from actress to nun: dolores hart 1957...

source: https://web.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064549907835

At the age of 18 Delores landed a part playing Elvis Presley’s love interest in the 1957 movie Loving You.

She had important parts in 9 more films over the next 5 years, playing opposite Stephen Boyd, Montgomery Clift, George Hamilton and Robert Wagner. She got engaged to be married, and had her pick of roles.

Then, suddenly, at the age of 24, engaged to be married and a rising Hollywood star, she announced she was leaving it all to become a nun.

She later explained that she had a turning point while filming Francis of Assisi, in which she played St. Clare of Assisi.

She met Pope St. John XXIII in Italy during the filming, and when she introduced herself, “I am Dolores Hart, the actress playing Clare,” he responded, “No, you are St. Clare of Assisi!”

Her fans and friends were in shock, angry even, when they heard the news.

“Even my best friend,” Hart recalled years later, “who was a priest, Fr. Doody, said, ‘You’re crazy. This is absolutely insane to do this.’

One friend wrote her angry letters for years after she joined the convent, trying to talk her out of “throwing her life away.”

Hart’s response?

“If you heard what I hear,” she told her friend, “you would come, too.”