Austrian Nuns Allowed to Stay in Convent Under Social Media Ban

Sun Nov 30 2025 20:40:37 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

Three elderly nuns who left their care home to live in their convent can remain but must cease their social media activities.

Three elderly nuns from Austria, who made headlines after leaving a care home to return to their convent, have been granted permission to stay in their residence, provided they stop posting on social media. Sister Bernadette, 88, Sister Regina, 86, and Sister Rita, 82, returned to the Kloster Goldenstein convent after being moved against their will. Their social media presence, which gained them a substantial following, is now a condition for their continued residence.

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 to the convent 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 feature the nuns at prayer or at lunch, and include Sister Rita's exercise workouts. She was recently given a pair of boxing gloves.

The Goldenstein nuns have amassed almost 100,000 followers on Instagram and several thousand on Facebook.

Now after almost three months of standoff, a spokesman for the Provost, Harald Schiffl, has told Austrian Press Agency APA that the nuns can stay for now.

Following a meeting earlier this week, a proposed solution to the standoff was suggested: the nuns could stay at the Kloster Goldenstein, but only under conditions of relinquishing their social media activities.

Church officials also want the nuns to ensure that the enclosed part of the convent will no longer be accessible to people who do not belong to the order.

In return, they will be allowed to stay and be provided with medical care and spiritual support from a priest.

The nuns have yet to agree to the conditions. Now it's up to the sisters, Harald Schiffl told APA.

The three nuns have spent much of their lives at Schloss Goldenstein, a castle which has been a convent and a private girls' school since 1877.

Sister Bernadette attended the school herself, arriving as a teenager in 1948. One of her fellow students was Austrian actress Romy Schneider.

Sister Regina arrived at the convent in 1958 and Sister Rita in 1962.

All three nuns worked at the school as teachers for many years, with Sister Regina serving as headmistress.

But as the numbers of nuns dwindled, the building was taken over by the Archdiocese of Salzburg and the Reicherberg Abbey in 2022. Provost Markus Grasl became their superior, and the community was officially dissolved at the beginning of 2024, granting the remaining nuns lifelong right of residence as long as their health allowed.

In December 2023, it was decided to transfer them to a Catholic care home, where they felt unhappy. In early September, they moved back with the help of former students.

At that time, Sister Bernadette expressed her determination to not live in the care home, saying, Before I die in that old people's home, I would rather go to a meadow and enter eternity that way.