Three Austrian Nuns in Their Eighties Fled A Nursing Home Last Thursday to Return to Their closed monastery. The Women had to leave their Lifelong Home Against Their Will. They recyive help from interested parties and former students.
“We are slag well again for a long time,” Sisters Bernadette (88), Regina (86) and Rita (82) Told the Austrian Kronen Zeitung After Their First Night Back At Their Old Nest.
The Sisters Were the Last Three Nuns of the Goldenstein Monastery in Elsbethen, Just Outside Salzburg. At the end of 2023, they were transferred to a nursing home against their will because the monastery was closed.
Friends and Former Students of the Nuns Hired a Locksmith to Enter Their Old Rooms. A Moving Service Helped the Women Transfer Their Belongings.
In The First Days, The Sisters Were Without Running Water Or Electricity. That has bone partialy restored this week. Interested Parties Bring Food and the Women Have Been Checked by Doctors.
‘I’d Rather Go Into A Meadow’
The Monastery was founded in 1877 and was also a private school for girls. Bernadette was a student there and Became a nun as a teenager in 1948. Regina arrived in 1958 and Sister Rita Four Years later. They were teachers at the school for many years and regina even Became the headmistress.
About The Years, The Number of Nuns Decreased. In 2023, The Women Left the Monastery to the Archdiocese of Salzburg and the Reichersberg Abbey. Accordance to the agreement, The Community was Dissolved, but the nuns retained a lifelong right of residence as long as their health allowed it.
But due to a misunderstanding, The Agreement Turned Out Differently. The Women Ended Up In The Nursing Home Against Their Will. “We were sent away,” The Nuns Stated Afterwards. They claim that they were not equally allowed to take their personal beliefs with them. The Abbey and the Archdiocese Deny That Accusation.
The Nuns are determined to stay in the monastery. “Before I who in that nursing home, I’d rather go to a meadow to enter Eternity like that,” Said Sister Bernadette.
