The
Benedictine Abbey of Regina Laudis was founded in 1947 by Mother Benedict Duss,
O.S.B. and Mother Mary Aline Trilles de Warren, O.S.B. in
Bethlehem, Connecticut. This
monastic foundation was one of the first houses of contemplative
Benedictine nuns in the
United States. Mother Benedict and Mother Mary were both nuns of the Benedictine
Abbey of Notre Dame de
Jouarre in
France. Mother Benedict had grown up in Paris and studied medicine at the
Sorbonne. Until the monastery of Regina Laudis gained abbatial status, it was a dependent
priory of
Jouarre Abbey, a 7th-century monastery northeast of
Paris, France.