Three Austrian nuns in their 80s have run away from the old people's home where they were placed and gone back to their former 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 regained access with the help of former students and a locksmith. Church authorities are not happy - but the nuns are.
I am so pleased to be home, Sister Rita said. I was always homesick at the care home. I am so happy and thankful to be back.
The trio say they were taken out of the convent against their will in December 2023.
We weren't asked, Sister Bernadette said. We had the right to stay here until the end of our lives and that was broken.
The nuns have spent much of their lives at Schloss Goldenstein, a castle which has been a convent and a private girls' school since 1877, with the school still operational, now including boys since 2017.
In December 2023, they were moved to a Catholic care home, where they felt unhappy. However, with the help of former pupils, they returned to the convent in early September.
Electricity and water are only partially restored, but the nuns are receiving support from former students and have been seen by doctors. They express a determination to remain in their convent despite the stated concerns of church authorities about their living conditions.
Before I die in that old people's home, I would rather go to a meadow and enter eternity that way, said Sister Bernadette.
