Lifestyle

Three Nuns in Their 80s Were Moved Into a Care Home. Then They Escaped Back to Their Convent: “We Weren’t Asked”

By Curtis Jones · November 13, 2026

Sister Bernadette, Sister Rita and Sister Regina spent most of their lives in the same place: Schloss Goldenstein, a castle convent and school in the Austrian village of Elsbethen, just outside Salzburg.

According to the BBC, Sister Bernadette arrived at the school as a teenager in 1948. Sister Regina came in 1958 and Sister Rita four years later. All three taught there for years, and Sister Regina served as headmistress.

Then, in December 2023, the three were moved into a Catholic care home. The BBC reported that they say it happened against their will.

“We weren’t asked,” Sister Bernadette told the BBC. “We had the right to stay here until the end of our lives and that was broken.”

In September 2025, they left. FRANCE 24 English reported that former students of the convent school and villagers helped the sisters, then aged 88, 81 and 86, slip out of the retirement home and get back into their old convent, which at first had no electricity or water. The BBC said a locksmith was called because the locks had been changed.

“I have been obedient all my life, but it was too much,” Sister Bernadette said.

In the FRANCE 24 report, one of the sisters explains that their vows mean living in that convent rather than being transferred elsewhere, for the rest of their lives. A former student named Christina told the network that the sisters’ wishes had to be respected and that someone should have asked them first.

Church authorities saw it differently, and their concern was about care. Provost Markus Grasl of Reichersberg Abbey, the sisters’ superior, told the BBC that the rooms in the convent “in no way meet the requirements for proper care,” and that the nuns’ “precarious health conditions” meant independent living there was no longer possible. He said the care home had given them “absolutely essential, professional, and good medical care.”

Supporters restored power, brought groceries and arranged doctor visits, the BBC reported. The sisters also started an Instagram account that drew a large following.

The dispute went all the way to Rome. In April 2026, NPR reported that the sisters’ canon law adviser said the Vatican had decided they could remain at the convent, and that Abbot Jakob Auer was appointed to help oversee their needs, an appointment the provost’s spokesperson confirmed. The sisters even attended a general audience with Pope Leo XIV in St. Peter’s Square.

By September 2026, Austria’s Tiroler Tageszeitung reported that the three were living at Goldenstein with the support of round the clock home care, the way they had always wanted.

Their story is unusual, but the question at its heart is a common one for older adults and their families: who decides where you live when your health changes? Both sides here said they had the sisters’ wellbeing in mind. The friction came from a decision the sisters say was made without them.

A few steps can help families avoid that. Talk about living wishes early, before a fall or hospital stay forces a quick choice. Put preferences in writing and share them with the people likely to be involved. When a move is being considered, ask whether in home care could meet safety needs first, and ask the person directly what matters most to them.

For the sisters of Goldenstein, the answer was simple. They wanted to go home.

This article is for general information and is not medical, financial or legal advice. Details are from FRANCE 24, the BBC, NPR and the Tiroler Tageszeitung; claims by the sisters, their supporters and church officials are their own. This article was produced with the assistance of AI and fact-checked against the sources cited by LightWave Reports.