Mother of seven now a nun who lives, ministers in Mexico prison

Published: 2004-11-11

FORT WORTH, Texas (CNS) -- It's easy to understand how Sister Antonia Brenner could adapt so effortlessly to the noise, chaos and fighting she encounters daily inside the walls of La Mesa Penitentiary in Tijuana, Mexico. The 77-year-old nun and prison minister is the mother of seven children. Nurturing young souls to adulthood "prepared me for anything," said the petite, spunky woman who is an example of a growing number of late vocations in the church. A few years ago, Sister Antonia founded the Servants of the 11th Hour -- an order of "second career" nuns. The former Beverly Hills, Calif., resident took vows as a missionary sister at age 50, after a divorce ended a long marriage and her children were grown. For the past 27 years, she has lived among the more than 2,500 male and female inmates incarcerated at La Mesa Penitentiary. "I've been in prison all these years, and I haven't met anyone who wasn't worth the little bit I have to give them," she said during a convention on late vocations held earlier this year in Fort Worth and sponsored by Region 10 of Serra International. The region includes Texas and Oklahoma.

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