Mother Antonia

Mother Antonia Brenner, better known as Mother Antonia (; December 1, 1926 – October 17, 2013) was an American religious sister and activist who chose to reside at the notorious maximum-security La Mesa Prison in Tijuana, Mexico and to care for the prison's inmates..

As an older, divorced woman, Clarke wasn't accepted as a candidate by a religious order or congregation, so she founded an institute for those in her situation: the Eudist Servants of the Eleventh Hour. In 2003 her religious community was formally approved by Rafael Romo Munoz, Bishop of the Diocese of Tijuana. On September 25, 2009, she received the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award, presented at the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies at the University of San Diego.

In addition to her work involving the detainees, she negotiated an end to a prison riot. She also persuaded the jail administrators to discontinue prisoner incarceration in substandard cells known as the tumbas ("tombs").

Legacy The road outside the jail, known until recently as Los Pollos ("The Chickens"), was renamed in November 2007 to Madre Antonia in her honor.

In 2025, members of the Eudist Servants began a campaign for Mother Brenner to be canonized as a saint.