SALZBURG, Austria — Three elderly nuns have left a Catholic retirement home and returned to their former convent in the Austrian Alps, defying church authorities who had ordered their transfer, according to BBC News.
Sister Bernadette, 88, Sister Regina, 86, and Sister Rita, 82, were the last members of the Kloster Goldenstein community in Elsbethen, outside Salzburg. In early September, with the help of former students and a locksmith, they moved back into the convent at Schloss Goldenstein, where they had lived and worked for decades.
The women said they had been taken from the convent against their will in December 2023, when the Archdiocese of Salzburg and Reichersberg Abbey dissolved the Goldenstein community. Officials argued the convent was no longer suitable for their care.
“We weren’t asked,” Sister Bernadette said. “We had the right to stay here until the end of our lives, and that was broken.”
Provost Markus Grasl, their superior at Reichersberg Abbey, called their return “completely incomprehensible” and “an escalation,” warning that the convent no longer meets basic standards for care.
Supporters disagree. Since their return, electricity and water have been partially restored, doctors have visited, and former pupils bring food and groceries. Videos of the nuns at prayer and meals are now circulating on social media.
The three sisters, who spent much of their lives teaching at Goldenstein’s private school, say they are determined to remain. “Before I die in that old people’s home, I would rather go to a meadow and enter eternity that way,” Sister Bernadette said.
For many former students, their presence is inseparable from the convent itself. “Goldenstein without the nuns is just not possible,” said alumna Sophie Tauscher.
