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To thee are my words now addressed,
whosoever thou mayest be that renouncing thine own will
to fight for the true King, Christ, dost take up the strong
and glorious weapons of obedience.
Prologue of the Rule
of St. Benedict
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 aving
been born out of the
devastation of World War II, the Abbey of Regina Laudis continues
to regard its mission as a call to spiritual combat with the forces
of chaos and evil, relying on the one weapon that cannot be overcome,
the prayer of hearts bonded in Eucharistic love. Thus our Foundation
history gives |
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 he
roots of the Abbey of Regina Laudis have their origin in the ancient
Abbey of Notre Dame de Jouarre, which was founded in the 7th century
and is located northeast of Paris. In 1936, Vera Duss, an American
who had lived in France most of her life, received her medical degree
from the Sorbonne and almost immediately afterward stunned her family
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colleagues by entering the Abbey of Jouarre, becoming Mother Benedict
Duss, O.S.B. Soon
World War II had cast its irrevocable
shadow on the monastery. When the town was seized by the German
army and the Abbey itself occupied by Nazi officers, Mother Benedict's
presence in the monastery became a danger for her and for her
community. As an American she was an enemy of the Germans, and
yet as a doctor she was needed by both armies to take care of
the wounded. |
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 other
Benedict spent many days in semi-seclusion in the 11th-century
bell tower of the abbey, avoiding any attention that would put
her community in jeopardy. On August 27, 1944 she was in the
tower, looking from the window, when the nuns first caught sight
of an advancing army. Their liberation was at hand. Who were
the soldiers? The French Resistance? The English? No. As the
undaunted men marched relentlessly
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black with dust and unswerving in their purpose, Mother Benedict
caught sight of an American flag unfurling from the back of a
military truck. They were Americans, and as she would later find
out, men of the 3rd Army under the leadership of General George
S. Patton, Jr. The spirit of self-sacrifice communicated by the
men infused her with an overwhelming response of gratitude to
God and the need to give her life in return, blood for blood. |
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hey
resolved to make a monastic foundation in the United States, no
matter what the cost. In the work of establishing the Foundation,
Mother Benedict was aided every step of the way by her fellow
nun of Jouarre and loyal friend, Mother Mary Aline Trilles de
Warren, O.S.B., whose heroic courage had kept Mother |
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Benedict from falling into the hands of the Gestapo. Although
she met with many obstacles, support from the Church came from
many, most especially the Papal Nuncio to Paris, the future Pope
John XXIII, and Cardinal Montini, who would later become Pope
Paul VI. Through |
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a friendship of many years Pope Paul VI offered inspired wisdom
and astute practical advice, suggesting from the beginning that
if the new monastery was to attract the dedication of American
women, they must be encouraged to have a professional basis for their contemplative life.
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 ventually
the co-foundresses arrived in Bethlehem, Connecticut in the
Archdiocese of Hartford, where they were received with loving
generosity by the artist Lauren Ford, who took them into her
home until they could find a place to establish themselves.
Unexpectedly, Mother Benedict's vision came to the attention
of Robert
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Leather,
an industrialist living in the area. He was a devout Congregationalist
who cherished a piece of land he owned as a place of prayer. He wanted
this pine-covered hill to be held intact and in perpetuity. He gave
it to the nuns, knowing that they would care for it as a sacred place.
This pine hill eventually became the heart of the 400 acres of land,
both cultivated and wild, that comprise the Abbey of Regina Laudis today.
But, as we progress in our monastic life
and in faith,
our
hearts shall be enlarged,
and we shall run with unspeakable sweetness
in the way of God's commandments.
Prologue
of the Rule
of St. Benedict
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hrough
all the ferment of Vatican II and its consequent turmoil, the
social unrest of the 1960's and the crises of faith that have
beset the 80's and 90's, Regina Laudis continued to take firm
root in American soil and in the American soul. The monastery
grew from two dedicated nuns to the present community of 40 women.The
sequence of community development is perhaps most clearly
reflected in its Architectural Program.
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The converted
factory building, originally given by Robert Leather, still remains as
the central living quarters for the nuns, but fanning out around it now
are busy workshops, studios and farm buildings.
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the pine hill one can see the stone Chapter House, begun in
1974 and built over the course of many years by the community
with the help of dedicated lay people. The stones, all gathered
from the land of the abbey, hold the story of years of renewal,
experiment and expansion, relationships with other communities
and spiritualities, the fostering of the priesthood
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faithful and
the establishment of new foundations, notably Our Lady of the Rock
Priory, Shaw Island, Washington. Today that work continues in ever
new expressions of the Benedictine call to stewardship
and hospitality.
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stone Chapter House is now flanked by the Abbess' residence,
the Novitiate building and the
Church of Jesu Fili Mariæ, completed and blessed
in 1994. Thanks to a generous gift, the long-held desire
of the community to have monastic choir stalls built in the church
was realized in December 2002.
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the life of the community surges forward,
we look toward the next structures to be built on the pine hill
and new incarnations of the founding vision. We know whatever we
do will have to speak to the next generations with the same intensity
that the liberation from war held for
our Foundresses. |
  
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