Overview

The publication of Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk in 1836 caused a seismic scandal for the Roman Catholic Church. Maria Monk claimed that she had been resident at the convent of the Hotel-Dieu in Montreal and there witnessed a multitude of sins, including the rape of nuns by priests and the murder of children born as a result. The church was quick to refute the allegations and subsequent investigations and witness statements cast doubt on the validity of the revelations in the book. However, the story refused to die and continued to be believed by many, thus prompting a series of refutations by the Catholic Church. Nearly a century later, the Catholic Truth Society still thought it necessary to try to lay the affair to rest. In 1933 it republished The True History of Maria Monk, based largely on an article first published in the Dublin Review in 1836, in which it was stated that Monk had never been a nun at the convent but was, in fact, a prostitute and a fantasist: Such is the story of this abandoned woman, as told by herself, or at least by others with her sanction, abstracting from its truth or falsehood. We ask any reasonable being, is it a story that deserves the slightest credit? We might leave the work to its fate upon the evidence we have brought against the alleged author out of her own pages; but fortunately for the cause of our religion and of truth we happen to have in our hands the means of proving that it is from beginning to end a tissue of the most unalloyed falsehoods ever penned or uttered. Whatever the truth of the affair, the enormity of sensation it caused should not be underestimated. This 19th Century scandal crossed continents and survived to provoke controversy down through the generations for more than 100 years. The story continues to fascinate and intrigue today. A new edition of Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk, with fully reset text, is also now available (ISBN 978-1910375594). It is combined with The Nun, by Rebecca Theresa Reed, which was another hotly disputed account of convent life in the 1830s.

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