Magdalene asylum
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
(Redirected from Magdalen Asylum)
Related e |
Featured: |
Magdalene Asylums were institutions for so-called "fallen women", most of them operated by different orders of the Roman Catholic Church. In most asylums, the inmates were required to undertake hard physical labour such as laundry work.
The institutions were named after Mary Magdalene, in earlier centuries characterised as a converted prostitute from the Bible who was rewarded by Jesus with forgiveness and love.
In Ireland, such asylums were known as Magdalene Laundries. It has been estimated that 30,000 women were admitted during the 150-year history of these institutions, often against their will. The last Magdalene Asylum in Ireland closed on September 25, 1996.
[edit]
See also
- Mary Magdalene as fallen woman
- Catholic sexual abuse scandal in Ireland
- Duplessis Orphans
- Involuntary servitude
- Magdalene Society of Philadelphia
- Nymphomania
- Slavery
- Stolen generations
- Tranquility Bay
- Unfree labour
- Workhouse
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Magdalene asylum" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.