Three 10th century nuns opposed the parish, fled the nursing home and returned to their former monastery in Salzburg, Austria.
On September 4th, 86-year-old sister Regina, 81-year-old sister Rita, and 88-year-old sister Bernadette returned to the Takayama Monastery and girls’ school, Schloss Goldenstein, where they spent most of their lives.
Upon arrival, the nun found that the previous residence had no electricity or running water, so supporters brought water and an emergency generator, CNN affiliate ORF reported.
The sisters’ former students help and organize their daily routines for them, but their family doctors can provide medical care, ORF added.
Since returning to the monastery, the nun has been active on Instagram and has attracted over 10,000 followers in just over a week. In their accounts, they document the daily routines of prayer, meals and eating and attending with journalists from around the world.
They also show that they are slowly sailing down the monastery stairs, cleaning semi-religious buildings, even without the stairs that say the stairs have been removed. In one video, you can see her 88-year-old sister Bernadette plunging into a blocked sink.
The long-standing controversy between the nuns and their boss dates back to the end of 2023 when the nuns say they were taken from the monastery against their will.
But it escalated last month when the nun filed several allegations against him and the Archdiocese of Salzburg in the Austrian press.
When the sisters left the nursing home, Grasl issued a statement that the situation “doesn’t fully understand” to him, adding that the women were involved in “intensive discussions” about their future.
“The monastery rooms are no longer usable and do not meet the requirements of orderly care,” he said. “It’s more obvious than an independent life at Goldenstein Abbey is no longer possible, especially due to the unstable health conditions of the sisters.”
On September 6, he issued another statement saying the nun was “overestimating herself and could lead to a medical emergency.”
When contacted for comment, Reichersberg Abbey, who had been responsible for the monastery since 2022, directed CNN to a statement of Grassl.
The ORF said when Reichersberg Abbey took on the responsibility of Schloss Goldenstein, it would allow nuns to remain as they were during their retirement period, as long as their health is permitted.
The long-term future of the nun at the monastery is still uncertain, but now there is electricity and hot water in the room, ORF said. They remain firmly opposed to returning to nursing homes. “Before I die in that old man’s house, I want to go to the meadows and enter that way forever,” Sister Bernadette told the BBC.
But a spokesman for Reichersberg Abbey told ORF that returning to the nursing home was “inevitable.”
