Mother Angelica: The Remarkable Story of a Nun, Her Nerve, and a Network of Miracles

In 1981, a simple nun, using merely her entrepreneurial instincts and $200, launched what would become the world’s largest religious media empire in the garage of a Birmingham, Alabama, monastery. Under her guidance, the Eternal Word Television Network grew at a staggering pace, both in viewership and in influence, to where it now reaches over a hundred million viewers in hundreds of countries around the globe.
Raymond Arroyo combines his journalist’s objectivity and eye for detail with more than five years of exclusive interviews with Mother Angelica. He traces Mother Angelica’s tortured rise to success and exposes for the first time the fierce opposition she faced, both outside and inside of her church.

In 1981, a simple nun, using merely her entrepreneurial instincts and $200, launched what would become the world’s largest religious media empire in the garage of a Birmingham, Alabama, monastery. Under her guidance, the Eternal Word Television Network grew at a staggering pace, both in viewership and in influence, to where it now reaches over a hundred million viewers in hundreds of countries around the globe.
Raymond Arroyo combines his journalist’s objectivity and eye for detail with more than five years of exclusive interviews with Mother Angelica. He traces Mother Angelica’s tortured rise to success and exposes for the first time the fierce opposition she faced, both outside and inside of her church.

Library Journal

"Improbable but true" describes much of the life of Franciscan nun Mother Angelica (Rita Rizzo), who became a pioneer in cable religious broadcasting by establishing the Eternal World Television Network (EWTN) in 1981. Today, the network reaches more than 80 million households in upwards of 100 countries. Though she claims to have been the beneficiary of several unexplained healings throughout her life, she officially ended her career in live programming four years ago, when a series of strokes took its toll. Arroyo, news director and lead anchor at EWTNews, here offers an unauthorized but authoritative account of his former cohost that updates Dan O'Neill's 1986 Mother Angelica: Her Life Story. He incorporates a number of radio interviews, including probably the last one Angelica herself will be able to give. Readers will enjoy her ever-humorous, feisty, and down-to-earth personality, as well as her words to the ordinary person in the pews on a wide range of moral and personal issues. This engagingly written work is recommended for public, academic, and religious collections.-Anna M. Donnelly, St. John's Univ. Lib., NY Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

RAYMOND ARROYO is the news director and lead anchor at EWTNews. As host of the international newsmagazine, The World Over Live, he is seen in more than 110 million households each week. Arroyo has worked at the Associated Press, the New York Observer, and for the political columnist team of Evans and Novak. His writings have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the National Review, the Financial Times, and other publications. He has been featured on the Today show, Good Morning America, Access Hollywood, and various cable outlets, where he frequently comments on matters of culture and faith. He lives in New Orleans with his wife and three children.