Anne Marie Allen, recruited at 15 by a Catholic organization under the guise of a catering course, spent seven years enduring extreme self-mortification and servitude. She describes the harrowing details of her experiences, including the use of a cilice—a painful device worn on her thigh—and acts of self-whipping. Allen illustrates the normalization of these practices within the organization, highlighting the trauma and shame she faced during and after her time there. Her story sheds light on the hidden abuses within such secretive groups.
"The looser it was, the more it scraped [the skin], so it was just easier to tie it really tight and then double- or treble-knot it."
"You'd be passing by bedrooms, and you'd hear people doing it. And this was normal."
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