Defiant nuns flee Austrian care home for their abandoned convent in the Alps

The three Austrian nuns in their 80s fled the home of old people who returned to their old monasteries and returned.

88 -year -old sister Bernadette, 86, 86. Sister Rita, 82, the last three nuns in the Kloster Goldenstein Monastery in Elsbethen just outside Salzburg.

They regained the access with the help of old students and a locksmith.

Church officials are not happy – but the nuns.

Im I am very pleased to be at home, Süb Sun said Rita. “I was always married at the care house. I am very happy and grateful to go back.”

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

“We were not asked,” Sun said Bernadette. “We had the right to stay here until the end of our lives, and this was broken.”

Three nuns spent most of their lives in Schloss Goldenstein, a castle with a monastery and a private girl school since 1877. The school, which started to accept men in 2017, is still working.

In 1948, the nun went to school in 1948. One of his students was the Austrian film actor Romy Schneider.

In 1958, the nun Regina came to the monastery and four years later to the nun Rita.

All three of them continued to work as a teacher at school for many years. The nun was Regina director.

But the number of nuns has decreased.

In 2022, the building was taken over by the Salzburg Archbishop and the Augustinian monastery Reichersberg Monastery. Provost Markus Grasl from the monastery was superior to the nuns.

The community was officially terminated at the beginning of 2024, and the remaining nuns were given the right to live for life as long as they allow health and mental capacity.

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

At the beginning of September, the nun Bernadette, Sister Rita and Sister Regina returned and a group of former students helped.

“I’ve obeyed all my life, but it was too much.” He said.

They gathered a few items and returned to the monastery. Since a locksmith was called, locks were changed to their old apartments.

When they first arrived, there was no electricity or water.

Provost Grasl said that the decision of the nuns to return to the monastery was “completely incomprehensible” and “an upward”.

“The rooms in the monastery can no longer be used and do not meet the appropriate maintenance needs,” he said.

The nuns “dangerous health conditions” “Goldenstein Monastery is no longer possible,” he said.

Grasl said that older people’s house provided them with “absolutely basic, professional and good medical care”.

The authority added that most of the wishes of the nuns about the future of the monastery were taken into consideration.

Three nuns return to their old houses.

Electrical and water connections have now been partially restored, fans bring food and food and are seen by doctors.

There is a stable flow of visitors, many of which are former students.

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

“When they need us, they just have to call us and we will definitely be there. The nuns here have changed so many lives so well.”

Alisha said that another student nuns always knew the old students.

The videos of the nuns were published on Instagram, prayer, mass, at lunch and steep stairs.

They say he was torn after the old stairs were taken.

They say they’re determined to stay in the nuns.

“I prefer to go to a meadow and enter the eternity like this before you die in the house of old people.” He said.