Antonia Brenner, better known as Mother Antonia (), (December 1, 1926 – October 17, 2013) was an American

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

religious sister A religious sister (abbreviated ''Sr.'' or Sist.) in the Catholic Church is a woman who has taken public vows in a religious institute dedicated to apostolic works, as distinguished from a nun who lives a cloistered monastic life dedicated to pr ...

and activist who chose to reside and care for inmates at the notorious maximum-security La Mesa Prison in

Tijuana, Mexico Tijuana ( ,"Tijuana"
(US) and < ...

. As a result of her work, she founded a new

religious institute A religious institute is a type of institute of consecrated life in the Catholic Church whose members take religious vows and lead a life in community with fellow members. Religious institutes are one of the two types of institutes of consecrate ...

called the Eudist Servants of the 11th Hour.

Biography

Brenner was born Mary Clarke on December 1, 1926, to Joseph Clarke and Kathleen Mary Clarke. She was married and divorced twice, and had seven children, living in

Beverly Hills, California Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California. A notable and historic suburb of Greater Los Angeles, it is in a wealthy area immediately southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. B ...

. She has said that in 1969 she had a dream that she was a prisoner at

Calvary Calvary ( la, Calvariae or ) or Golgotha ( grc-gre, Γολγοθᾶ, ''Golgothâ'') was a site immediately outside Jerusalem's walls where Jesus was said to have been crucified according to the canonical Gospels. Since at least the early mediev ...

and about to be executed, when

Jesus Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religious ...

appeared to her and offered to take her place. She refused his offer, touched him on the cheek, and told him she would never leave him, no matter what happens to her. At some point in the 1970s, she chose to devote her life to the Church, in part because of this dream. The Current with

Anna Maria Tremonti Anna Maria Tremonti (born July 2, 1957) is a Canadian radio and television journalist who has been featured on a variety of radio and television programs on the CBC. She has served as a senior reporter for '' The National'', where she won two G ...

on CBC Part 3 20 November 2007 via Internet Archive. As an older, divorced woman, Clarke was banned by church rules from joining any religious order, so she went about her work on her own. She founded an order for those in her situation: the Eudist Servants of the Eleventh Hour. In 1983, Brenner received the Golden Plate Award of the

American Academy of Achievement The American Academy of Achievement, colloquially known as the Academy of Achievement, is a non-profit educational organization that recognizes some of the highest achieving individuals in diverse fields and gives them the opportunity to meet o ...

. In 2003 her religious community was formally approved by Rafael Romo Munoz,

Bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

of the Diocese of Tijuana. On September 25, 2009, she received the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award, presented at the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies at the

University of San Diego The University of San Diego (USD) is a private Roman Catholic research university in San Diego, California. Chartered in July 1949 as the independent San Diego College for Women and San Diego University (comprising the College for Men and Schoo ...

.'Mother Antonia,' from Beverly Hills to Prison Aid
/ref> In addition to her normal work involving the prisoners, she negotiated an end to a

riot A riot is a form of civil disorder commonly characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people. Riots typically involve destruction of property, public or private. The property targete ...

.ABC News
Excerpts from ''The Prison Angel'' She also persuaded the jail administrators to discontinue prisoner incarceration in substandard cells known as the ''tumbas'' (

tomb A tomb ( grc-gre, τύμβος ''tumbos'') is a :wikt:repository, repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be ...

s). The road outside the jail, known until recently as "Los Pollos" ("The Chickens"), was renamed in November 2007 to "Madre Antonia" in her honor. She is profiled in the book '' The Prison Angel'', written by

Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize () is an award for achievements in newspaper, magazine, online journalism, literature, and musical composition within the United States. It was established in 1917 by provisions in the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made h ...

-winning journalists Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan. In 2010, Estudio Frontera released a

DVD documentary A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in term ...

on Mother Antonia's life, ''La Mama: An American Nun's Life in a Mexican Prison''. Produced and written by Jody Hammond, photographed and edited by Ronn Kilby, and narrated by

Susan Sarandon Susan Abigail Sarandon (; née Tomalin; born October 4, 1946) is an American actorMcCabe, Bruce"Susan Sarandon, the 'actor'" ''Boston Globe''. April 17, 1981. Retrieved January 21, 2021. and activist. She is the recipient of various accolades, ...

, the film took five years to make. After a period of declining health, Brenner died on October 17, 2013, aged 86, at her Tijuana home.

Notes

References

* *''Faith Inside the Walls'',

CBC Radio CBC Radio is the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which (regardless of language) are outlined below ...

. Documentary about Mother Antonia, by Joan Webber in

Vancouver BC Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. The ...

. (Includes interview with Mother Antonia) *

Reader's Digest ''Reader's Digest'' is an American general-interest family magazine, published ten times a year. Formerly based in Chappaqua, New York, it is now headquartered in midtown Manhattan. The magazine was founded in 1922 by DeWitt Wallace and his wi ...

article, June 2004: ''Antonia's mission''.

External links

Mother Antonia Official Website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Brenner, Antonia 1926 births 2013 deaths People from Greater Los Angeles American humanitarians Women humanitarians Roman Catholic activists Founders of Catholic religious communities American expatriates in Mexico People from Tijuana 20th-century American Roman Catholic nuns 21st-century American Roman Catholic nuns

Biography

See also

Notes

References

External links