The trade is more ingrained in Europe, what with its myriad monasteries and convents.

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At times, her convents were attacked and her allies kidnapped by her enemies within the Roman Catholic church.

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Convents, after all, were family affairs, with sisters, aunts and cousins all around.

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What really distinguished her was a strength of character and political astuteness that enabled her to reform the Carmelite Order and found 17 convents across Spain.

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Her reformist ideas were strongly opposed within the Carmelite order and other religious orders frequently tried to keep her out of cities already bursting with convents and monasteries.

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The result was a three-year war, which they lost, followed by new, much stricter laws that, among other things, stripped the church of its land and abolished monasteries and convents.

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During the Crusades, which was the last time that western civilization had to cope with a sex ratio like the one we have today, the surplus women went to (or were sent to) convents.

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