Vera Duss

Vera Duss (November 21, 1910 — October 2, 2005), better known in her adult work as Mother Benedict Duss, O.S.B., was an American-born French medical doctor and Roman Catholic nun, founder and head of the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, Connecticut from 1947 until 1995.

Early life

Vera Duss was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the daughter of John Duss Jr. and Elizabeth Vignier Duss. Her paternal grandparents, John Duss and Susanna Creese Duss, were members of the Harmony Society, an experimental religious community in western Pennsylvania.[1][2] She was raised by her mother and maternal grandmother in France. She trained as a surgeon, earning her medical degree from the Sorbonne in 1936.[3][4]

Religious life

Duss entered became "Sister Benedict" (Soeur Benoit) when she entered a French Benedictine abbey, Notre Dame de Jouarre, in 1936, the day after finishing her medical training.[5] She worked as a doctor and teacher in Jouarre, and (facing the danger of capture, as an American) went into hiding for part of the town's Nazi occupation during World War II.[6] She was present when the town and abbey were liberated by American troops in 1944.[7][8]

Duss and Mother Mary Aline Trilles de Warren moved to the United States in 1946, and founded the Regina Laudis monastic community in 1947, near the farm of artists Lauren Ford and Frances W. Delehanty in Bethlehem, Connecticut.[9] The community's founding inspired the movie Come to the Stable (1949), starring Loretta Young and Celeste Holm. Mother Benedict became an abbess in 1975 when the community became an abbey.[3][10] "The secret to keeping this place going was to do the next thing that had to be done – without wasting time on worrying," she told her biographer. "If you do something concrete, that opens the possibilities."[4]

Vatican investigation and aftermath

Mother Benedict's leadership methods came under question, and a Vatican investigation was ordered. She stepped down as abbess in 1998.[11] Duss spent the last years of her life as abbess emerita at Regina Laudis, where she died in 2005, aged 94 years. Her grave is in the abbey's cemetery.[3] A biography of Mother Benedict Duss was published in 2007.[1]

References
  1. Antoinette Bosco, Mother Benedict: Foundress of the Abbey of Regina Laudis (Ignatius Press 2009): 31. ISBN 9781586174118
  2. "Mrs. Susan Creese Duss" Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (June 15, 1946): 5. via Newspapers.com
  3. Margalit Fox, "Mother Benedict Dies at 94; Head of a Cloistered Abbey" New York Times (October 10, 2005): B8.
  4. Antoinette Bosco, "The Life of Mother Benedict Duss" Ignatius Insight (June 2007).
  5. Mary Rourke, "Lady Abbess Benedict Duss, 94; Co-Founded First Abbey for Benedictine Nuns in the U.S." Los Angeles Times (October 5, 2005).
  6. Benjamin Patton, Jennifer Scruby, Growing Up Patton: Reflections on Heroes, History, and Family Wisdom (Penguin 2012): 157-162. ISBN 9780425255940
  7. "Our History" Abbey of Regina Laudis.
  8. Phil Spahn, "2 Penniless Nuns from France Find America Land of Kindness" Jackson Sun (July 5, 1949): 12. via Newspapers.com
  9. James F. Looby, "Seven Nuns are Enclosed by Bishop" Hartford Courant (September 3, 1948): 1, 7. via Newspapers.com
  10. "Abbey" Hartford Courant (December 6, 1975): 25. via Newspapers.com
  11. Gerald Renner, "Benedictine Nuns' Leader Steps Down" Hartford Courant (April 26, 1998).
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