Mother
Antonia Brenner, who left a comfortable life in Beverly Hills in 1978 to
minister to inmates in a notorious Mexican prison, eventually becoming a nun
and spending more than 30 years living in a cell to be closer to those she
served, died of heart failure on Thursday in Tijuana, Mexico. She was 86. Her joyous transition has been in recent days
reported by the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, CNN and
many others taking note of her
remarkable life. She is the founder of the Eudist Servants of the Eleventh Hour, a community of about 50 sisters serving prisoners and the poor.
Born
Mary Clarke, she was a twice-divorced mother of eight children when she
initially began doing volunteer work for the poor in Mexico in the 1960s. In
1978 she had been led to La Mesa state penitentiary, which housed convicted
murderers, gang leaders, rapists and other serious felons. Mother Antonia began
providing for inmates’ basic needs, giving them aspirin, blankets, toiletries
and prescription eyeglasses. She sang in worship services. She received a
prison contract to sell soda to prisoners and used the proceeds to bail out low-level
offenders. If a prisoner died, of illness or in a gang fight, she prepared him
for burial.
Inmates
tell the story of how Mother Antonia once walked into the middle of a prison
riot while bullets flew and tear gas filled the air. When the inmates saw her,
fearless in her habit, the fighting stopped. She never seemed to stop smiling.
Mother,
early on in her ministry moved into the women’s section of the prison in a cell
that was about 10 feet by 10 feet with only cold running water for showers. She
could come and go freely, but she devoted herself to the lives inside. Her
mission constantly expanded, from the inmates and guards to their
families. “It’s different to live among
people than it is to visit them,” she told The Washington Post in 2002. “I have
to be here with them in the middle of the night in case someone is stabbed, in
case someone has an appendix [attack], in case someone dies.”
Mary
Clarke was born on Dec. 1, 1926, in Los Angeles and grew up in Beverly Hills,
Calif., the second of three children. Her mother, Kathleen, died while pregnant
with her fourth child. Her father, Joseph, was a successful sales executive in
the office supply industry, and the family had a second home overlooking the
ocean. She married at 18, but it did not last long. A second marriage, to Carl
Brenner, lasted 25 years, but it also ended in divorce.
Mother
Antonia’s work drew praise around the world, including from President Vicente
Fox of Mexico and President Ronald Reagan. In 1991, she met Mother Teresa when
she visited Tijuana. She went to her
eternal reward this past Thursday, funeral Mass and burial arrangements are
pending.
One
of her last public appearances was a few months ago speaking at our annual
Servants of the Father of Mercy retreat at the Benedictine Prince of Peace
Abbey in Oceanside, CA. Mother, although
told to go to ER immediately by her physician, instead she came to the retreat
first, giving her message, consolation, wisdom and encouragement and then
tended to herself second. That is classic
Mother Antonia, putting others first - always.
She told the participants to give all to God - not just part, expect
nothing in return and most of all, to live charity serving the poor, homeless,
broken and prisoner. May you be blessed
by these photos, some of the last pictures of her life here on earth.
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