Nuns as Sex Slaves: Fact, Fiction, and Maria Monk

Last updated on: February 20, 2019 at 9:45 am by Pat McNamara

Nuns as Sex Slaves: Fact, Fiction, and Maria Monk 2019-02-20T09:45:23-07:00 Pat McNamara

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Pope Francis raised more than a few eyebrows recently when he addressed the sexual exploitation of women religious by members of the clergy. It’s an issue that’s been covered up for far too long, the pontiff suggests.

Or is it?

What immediately came to mind for me was that lurid nineteenth century bestseller, The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk, which addressed this very topic. During the years leading up to the Civil War, it sold over 300,000 copies. (It still has readers today.) Reputedly written by an ex-nun, Charles Morris calls it “the Uncle Tom’s Cabin of anti-Catholicism.”

Admittedly the book was proved to be a forgery not long after its release, but that didn’t stop people from reading it, and believing it. In the book, an idealistic young woman joins a convent, which she soon learns is connected to the priests’ residence via an underground tunnel. She also learns, according to the author, that “one of my great duties was to obey the priests in all things; and this I soon learnt, to my utter astonishment and horror, was to live in the practice of criminal intercourse with them.”

As the convent’s dark secrets are revealed, priests enter nightly to slake their lustful desires. Nuns give birth to babies who are immediately baptized, smothered, and tossed into a lime pit to eliminate the evidence. Those who protest are put on trial and sentenced to death by the bishop. They’re tied between mattresses and literally stamped to death by the rest of the nuns. Eventually the protagonist makes her escape and seeks to raise public awareness of the evils therein.

The “escaped nun” genre long predates Maria Monk, but when it came to things anti-Catholic, no other book has captured people’s attention like this one. Historian Maureen Fitzgerald writes: “the belief that convents were brothels for the use of priests, in which women were tortured and raped, was not not limited to a fringe of nativist fanatics.”

Throughout the nineteenth century, and well into the twentieth, women religious had to battle the stereotypes this book popularized. At one convent in 1850’s New Hampshire, for example, Sister Gonzaga O’Brien conducted tours on Saturday afternoons for curious locals who expected to see dungeons, torture rooms and underground tunnels. (Some visitors, in hushed voices, promised to aid her escape.)

In the years immediately preceding World War I, state legislatures in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, and Arkansas passed what were known as “Convent Inspection Bills.” Lurid imaginations envisioned priests holding young women against their will as sex slaves, in convents that were really prisons. One Arkansas historian writes:

The Arkansas law allowed for sheriffs and constables to inspect convents, hospitals, asylums, seminaries, and rectories on a regular basis. The purpose, as stated in one section, was “to afford every person within the confines of said institutions, the fullest opportunity to divulge the truth to their detention therein.” If twelve citizens petitioned local authorities, law enforcement could enter these facilities day or night without notice.

Eventually, these laws were repealed, the last one in Georgia in 1966.

Every myth has some kernel of truth to it. Maybe there are no tunnels, but some clergy have indeed used their authority to sexually exploit women under their control. Admittedly, historians only now are coming to examine the issue of sexual abuse more closely than we have in the past, and we don’t know as much about it as we should. We need to know more. Knowing our past can help us as a Church address and overcome historic dysfunctions which, sadly, as the pope has pointed out, still exist today.

Anti-Catholicism

Women Religious

Previous Post

February 19, 2019

Brooklyn's Prep Seminary Graduates its First Class, 1919

Next Post

February 24, 2019 Newman, the Scandals, and the Laity

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category African-American Catholics Alabama Catholics American Catholic History American Catholic women American History Anniversaries Anti-Catholicism Arkansas Catholics Benedictines Bishops Blessed John Henry Newman Book Reviews Books Boston College Brooklyn churches Brothers California Catholics Capuchins Cardinals Carlo Carretto Carmelites Catholic authors Catholic Cemeteries Catholic Historians Catholic History in Less Than 5 Minutes Catholic musicians Catholic Poetry Catholic Press Catholic School Textbook Catholic University of America Catholic Worker Catholics and Music Catholics and Race Catholics in Politics Catholics in the American Revolution Catholics in the Military Catholics in the Movies Catholics in the South Catholics in the West Catholics on Stage Catjolic Women Catolic Poetry Charles de Foucauld Children's Masses Christian Brothers Christmas Church Reform Civil Rights Movement Civil War Colleges and universities Converts D.C. Catholics Deaf Catholics Dominicans. Dorothy Day English Catholics Florida Catholics Fordham University Franciscans French Catholics Georgetown University German Americans Good Shepherd Sisters Hispanic Catholics Historians and Archivists Holy Cross Fathers Holy Name Society Idaho Catholics Illinois Catholics Indian Wars Indiana Catholics Irish Americans Irish Catholicism Italian Americans Italian Catholics Jesuits Josephite Sisters Kentucky Catholics Know-Nothings Laetare Medal Recipients laity Liturgical Movement Maine Catholics Manhattan College Maryland Catholicism Michigan Catholics Middle Ages Minnesota Catholics Missionaries Mississippi Catholics Missouri Catholics Monasteries Montana Catholics Native Americans New England Catholicism New Jersey Catholics New York Catholics North American College Ohio Catholics Oratorians Oregon Catholics Parish Mission Parishes Passionists Pat McNamara's Books Paulists Pennsylvania Catholics Popes Presidents Priests Quotations Religious Orders Rhode Island Catholics Saints Salesians Seminarians Seminaries Sermons Servants of God Siisters of Charity Sisters of Mercy South Carolina Catholics Spanish-American War Sports St. Francis of Assiai St. John Henry Newman Suplicians Tennessee Catholics Texas Catholics The year in review Thomas Merton Throwback Thursday Photograph Trappists Uncategorized University of Notre Dame Video Presentations Vincentians Virginia Catholics Visitation Nuns Washington West Point West Virginia Catholics West Viriginia Catholics Wisconsin Catholicism Women Religious World War II

Select a Month December 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 April 2012 March 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which country has the most Protestant Christians by number?

Select your answer to see how you score.

United Kingdom Brazil Germany United States