The Prison Angel: Mother Antonia's Journey from Beverly Hills to a Life of Service in a Mexican Jail
Softcover, 229 pp.
At 77, Mother Antonia lives among drug traffickers and other criminals in a jail cell in La Mesa prison in Tijuana, Mexico, dispensing spiritual and material care to prisoners and their families. Jordan and Sullivan, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporters with the Washington Post, spent three years researching the long, astonishing journey of a woman who, at the age of 50, left the comforts of suburban L.A. to begin a charity mission in Mexico. Twice divorced and with seven adult children, the former Mary Clarke brought a full lifetime of perspective to her work, attracting the attention of Mother Teresa and Pope John Paul II, who blessed her mission. Despite her own poor health, Mother Antonia visits lepers, buries the dead who are unidentified, offers spiritual counseling to brutal prison guards, and squelches a riot when prisoners are overcome by their horrific living conditions. This is an inspiring story of one woman's compassion and her own journey of spiritual growth.
