Susanna Colantonio

Susanna Maria Antonietta Colantonio was born in Chicago, IL, on 5 July 1891, the daughter of Michele Colantonio (1857 – d. Castel SanVincenzo, prov. Isernia, 1949), and Fiorangela "Florence" nee Balzano (b. 1872, Castellone al Volturno, Molise, Isernia, Italy). Colantonio and Balzano are both Abbruzzese names: there are, for example, numbers of people under the name 'Michele Colantonio' born in and around Teramo in the 1850s and 1860s. Michele himself appears to have been born in San Vincenzo, Province of Camporeggio, Italy, c. 1857, and migrated to the USA in 1887. Fiorangela's father, Alessio, was born in 1846 in Castel di Sangro, prov. L'Aquila, while her mother, Teresa Antonia Maria nee D'Amico was born in 1849 in Castellone, prov. Campobasso. He married Fiorangela Balzano in 1890, so connecting to a large family which were involved in the Italian Presbyterian Church founded by Michele Nardi and pastored by Filippo Grilli. In 1895, Fiorangela's sister Rosina would marry Luigi Francescon (q.v.).

From what appears to be her sister's birth certificate (Maria G. Colantonio, of Cook County, Illinois), it appears the family were living at 71 East Indiana St, there were 5 children in the family: her mother was 35 at the time of her birth.  The family then re-emigrated to Italy, returning again when Susanna was 15 (c. 1906).   Susanna remembers growing in a period of 'great spiritual conflict' between her parents, as her tough-minded father had converted to Presbyterianism (in Waldensian pastor, Filippo Grill's church, where there were others who came from the same town). From this 'apostolic' church, founded by Nardi and pastored by Grill, Michele Colantonio returned to his home area around Castellone al Volturno, evangelising. Susanna noted that 'two whole towns' were converted, though this is probably an exaggeration. In the biography of Michele Nardi, it is noted:

While in Naples, they received a letter from some Christians in the mountains who, while in America, had found Christ. They invited Mr. Nardi to come and see them, but as Rev. Mr. Gai [Teofilo Gay] was going that way on some business in the interest of the Waldensians, Mr. Nardi asked him to visit them, which he did. He found a number of people there who wore the name Christian on their hats and also on their houses so that the priests would not bother them. They had evangelized the whole village, and now there is a nice church and school in that village under the Waldensian Society. (Nardi 1916, p. 66)

Susanna notes that the Catholic church  sent revivalists into the town to counter the influence, at the height of which they gathered the bibles which had been distributed and burned them in the main piazza. After their return to the USA, Susanna found her old church rather more liberal and relaxed (she says 'backslidden and worldly') than she had been used to in the mountains of Italy. She began attending a Sunday school at William Durham's North Avenue Mission, where in 1906 she had a powerful experience of the Spirit.  This experience, even in her Presbyterian family, resulted in 'persecution': 'I was forbidden to go to church. I was told I was being hypnotized. The people were poor and had brought kitchen chairs that were broken to the mission. These were repaired by wires, etc, and I was told that there was power in those wires and that was why people fell over and went into ecstasy." (Colantonio, nd, p. 2)

She had had, however, a powerful personal experience (though not yet tongues), in which Jesus appeared to her many times. 'I continued to tarry for the baptism of the holy spirit and oh, how God did bless me.' (Colantonio, nd, p. 3)  At this point, her father told her that they were going to be returning to Italy once again. When they were met by their relatives and friends, she began to preach to them from Acts 2 about 'the great Later Day Outpouring of the Holy Spirit'.  Her father snatched the Bible out of her hand and beat her face with it, saying  'Did I not tell you to leave that behind you!' Kneeling down, she asked God to forgive her and to forgive her beloved father, because he did not understand. 'God gave me a real revival right there and then. All of the family accepted my testimony. There were 10 children in the family.' As a result, they began to hold services in the upper room of their farm house, and Susanna baptised numbers of people in the farm's brook. It was then that she was baptised in the spirit with the evidence of tongues. She thus would later claim that she was the 'first person in Italy at this close in age of Grace to receive this wonderful endowment of power.' (Colantonio, nd, p. 3)

She was there 'for four years' during which she cared to the sheep on the family farm, and sustained herself through Bible reading and praise.  'I could make a book of all the miracles Jesus done in our midst to show his wonderful power', she noted, describing miraculous providence for food and for healing, two necessary elements in a poor mountain village of a long way medical care. This would indicate that she had been in Italy from c. 1908, or so.  The movement between Italy and the United States, however, left her without the ability to speak English. Moreover, when she applied to return, she was rejected on the basis of medical inadequacy (perhaps tuberculosis, which was a grounds for rejection, and extremely common in the rural mezzogiorno). When she came to the interview, however, she felt that God gave her the ability to speak English fluently, and so to receive the appropriate approval. Her mother and one of her sisters died in 1917 of cholera, at Castellone al Volturno. 

On her return to the USA, she led a former Franciscan monk to Christ. They would marry on 19 Aug 1914 at St Joseph,​ Berrien,​ Michigan.  John Dean Lewen/ Lewan (b. Lewandowski, Chicago, 18 Feb 1895-d. Los Angeles, 10 June 1951) noted to the Pentecostal Evangel in 1927 that he was converted and baptised in the Spirit in 1914, shortly after he left the Franciscan Monastery at St Louis, MO. In 1919  he took part in the formation of the National and International Pentecostal Missionary Union. After conversion, he became a printer/ manager in Chicago. In 1927, he is listed as an AGUSA minister with the Full Gospel Church, at 500 Cypress Ave, Burbank California. From 1933-34 he pastored churches in Chicago and Detroit, and then was pastor of Englewood Full Gospel Church, CA. From the 1930s, they lived in Echo Park, Los Angeles, and would itinerate in the USA and Canada, seeing "thousands" respond to appeals for conversion.  In 1936, when preaching in Philadelphia, they were advertised as 'Evangelist and Mrs. J. D. Lewen.' (Pentecostal Evangel 8.2.1936, p. 13) John wrote a number of works, including Early Christian Martyrs and From the monastery to the Bible, and tracts such as The story of my life, and What joy to know that your sins are all forgiven. Their children included Roy Elnathan (Nathan) (b. 3 May 1915), Florence Esther (29 May 1916, Chicago- 30 May 1966), and Andrew Fraser Lewen. Florence Esther was married twice: first to Edward Dvorak,  and then to Edward Arhart Weir (1911-1977), with whom she lived in Chicago. This was also Weir's second marriage - he was previously married to Priscilla Pacini, 1925-1998, whose mother was Adele Colantonio) 

After a long life of pioneering pentecostal evangelism, Susanna died 6 March 1980, in Baldwin Park, Los Angeles, California (the Californian Death Index lists this as San Bernardino). She was one of thousands of Italian migrant returnees ('americani') who, having been converted to evangelical Protestantism or pentecostalism in the USA, returned and had a powerful impact on their regions of origin in Italy. Her return to the USA in turn reflected the spread of Italian pentecostalism across the country, into Canada and (through her family networks) into Latin America. A church founder, evangelist and preacher, she also 'broke out of the mould' followed by her mother and aunt, reflecting some of the influence of the 'woman preacher' model which in some part defined early 20th century American revivalism. 

Mark Hutchinson

Sources:

Asbury Park Press (New Jersey) 19 October 1935, p. 16.

California Births and Deaths, https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VGB8-4NN

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) File No. 88-HQ-12, Charles Arthur Demers (and aliases) - White Slave Traffic Act (Mann Act), 1934-1948, 

Flower Pentecostal Heritage Centre Archives, Springfield MO: Ministers Files, Pentecostal Evangel, Maranatha and other Pentecostal journals; 

Lewen, S. M., The Story of My Life, Chicago: For the Author, nd [Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center Archives].