In 1963, Hart left Hollywood for good and became a nun. She entered the strictly cloistered Benedictine Regina Laudis Monastery in Bethlehem, Connecticut, of which she is the Reverend Mother (or prioress).
[on her life before her vocation] It was not a lifelong dream. I did not grow up wanting to be a nun. I wanted to be an actress. If it had ever been suggested I would one day be a nun, it would have been the last thing on my mind. It was a million to one shot I would ever be a nun.