"Kneeling before outcasts"

The Prison Angel, by Mary Jordan and Kevin Sullivan

A review by Karen Long

Three decades ago, no religious order would consider a twice-divorced 51-year-old novitiate. So Mary Brenner committed the audacious act of making private vows and moving into a Tijuana prison where she lived among its sick and reviled inmates.

Now 78, Mother Antonia still lives in an unheated cell in La Mesa, the notorious Tijuana prison.

Like Mother Teresa, Mother Antonia gravitates toward outcasts, prostitutes and criminals, corrupt guards and mentally deranged prisoners. Readers will leave this nun's company reluctantly and thank Jordan and Sullivan for making her remarkable life visible in a jaded world. (Penguin, 237 pages, $24.95)

-- KAREN LONG, RELIGION NEWS SERVICE [The Charlotte Observer, May 15, 2005]