Elderly Nuns Break Free from Nursing Home, Return to Former Convent

A trio of elderly Catholic nuns are happy to return to their former convent in Austria after breaking out of a retirement home.

“I am so pleased to be home,” Sister Rita, 82, told the BBC of being back at the Kloster Goldenstein convent in Elsbethen, which is located outside of Salzburg. “I was always homesick at the care home. I am so happy and thankful to be back.”

Sister Rita, Sister Bernadette, 88, and Sister Regina, 86, all of whom served as teachers, are the convent’s last three remaining nuns during a time when the Roman Catholic Church is seeing a decline in the number of nunneries, The New York Times reported. 

But in 2022 the three nuns’ lives were changed when Markus Grasl, an abbot, took over the management of the building, the Times reported. The three nuns were reportedly told to move out of the convent because, according to a church rule, an order must have at least six living members. 

The decision to have the nuns placed in a Catholic retirement home was made in December 2023, according to the BBC. A spokesperson for Grasl told the Times that the trio agreed to the move, a claim that the nuns refuted.

However, on Sept. 4, with help from their former students, Sister Rita, Sister Bernadette and Sister Regina left the retirement home and headed for the convent, the Times reported. A locksmith enabled the nuns to reenter the building, which at the time had no running water or electricity.

“I have been obedient all my life, but it was too much,” Sister Bernadette told the BBC of her decision to leave the retirement home. 

In a statement shared with CNN, Grasl described the situation as “completely incomprehensible,” claiming that the women had been were involved in talks about their future. 

“The rooms in the monastery are no longer usable and in no way meet the requirements for orderly care,” Grasl said in the statement. “It is clear than an independent life in the Goldenstein Monastery is no longer possible, particularly due to the precarious health situation of the sisters.”

He warned in another statement that the sisters were “overestimating themselves” and that a medical emergency could happen to any of them.

About two weeks after the sisters’ return, the convent now has lights, refrigerators and other amenities made possible by the nuns’ helpers, the Times reported.

“Goldenstein without the nuns is just not possible,” Sophie Tauscher, a former student of the nuns, told the BBC. “When they need us, they just have to call us and we will be there, for sure. The nuns here changed so many lives in such a good way.”

Although happy to call the convent home again, the sisters were fearful of being evicted by church officials. 

“I’m filled with immense joy and gratitude in my heart that I can be back again,” Sister Rita told France 24, “in our familiar buildings, in our so-called cloister, and all around it, and that I can go back to the children again if we are allowed to.” 

“We remain in this convent until our death,” Sister Bernadette added.

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A spokesperson for Grasl told the Times that church authorities had no plans to speak with the nuns. 

PEOPLE reached out to the Vatican and the Archdiocese of Salzburg on Friday for comment.