Religious Figure. Rev. Mother Benedict Duss is recognized as co-founding in the late 1940s the first Roman Catholic monastery for cloistered Benedictine nuns in the United States . With the nuns residing behind the abbey gates, away from public view, their Catholic community is on 400 acres of pine forested land in Bethlehem, Connecticut. Their religious way of life is self-supporting by the nuns raising necessary funds. Born Vera Duss, her parents were Elizabeth Vignier and Attorney John Duss and the granddaughter of John S. Duss, a well-known musician and band leader. Her paternal grandparents were involved in the Harmony Society, which was associated with the Lutheran Church. When she was three, she and her brother were taken by their mother to France where she had her childhood. Later her parents divorced. In 1936 she earned a Doctor of Medicine degree from the Sorbonne in Paris, then surprised her family by entering Notre Dame de Jouarre, a Benedictine Abbey outside Paris, taking the name Sister Benedict. She became the physician to the nuns at the Abby and also served the village of Jouarre and other surrounding towns. During World War II, the Abbey was occupied by Nazi Forces putting Sister Benedict in great peril as she was an American citizen. She was forced to hide in the bell tower thus curtailing her role as a physician, yet on a rare outing, she narrowly escaped being captured by the Gestapo. As liberation of France came in 1944, she watched from the tower while the soldiers under the command of General George S. Patton, Jr. arrived in victory to the front gate of the Abbey of Jouarre. After the war, she had a calling to establish the first woman Monastery in her native United States. In 1946 with very little money, she arrived in New York aboard the troop transport ship "S.S. Argentina" with her co-founder Mother Mary Aline Trilles de Warren, a French nun. Artist Lauren Ford gave them shelter at her Bethlehem, Connecticut home. Soon Robert Leather, a protestant industrialist, offered them 50 acres of land and an abandoned factory building, his only claim, that the sisters preserve the heavily forested pine hill. Remodeled, the factory building became the main monastery building and remains that to this day. She received support from many in the Church, especially the Papal Nuncio to Paris, who was to become Pope John XXIII, and Cardinal Montini, who would later become Pope Paul VI. The community of nuns grew and features were added to insure livelihood. Guesthouses were added, the nuns planted flower and vegetable gardens, orchards, developed beef and dairy herds, had a flock of sheep, pursued various crafts, to include carpentry, bookbinding, blacksmithing, pottery and weaving. In 1976, the Vatican elevated the Monastery to an Abbey, and it became known as the Abbey of Regina Laudis. The facility has expanded with the establishment of many lay communities and the founding of Our Lady of the Rock Monastery, Shaw Island, Washington and have renewed the Benedictine Abbeys in Bari and San Vincenzo al Volturno in Italy. Today, many people guest at Regina Laudis seeking refuge while participating in the Benedictine rhythm of prayer and with work rediscover their spirituality. Mother Duss retired in 1998 under charges that the Abby was too authoritarian and cult-like. She was given the title retired Abbess Emerita of the Abbey of Regina Laudis, residing there as an advisor. In failing health, she died quietly at the Monastery at age 94. A traditional monastic liturgy of burial in Latin was recited in the monastery's simple wooden Church of Jesu Fili Mariae with Hartford Archbishop Henry J Mansell presiding. She lay in an open pine coffin, constructed by the nuns, resting on two stools covered with sheepskins. The trials and tribulations of Mother Duss during establishment of the abbey inspired a popular Hollywood movie, "Come to the Stable" in 1949. The Abbey released two recordings on compact disc, "Women in Chant," "Recordare," and a textbook, "A Gregorian Chant Master Class," which sold well nationally. Upon the death of General George S. Patton Jr's son, General George Smith Patton, a simple pine coffin, inscribed with the insignia of the 2nd Armored Division and the 11th Armored Cavalry as well as the emblem of the cross, was made for him by the sisters of the Abbey of Regina Laudis.