A trio of nuns have defied church officials by staging an escape from their care home and breaking back into the convent they had been forced to leave.
Sisters Bernadette, 88, Regina, 86, and Rita, 82, had all taught at the convent and girls’ school for more than six decades.
But they were evicted when it was taken over and closed by an Augustinian monastery – despite being promised lifelong residency.
Now, in a story worthy of Hollywood, a group of former students have helped them leave their appointed Catholic retirement home to return to the castle.
Assisted by a locksmith, they gained entry to their old apartments at the Kloster Goldenstein school and convent in Elsbethen, near Salzburg, Austria.
They unpacked their few possessions and settled back in. And, although they initially had no water or power, both have now been partly restored.
The nuns’ escapade has played out against the Alpine landscape featured in The Sound of Music, which begins with nuns singing in Salzburg’s Nonnberg Abbey, five miles north of Elsbethen.
It may not quite be the plot of 1990 comedy Nuns On The Run – where Robbie Coltrane and Eric Idle play disillusioned gangsters disguised as nuns to escape a brutal boss – but the trio’s story has led to inevitable comparisons.
Nuns Regina, 86, Rita, 81, and Bernadette, 88, sit on a bench as they occupy their old Goldenstein convent in Goldenstein castle, near Salzburg, and refuse to move back to their retirement home, in Elsbethen, Austria, September 12, 2025
The sisters had all taught at the convent and girls’ school for more than six decades
They were evicted from their old Goldstein convent when it was taken over and closed by an Augustinian monastery – despite being promised lifelong residency. Pictured: A view of Goldenstein castle near Salzburg
In 2022, the convent building was taken over by the Archdiocese of Salzburg and the Reichersberg Abbey. Provost Markus Grasl became the nuns’ superior.
The octogenarians were the last three nuns to occupy the convent before being removed against their will in December 2023.
One of their fellow conspirators, former student Sophie Tauscher, said: ‘Goldenstein without the nuns is just not possible.
‘When they need us, they just have to call us and we will be there, for sure. The nuns here changed so many lives in such a good way.’
Since the sisters’ return two weeks ago, supporters have been bringing them groceries and doctors have carried out health checks.
Provost Grasl said the nuns’ decision to return to the convent was ‘completely incomprehensible’.
He added their rooms in the convent were no longer usable and failed to ‘meet the requirements for proper care’.
He said the retirement home had provided ‘absolutely essential, professional, and good medical care’ while the sisters’ wish to keep the convent school open had been honoured.
The trio were the last three nuns to occupy the convent before being removed against their will in December 2023
A group of former students have helped them leave their appointed Catholic retirement home to return to the castle
The nuns are unrepentant. ‘I am so pleased to be home,’ said Sister Rita.
‘I was always homesick at the care home. I am so happy and thankful to be back.’
‘We weren’t asked,’ added Sister Bernadette. ‘We had the right to stay here until the end of our lives and that was broken…
‘Before I die in that old people’s home, I would rather go to a meadow and enter eternity that way.’
