I'm reading a "novel inspired by true events" called The Magdalen Laundries. I have never heard of these. Another name was the Magdalen Asylum. Or it could also be Magdalena or Magdalene---"a rose by any other name..." The book takes place in 1961 and tells the story of a 16 year old girl brought to one of these "laundries." Young girls were sent there if they were pregnant, or their families and/or parish priest thought they were or might become promiscuous. Prostitutes were also imprisoned there.
Since I had never heard anything about this before, I looked it up. The laundries started in the 18th century by the Catholic Church in Ireland. In 1993, a mass grave of 155 bodies was found in the convent garden of one of the laundries. In another, the skeletons of 800 babies were found in a septic tank. The laundry was a terrible place where the girls were given little food, abused and worked unmercifully in the laundries. 30,000 girls were confined to the laundries. Believe it or not, the last one just closed in 1996 after over 200 years in existence!
The book tells that while scrubbing clothes for 12-14 hours a day, the girls had to pray out loud---a Hail Mary and Our Father---all day long. This particular girl's story is unbelievable. She was taken from her classroom by her priest after confessing in the confessional, that she had lustful thoughts. Her parents weren't even aware of her "abduction!" I haven't gotten any further to know if the parents ever find out what happened to their daughter. It's a really good book--the type I LOVE! I always say that one of my main criteria as to whether I like a book or not is whether I learn something. I'm definitely learning a lot in this one.
Some times I'm ashamed of what the Catholic Church has done throughout history. The bad stuff never seems to end:(
I found this picture:
Oh, that does sound like an interesting book where we can learn something new. I'd never heard of this either!
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