The New Maria Monks

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 5, 1 February 1900, Page 3

The New Maria Monks

To this day the ' ex-nun ' bu-ine^« is conducted on practically the same lines on which it originated. In Au. I.MM a successful campaign of the kind requires as it did in I^.S<> —

1. A male Stiggins or Chadband of discreditable antecedents — frequently a non-Catholic ; sometimes — as in Slattery's case — a cleric unfrocked for conduct unworthy of his holy calling.-^

2. The second requisite is a bold, trained, and determined female impostor that is impervious to exposure. A conspicuous example of this lraudulent class of sham nun is Mrs. Slattery. Another ' distinguished ' member ol the • profession ' is the notorious Margaret Shepherd («//«« Parkyn, ahos Edgeston. alias Egan). This woman, like hei forerunner. Maria Monk, was ne\er a Catholic. She is still lhing and posirg as an ■ e^-nun,' and her career furnishes a telling instance of how a bold-faced impostor and criminal can at the i-ame time preach and pray and wheedle the coins out of the pockets of well-meaning but gullible bigots and of people whose minds are lew d and whose hearts are rotten. Margaret Shepherd s career has main points of resemblance to that of Maria Monk. She was taken off the streets and cared for by the Sisters of the Good Shepherd at Amos Court. Biistol. She was well known to the English police . s t >r\ed terms of imprisonment at Bodmin and Milbank was- denoui ced by Rev. G. P. Mcrrish (Church of England prison chaplain), and by the Ile\ . C. B. Simpson. Anglican chaplain of Bodmin. was described a- 'an accomplished swindler.' Mr. \V. T. sttad has had a good deal to say of her history. For instance In the lit mir of Ji< nnrs for July, 1594 (p. (in]), he says ol her that she • is a woman whose past history is deeply stained with both \ice and crime.' Among other things she stated that she was clo-ely associated w ith Mr. Stead during the imestigations which resulted in the publication ol lln Maiden 'Jrihute of Modem jlabylon. and m the campaign which led to the passing of the Criminal Law Amendment Act. ' If,' say» Mr. Stead (Joe. eit.). I may ]ud^e her reflations concerning nunneries by her reflations concerning the share which she had in Tin Maidm 7 nbuti their \ulue must be put down as a minus quantity. Like the street-woman of Montreal and Mrs. Slattery, this other • famous nun ' lectures ' to women only ' and adds to her fraudulent rc\enuebythe sale of pruiient books and pamphlets. It is pitiful to relate that pulpits and churches were placed at the disposal ot Margaret Shepherd by well-meaning but misguided clergymen and committee-, chiefly of the Baptist denomination. It does not need a Solomon tv forecast the moral evils that are likely to result from nuch cru>.ules as tho-c ot the Shepherd woman and the Slatterys. The Rev. Jo.-iph Baird (of \VM\, Willis Avenue, New York) denounced Margaret Shepherd in scathing terms in a published letter bearing dale April :.'!. IMU. and stated that, owing to her conduct and the evils arising from her work, her mission in hi& church had to terminate as speedily as possible. A still stronger condemnation of the woman and her methods of ' e\ angelising ' appeared in the Canada Pre\hyti ru< a of December 20, I SM, from the pen of l!e\ . J. A Macdouald. a Presbyterian minister of St. Thomas, Ontario. lie describes lit as -one of the worst frauds, one of the most dangerous agents ol political and social strife and moral corruption that — v hether as a journalist or preacher — I have ever come into contact with." In the same letter he tells how.

- This, says the editor o! the Boston I'ilu!, wsi« a translation, and was entitled 77i# dates of Jl>U Opened. Jhe editor of the Pilot had a copy of this in his possession, and he declaiod tl.it, with the exception of the propel nanie a , it is word for word the same as the \irnil ln-clf,itn i attiilmted to Maria Monk, see The Irish in America, by J. F. ilagune, M.L., it li cd., pp. 413-414.

t See the affidavit of Maim Monk's niotlnu in I' he True Story or Mm m Monk-, reprinted from the Dublin Heneu of Mr.j, 1K36, b} the C.T.b. (London ) l'ucc Id.

t Ed. 1880, vol. IV., p. 137.

§The non-Catholic Editor Binnn, of tho Tr^aH Iconoclast, in an article in his paper in July, 1895, pointed out that Slattuj, by his own showing, studied Catholic theology and officiated ss a priest for several years ' before discovering anything immoral in the teaching* of the Mother Church, w lien it suddenly occurred to him that it was lwt a ti~~up ot taUehood, a veritable cesspool of rottenness. His [.Slattery'*,] transformation appeals to have been almost as sudden as that ot baul of Tarsus— or that ot Jnaas lscariot. I have no objection to his leaving the Catholic piiesthood— his Bishop stopped his pay.' Kor tho character of other ' ex-priests '—real and bogus -ace our pamphlet, Jottph Slattery, pp. 6-6.

' when it was whispered that her record was shady,' lewd characters gathered to her ' like vultures to the carcass ' ; that neverthelese the ' brazen hypocrite ' ■ opens her meetings with prayer ' ; that ths results of her mission are • simply appalling ' ; that the details thereof are ' horribly disgusting ' ; that many • men and women whose names are a guarantee for truth and prudence ' wrote him particulars of the woman's work which were so ' frightfully damning ' that he ■ dare not publish them ' : that the great temperance worker, Miss Lillian M. l'helps, wrote 'imploring mo in the name of wroncod womanhood to address a wider than my own congregation '"and if possible pave our women and girls from the awfulness of ihis woman's touch." ' And much more to the same effect regarding the still notorious sham nun, who, he declared, 'has prostituted truth and honour, and who •• runs riotously in the error of Balaam for hire." ' Mrs. Slattery is the next most notable adorr.ment of tho malodorous profession of sham nun of which Maria Monk and Margaret Shepherd are the bright particular stars.* The triplet cluster shines out boldly above the lesser lights of the profession, thus j—