Amanda's Blog

The Good Shepherd Sisters (called also Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd) are a Roman Catholic religious institute for women. In addition to the standard vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, the Good Shepherd Sisters take the following fourth vow of zeal for souls [to save souls], particularly of women and girls: “I bind myself to labour for the conversion of fallen women and girls needing refuge from the temptation of the world.” [1]

Magdalene asylums were institutions which ran from the 18th to the late 20th centuries ostensibly for “fallen women”, a term used to imply sexual promiscuity.

Asylums for these girls and women (and others believed to be of poor moral character, such as prostitutes) operated throughout Europe, Britain, Ireland, Canada and the United States for much of the 19th and well into the 20th century. The first asylum in Ireland opened on…

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