US EditionThe Bright Side: Elderly Nuns in Austria Escape Retirement Home to Return to Convent
- In early September 2024, Sisters Bernadette , Regina , and Rita returned to their former convent Kloster Goldenstein near Salzburg after leaving a Catholic care home where they had been placed against their wishes in December 2023.
- In 2022, control of the convent was assumed by the Salzburg church authorities alongside Reichersberg Abbey, who dissolved the religious community at the beginning of 2024 and decided near the end of 2023 to relocate the nuns to a care facility despite their entitlement to reside there for life.
- Supporters and former pupils helped the nuns regain access by making repairs and restoring partial utilities, while the sisters settled back in with visits from doctors and daily routines including prayer and Mass.
- Sister Bernadette said, "We weren't asked" and that their right to remain had been broken, while Provost Markus Grasl called their return "completely incomprehensible" due to their precarious health and the building's unsuitability for care; Sister Rita expressed being "so happy and thankful" to be home.
- The sisters intend to remain at Kloster Goldenstein despite official objections, suggesting continued tension between their desire to stay and church concerns over care standards and facility conditions.
34 Articles
34 Articles
The Bright Side: Elderly nuns in Austria escape retirement home to return to convent
Three nuns, aged 81, 86 and 88, enlisted the help of villagers and former school students to flee the retirement home they had forcefully been placed in at the end of 2023 and return to their convent in Elsbethen, just outside Salzburg in Austria. The sisters were the last nuns in the convent, which they regained access to thanks to a locksmith.
The three Austrian nuns claim to have left their convent against their will in December 2023.
Dnevni list Danas
Sisters Bernadette, Regina and Rita needed a locksmith to help them return to their convent, defying church leaders.
At the age of 82, 86 and 88, the nuns challenged the ecclesiastical authorities and recovered the home where they spent decades teaching and living. Their history generated shock and solidarity between former students and the local community.
Three Austrian travelers, all over 80 years old, fled from the old asylum they had entered and returned to their former residence in Alpi, a deserted building, writes BBC. Sister Bernadette, 88 years old, Sister Regina, 86 years old, and Sister Rita, 82 years old, are the last three coins from the monastery of Klosster Goldenstein in Elsbethen, near Salzburg. "I prefer to go on a pilgrimage and spend it forever," said one of them.
Sister Bernadette, Sister Regina, and Sister Rita are the last three nuns of the Kloster Goldenstein convent in Elsbethen, Austria.
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