Brother Thomas, Sister Joan, Sister Maureen
Brother Thomas Bezanson (1929–2007) graduated in 1950 from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and in 1968 received an MA in Philosophy from the University of Ottawa. In 1953, he began working as a potter and six years later entered the Benedictine Monastery in Weston, Vermont, where he spent 25 years as a potter.
In 1976, Thomas was a visiting lecturer at Alfred University School of Ceramics and in 1983, was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts grant.
During his time at the Benedictine Monastery, Thomas traveled to Japan, where he met five Living National Treasure potters designated by the Japanese Government. These craftsmen deeply influenced Thomas's work, process, and thought. It was a few years after this influential journey that he felt the need for greater artistic freedom, and left the Weston Priory in 1984 to accept Sister Joan Chittister's offer to become an artist-in-residence in the community of Benedictine Sisters in Erie, Pennsylvania, where he shared his life and art for 22 years.
Brother Thomas’s elegant forms are completed by a vivid array of glazes, which he created from natural materials. He was the author of numerous articles, monographs, books, and lectures on art and its spiritual aspects. Over the past 40 years, Brother Thomas’s work has been exhibited in more than fifty solo exhibitions. His pots are held in numerous significant public collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Internationally, museums collections in Japan, Canada, England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Israel and the Vatican also include his works.
Toward the end of his life, Thomas expressed his desire for the sale of his artwork to help struggling artists, just as he was helped by others to pursue his art. To honor this desire and to continue his legacy, Pucker Gallery helped to establish the Brother Thomas Fund at the Boston Foundation in 2007. The Brother Thomas Fellowships are awarded to a diverse group of Greater Boston artists working at a high level of excellence in many disciplines—with the goal of enhancing their ability to thrive and create new work. All fellows receive no-strings-attached awards of $15,000 and are selected biennially through a rigorous multidisciplinary process of nominations and review by a panel of Boston area nonprofit arts leaders and practitioners.
Lauded as one of the most articulate social analysts and influential religious leaders of this age, Joan Chittister has for over 40 years dedicated herself to advocating for universal recognition of the critical questions impacting the global community. Courageous, passionate and charged with energy, she is a much sought-after speaker, commentator, counselor and clear voice across all religions.
A Benedictine Sister of Erie, PA, Sister Joan is an international lecturer and award-winning author of 60 books. She has won 16 Catholic Press Association awards for her books, as well as numerous awards for her work for justice, peace, and equality, especially for women, in the church and in society.
The Time is Now: a call for uncommon courage, was published by Penguin Random House in 2019 and, in the fall of 2021, Random House is set to publish her latest book, The Monastic Heart.
Sister Joan is an international lecturer who has appeared with the Dali Lama, on “Meet the Press,” “Now with Bill Moyers” and on “Super Soul Sunday” with Oprah Winfrey in 2015 and 2019. Additionally, she has been an interview guest for countless podcasts, radio programs, documentaries, and magazines.
A founding member of The Global Peace Initiative of Women, a partner organization of the UN, she works to develop a worldwide network of women peace builders. As co-chair of this group she has facilitated gatherings of spiritual leaders throughout the Middle East, in Asia, Africa, the Far East and Europe in an effort to spread an interfaith commitment to peace building, equality and justice for all peoples.
She has served as president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, (LCWR) and was prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie for 12 years.
A regular online columnist for the National Catholic Reporter, she received her masters degree from the University of Notre Dame and her doctorate from Penn State University in Speech Communications Theory. In 1996 she was an elected fellow at St. Edmund's College, Cambridge University and the Von Huegel lecturer there.
She is the founder and executive director of Benetvision, a resource and research center for contemporary spirituality located in Erie, PA where she lives.
Sister Maureen Tobin (1929–2017), who was subprioress of the Erie Benedictine community at the time Brother Thomas became artist-in-residence, became his close friend and was especially supportive of his work.
She spent years in education and school administration prior to becoming subprioress and community treasurer when Sister Joan was elected prioress. Following their 12 years in community leadership, they became part of the foundation of Benetvision, a research and resource center for contemporary spirituality.
Sister Maureen not only supported Sister Joan’s research and writing but often accompanied her to speaking engagements, conferences, and meetings around the country and around the world. In addition to being a lover of beauty, Sister Maureen was an avid reader and relentlessly pursued peace and justice, especially around women’s issues. She died in January 2017.
