Provocative nuns flee the Austrian care house for their abandoned convent in the Alps

Three Austrian nuns in the 1980s fled from the homes of the elderly where they were placed and returned to their old convent.

Sister Bernadette, 88, Sister Regina, 86, and Sister Rita, 82, are the last three nuns at the Kloster Goldenstein convent in Elsbethen, just outside Salzburg.

They found access with the help of former students and a locksmith.

Church authorities are not satisfied – but the nuns are.

“I’m so happy to be at home,” said Sister Rita. “I always had the country’s pain at home. I am so happy and grateful to be back.”

The trio says they were removed from the convent against their will in December 2023.

“We were not asked,” said Sister Bernadette. “We had the right to stay here until the end of our life and it was broken.”

The three nuns have spent a large part of their lives at Schloss Goldenstein, a castle which is a convent and a private school for girls since 1877. The school, which began to accept boys in 2017, still works.

Sister Bernadette attended the school herself, arriving in adolescence in 1948. One of her breakage comrades was the Austrian cinema actress Romy Schneider.

The sister Regina arrived at the convent in 1958 and her sister Rita four years later.

All three worked at school as teachers for many years. Sister Regina was director.

But the number of nuns has decreased.

In 2022, the building was taken over by the Archdiocese of Salzburg and the Reichersberg Abbey, an Augustin monastery. The Markus Grasl provost of the abbey has become the superior of the nuns.

The community was officially dissolved in early 2024, and the remaining nuns obtained a lifetime right of residence, as long as their health and mental capacity allowed.

In December 2023, the decision was made to transfer them to a Catholic care house, where they were dissatisfied.

In early September, his sister Bernadette, his sister Rita and her sister Regina returned, helped by a group of former students.

“I was obedient all my life, but it was too much,” said Sister Bernadette.

They packed some personal effects and returned to the convent. The locks to their old apartments had been modified, so a locksmith was called.

Upon their arrival, there was neither electricity nor water.

In a statement, the Grasl provost said that the nuns’ decision to return to the convent was “completely incomprehensible” and “an escalation”.

“The convent rooms are no longer usable and do not meet the appropriate care requirements,” he said.

He said that the “precarious health conditions” of the nuns meant “that the independent life at the convent of Goldenstein was no longer possible”.

Grasl said the house of the elderly had provided them “absolutely essential, professional and good medical care”.

Many wishes of the nuns concerning the future of the convent had been taken into account, he added, including the continuation of the school.

The three nuns settle in their old house.

The electricity and water connections have now been partially restored, the supporters bring food and races, and they were seen by doctors.

There is a constant flow of visitors, many of whom are their former students.

One of them, Sophie Tauscher, said that the nuns belong to the convent. “Goldenstein without the nuns is simply not possible.”

“When they need us, they just have to call us and we will be there, that’s for sure. The nuns here have changed so many lives in such a good means.”

Alisha, another student, said that the nuns had always recognized the former students.

Videos of the nuns were published on Instagram, at prayer, at mass, lunch and descending the steep staircase.

They say that their old staircase was torn off after being taken.

The nuns say they are determined to stay.

“Before I die in this old man’s house, I prefer to go into a meadow and enter eternity in this way,” said Sister Bernadette.