Mother Debbora Joseph

Mother Debbora Joseph (née Josephine) Buck, 86, a nun at the Abbey of Regina Laudis in Bethlehem, CT, died on March 15, 2024.  She triumphed over many health challenges for several years,  but this time, she knew she had finished her work on earth and said, “I’m going to the Lord.”  When asked how she felt about that, she replied, “I feel ready.” 

Mother Deborah Joseph was born in New York City in 1938, to parents who opened many opportunities to their six children.  “Jo”, as she was then known, spent childhood summers on the Connecticut seacoast and then in Southampton, NY.  She enjoyed sports, particularly skiing, sailing and ice skating. As an adult, she enthusiastically shared stories of her early life, putting out photograph albums filled with family members and lifelong friends.   

She was educated at the Convent of the Sacred Heart schools in Manhattan (“91st Street”) and later at Sacred Heart in Noroton, CT.  After attending Manhattanville College, she embarked upon a successful and rewarding career in interior design, studying at the New York School of Interior Design and the Fashion Institute of Technology.  She was a perpetual student of art and beauty, immersing herself in the riches of Manhattan’s museums and galleries that were so familiar to her. Later, she worked as an investment manager for individuals, trusts and estates.

Her life was always anchored in a deep faith that led her to volunteer as a Catholic Big Sister for thirty years, in time becoming the President of the Board of Directors of that organization.  She also volunteered at a shelter for homeless women in Manhattan called the Dwelling Place.  But she knew that her faith was asking something more of her, and she began coming to the Abbey of Regina Laudis in 1983, entering as a postulant in 1986.  She professed her final vows in 1999 and received the Blessing of Monastic Consecration on September 8, 2002 at the hands of Archbishop Daniel A. Cronin. 

During her years of monastic life, she excelled in many areas that were new to her.  She was a beekeeper for almost 20 years, not only providing the safe environment for her small charges to produce their golden honey, but working in the bee garden with Abbey guests as a medium of exchange and conversation. She cultivated a flower garden inside the enclosure that she inherited from our foundress, Lady Abbess. She was very proud of this garden and had legions of friends eager to help her create the gracious space that it was. She worked in this garden, rain or shine, until the very end of her life.

But her decades of service to the Regina Laudis community as Head Portress were defining, as she welcomed each guest as Christ, according to the Rule of Saint Benedict, the prime monastic text of Regina Laudis.  She was a Portress for 36 years, until the end of her life, offering guests the first welcoming taste of our monastic life and meeting with countless guests and friends, visitors and pilgrims for spiritual advice and counsel.  She was deeply involved in supporting those persons who had suffered as a result of the tragic attacks of 9/11. As a born New Yorker who had worked at Two World Trade Center herself, their suffering touched her particularly. 

Many, many lives were touched by Mother Debbora Joseph.  She understood the meaning of loyalty, of putting someone else first, of listening with her heart and offering her own experience as an example of sustaining peace of one’s faith.  She is survived by her monastic community at the Abbey of Regina Laudis, by her sister Connie Buck, her brother Richard Buck and his wife Jutta, her extended family and her many friends  

A Requiem Mass for Mother Debbora Joseph will be celebrated at the Abbey’s Church Jesu Fili Mariae, 15 Robert Leather Road in Bethlehem on Wednesday, March 20 at 10 am.  Burial in the Abbey cemetery will follow.  Calling hours will be Tuesday evening, March 19 from 5:30 pm – 8 pm and Wednesday, March 20 from 8 am – 10 am.  In lieu of flowers, donations to “New Horizons” would be gratefully accepted.