The beautiful Dolores Hart, who was often compared to Grace  Kelly, was just 19 when she filmed her first movie scene: kissing Elvis Presley in the movie “Loving You” in 1957. Dolores became an overnight star soon after Paramount released the movie.

The young actress was one of the millions of adoring fans Elvis would come to have. She never missed a chance to hear Elvis sing. “He totally took you when he was singing on stage,” she said in an interview.

Dolores came from a non-Catholic family who left her in Chicago so her father could pursue his acting career in Los Angeles. She would be raised by her grandmother, who had suggested that her teenage daughter abort Dolores, feeling she was too young to have a child.  Her grandmother enrolled young Dolores in a Catholic school (it was closer to home), where she went to Mass every morning and would ultimately become Catholic.

Dolores recognized in Elivs, the Mississippi Pentecostal, a fellow spiritual seeker. They would often discuss Scripture together. Elvis would often pull out a Bible, asking for her thoughts on various verses.  Although Elvis’s spiritual journey is complex, even the most sincere searches can get sidetracked. With fame and fortune becoming a detriment to faith, Elvis found solace in Gospel music for which he received three Grammy awards. Ironically the only Grammy Awards he would ever receive. According to Christian Today,  Elvis once said:

“All I want is to know the truth, to know and experience God, I’m a searcher, that’s what I’m all about.”

Dolores’ credits daily Mass as having helped to keep her grounded. After a long Broadway run, a friend encouraged her to recuperate at Regina Laudis, a Connecticut abbey of cloistered Benedictine nuns. Dolores felt a feeling of peace there and knew it wasn’t simply the reprieve from Hollywood pressures. “What I was finding at Regina Laudis,” she writes, “was the peace that had first attracted me to the Catholic Church, and when I went away, I carried it with me.”

When she was cast as Clare in the movie that was filmed in Rome, Francis of Assisi, she was invited to a papal audience with Pope John XXIII who greeted her as “Chiara” (Clare).

As she continued making movies and experiencing increasing fame, she began dating the not so famous Don Robinson, a handsome Catholic architect. The two were engaged in a year. Dolores’ dream of marriage and motherhood was within reach: The big day would be Feb. 23, 1963. But the tug of religious life persisted, and Don felt Dolores grow distant. “You’re still thinking about that monastery, aren’t you?” he asked.

On another visit to the monastery, she again felt its powerful draw. While walking through a pine forest as the snow fell, Dolores sobbed over her confusion. Besides giving up Don, she’d also be forfeiting a fairytale career, including four scripts from MGM and an offer from Universal to star opposite Marlon Brando. That same day she penned a letter to God that day, writing,

“I can’t understand your ways.”

Dolores broke the news to Don her first day back from her visit. They met with the priest set to marry them, who was baffled by Dolores’ decision. She entered the convent on June 13 and cried herself to sleep that night. In what can only be described as true love, Robinson, initially crushed, never married, but remained a friend and visitor to the abbey until his death at the end of 2011.

“My life in the monastery has allowed me to be open to the grace of creation and what it means to be a human being in the world.”

Many of her friends and Hollywood colleagues could not understand the young starlet’s decision, Elvis Presley was one who did.

God Is the Bigger Elvis

HBO] HD. The Oscar(R)-nominated documentary about a promising young actress who left Hollywood to become a nun.

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