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Jun 1, 2006

"I think there comes a time when it's not enough for us just to help other people. There's something inside us that yearns to give ourselves up for the sake of other people. Sacrifice is the language of love." --Mother Antonia

Beloved 'Hijos' of Mother Antonia

Mary Clarke grew up in glamour-infused Beverly Hills, was married twice, and raised seven children in relative domestic bliss. Then, at the age of fifty, she experienced a calling to serve humanity so strong that it led her to literally sew her own habit and move to one of the most infamous penitentiaries in Mexico in order to help the inmates there. For nearly fifteen years, she had little support for her work at the prison. Now eighty years old, Mother Antonia, as she is known, is considered by many to be a living saint, someone who has walked directly into the middle of prison riots and gunfire to save lives. By all accounts, there isn't anything she wouldn’t do for her "beloved hijos" (sons), and she has given everything to them, unconditionally, for nearly thirty years. To this day, she lives in a small cell, unequipped with either heat or hot water, alongside drug addicts, murderers, and the poor.