Mother Angelica

Mother Mary Angelica of the Annunciation PCPA (born Rita Antoinette Rizzo; April 20, 1923 – March 27, 2016), commonly referred to as Mother Angelica, was an American Roman Catholic nun of the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration. She was known for founding the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), an international Catholic cable television network, and for hosting the program Mother Angelica Live. She also established WEWN, a radio network used by members of the Catholic Church to disseminate their religious teachings.

In 1981, Angelica began broadcasting religious programming from a converted garage in Birmingham, Alabama. Over the following two decades, she expanded the operation into a global media network that included television, radio, internet platforms, and print publications. She continued to host shows on EWTN until 2001, when she had a stroke. She remained in the cloistered monastery in Hanceville, Alabama, until her death in 2016.