"The Rosary is a light in the darkness of the prison"

In Chile, as a child, Khristian Briones admired the criminals who robbed food trucks to distribute the food to the hungry. Raised in poverty, he did not escape the infernal spiral that lead him from alcohol to delinquency, and landed him in juvenile prisons: "I became addicted to drugs and more and more violent," he confided. But, paradoxically, he remained "Catholic” in his own way.

Chilean prisons are incredibly violent. Khristian received 20 stab wounds and even got third-degree burns on a third of his body. Yet his life was transformed through the Rosary.

With the reintegration program called "The Rosary Workshop" set up for delinquents, he began to make rosaries. This is when Khristian Briones was first touched by grace. "The Rosary is a beacon of light in the darkness of the prison," he says today.

After his release from prison, his faith grew stronger. Along with eight other former detainees, he began selling rosaries on buses and studied to become a social worker. He is now an instructor for the Rosary Workshop.

Aleteia