"Through 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.
was elected the first Abbess of the Benedictine Abbey of Regina Laudis and became the first nun in America to receive the abbatial blessing.
In the late 1960s the abbey, in conjunction with its Jesuit spiritual adviser, Francis Prokes, formed a number of lay communities.
As these communities grew through the 1970s and 1980s, the abbey and Prokes drew the attention of the press for practices and behavior that critics considered manipulative, authoritarian, and "cultlike".
[9] Hart has worked with fellow artists, including James and Dawn Douglas, to found The Act Association, a group that performs at The Gary-The Olivia Theater, an open-air venue which seats about 200 people.
[11] Mother and Subprioress Maria Immaculata Matarese also lives in the Abbey; she is a lawyer and had served in the Connecticut House of Representatives.
[12][3] Another longtime member of the Regina Laudis community, Mother Jerome von Nagel Mussayassul (1908-2006), was a noted poet and translator who had been a German baroness and an artist's wife before joining the Abbey.
Products include crafts and food, such as pottery, candles, woven and knitted goods, wool from the convent's sheep, granola, iron work hand-forged at the abbey blacksmith shop, cheese, honey, vinegar, herbs for seasonings, hot mustard, perfumes, skin creams, cards, books, medals and other religious art objects.