Rebellious sisters escape an Austrian nursing facility to return to their deserted mountain convent

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.”