Austrian nun gets reprieve in abandoned convent

Three Austrian nuns in their 80s fled the home for the elderly where they were housed and were told they could stay at their former convent “until further notice”.

However, church authorities said they could only stay if they stopped posting on social media.

Sister Bernadette, 88, Sister Regina, 86, and Sister Rita, 82, are the last nuns at the Goldenstein Abbey in Elsbesenkloster near Salzburg.

In a statement issued on their behalf, they said they were willing to reach an agreement in principle, but that their legitimate claims and demands must be taken seriously.

They said they were not entirely satisfied with the church’s proposal, describing it as having “the nature of a contract-blocking”.

Three nuns said they were forcibly removed from the convent in December 2023.

In September, they moved back home with the help of former students and a locksmith, angering church officials.

The nuns’ superior, Marcus Grassl, provost of the convent in Rixburg, called on them to return to the nursing home and said their decision to return to the convent was “completely incomprehensible.”

The nuns’ story sparked worldwide interest. Supporters provide them with food, electricity and social media assistance, and post videos of the nuns’ daily lives.

These programs featured the nuns at prayer or lunch, and also included physical exercises by Sister Rita. Recently she got a pair of boxing gloves.

The Goldenstein sisters have nearly 100,000 followers on Instagram and thousands more on Facebook.

After nearly three months of standoff, Harald Schiffl, spokesman for the provost, told Austrian news agency APA that the nuns could now stay.

This follows a meeting earlier this week where proposed solutions to the impasse were put forward.

Harald Schiffl told APA that the nuns can stay at Kloster Goldenstein but must meet certain conditions. These include giving up social media activity.

Church officials also want the nuns to ensure that closed parts of the convent are no longer accessible to people who do not belong to the church.

In return, they would be allowed to stay and receive medical care and spiritual support from priests.

“Now it’s up to the sisters,” Harald Schiffel told APA.

The sisters will not be able to seek legal advice in the future, and demands that they and their assistants cease social media activity “have no legal basis and … would deprive the sisters of their only remaining protection to the interested public,” according to a statement released Friday.

The three nuns spent most of their time at Schloss Goldenstein, which since 1877 has been a convent and a private school for girls. The school started admitting boys in 2017 and is still functioning.

Sister Bernadette attended the school in 1948 as a teenager. One of her classmates was the Austrian actress Romy Schneider, one of the world’s most famous film stars in the 1960s and 1970s.

Sister Regina arrived at the convent in 1958 and Sister Rita in 1962.

All three sisters worked as teachers in the school for many years. Sister Regina is the principal.

But the number of nuns gradually dwindled. In 2022, the building was taken over by the Archdiocese of Salzburg and the Augustinian monastery Reichenberg Abbey.

Markus Grasl, provost of Reichsberg Abbey, became the superior of the nuns, and the community was officially dissolved in early 2024.

The remaining nuns were granted lifelong residency as long as their health and mental abilities permitted.

In December 2023, it was decided to transfer them to a Catholic nursing home, where they were unhappy.

Sisters Bernadette, Rita and Regina moved back in early September with the help of a group of former students.

The nuns told the BBC at the time they were determined to stay.

“Before I die in that nursing home, I would rather go to a meadow and go into eternity like that,” Sister Bernadette said.