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.Antoinette Bosco
''Mother Benedict: Foundress of the Abbey of Regina Laudis''
(Ignatius Press 2009): 31. 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.Margalit Fox
"Mother Benedict Dies at 94; Head of a Cloistered Abbey"
''New York Times'' (October 10, 2005): B8.Antoinette Bosco
"The Life of Mother Benedict Duss"
''Ignatius Insight'' (June 2007).

Religious life

Duss 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. 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. She was present when the town and abbey were liberated by American troops in 1944. 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 Lauren Ford (23 January 1891 - 30 August 1973) was an American painter and author. Ford's works were held at the Corcoran Gallery of Art and Museum of Modern Art. Outside of painting, her book '' The Ageless Story'' was named a Caldecott Medal H ...

and

Frances W. Delehanty Frances Washington Delehanty (January 31, 1879 — January 8, 1977) was an American artist and illustrator, and a noted designer of bookplates, posters, and toy theatres. Later in life she helped to establish the Abbey of Regina Laudis on her pro ...

in Bethlehem, Connecticut. 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. "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."

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.Gerald Renner
"Benedictine Nuns' Leader Steps Down"
''Hartford Courant'' (April 26, 1998). 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. A biography of Mother Benedict Duss was published in 2007.

References

External links

*
A photograph of Mother Benedict Duss and the nuns of Regina Laudis
at

Getty Images Getty Images Holdings, Inc. is an American visual media company and is a supplier of stock images, editorial photography, video and music for business and consumers, with a library of over 477 million assets. It targets three markets— creative ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Duss, Vera 1910 births 2005 deaths 20th-century American Roman Catholic nuns French women physicians People from Bethlehem, Connecticut Religious leaders from Pittsburgh Physicians from Pennsylvania College of Sorbonne alumni American emigrants to France 20th-century French nuns 21st-century American Roman Catholic nuns