Austrian Nuns Granted Temporary Stay at Convent with Social Media Condition

Sat Nov 29 2025 00:38:07 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

In a remarkable tale, three elderly Austrian nuns can continue living in their convent, provided they stop their social media activities that gained them a significant following.

Sister Bernadette, Sister Regina, and Sister Rita, three nuns in Austria, have been given permission to remain at their convent after running away from a care home. The church authorities stipulated they must cease using social media, which has drawn a large online following, in order to stay. This situation highlights the intersection of tradition in the church, personal autonomy, and modern social media dynamics.

Three Austrian nuns in their 80s who ran away from the old people's home where they were placed have been told they can stay in their former convent until further notice.

However, Church authorities say they can only stay if they stop posting on social media.

Sister Bernadette, 88, Sister Regina, who is 86, and 82-year-old Sister Rita are the last three nuns at the Kloster Goldenstein convent in Elsbethen, just outside Salzburg.

The three nuns say they were taken out of the convent against their will in December 2023.

In September, they moved back in with the help of former students and a locksmith, angering Church officials.

The nuns' superior, Provost Markus Grasl from Reichersberg Abbey, called on them to return to the care home, saying their decision to return was completely incomprehensible.

The nuns' story sparked worldwide interest. Supporters helped them with food, electricity and social media, posting videos of the nuns' daily lives.

These videos feature the nuns at prayer or at lunch, and include Sister Rita's exercise workouts, further endearing them to the public. They recently gained almost 100,000 followers on Instagram and several thousand on Facebook.

Now, after nearly three months of standoff, a spokesman for the Provost, Harald Schiffl, confirmed that the nuns can stay for now, following a recent meeting that suggested conditions for their stay.

These conditions include stopping social media activities and restricting access to certain areas of the convent to outsiders. In return, the nuns will receive medical care and spiritual support from a priest.

The nuns have yet to agree to these conditions. Now it's up to the sisters, Schiffl noted.

The three nuns have spent much of their lives at Schloss Goldenstein, which has been a convent and school since 1877. They have a deep-rooted history with the place, as Sister Bernadette joined as a student in 1948, and later worked there as a teacher.

After a significant decline in the number of nuns, the building was taken over by the Archdiocese of Salzburg in 2022, with Provost Grasl becoming their superior.

In December 2023, the decision was made to transfer them to a Catholic care home, where they reported feelings of discontent. The sisters asserted their desire to remain at the convent, with the elderly Sister Bernadette stating her wish to go to a meadow and enter eternity before returning to a care home.