seer]

[resources: The Day Will Come]