In the quiet hills near Salzburg, Austria, three elderly nuns have become unlikely worldwide celebrities — and adversaries of their own church.
Sisters Bernadette, Regina, and Rita, all in their eighties, slipped out of a care home nearly two years after church authorities moved them there against their will. They returned to their old convent and have refused to leave ever since.
They might have remained a local curiosity if not for Instagram. Their account, run from inside the cloister, shows Sister Rita, 82, learning boxing; Sister Regina, 86, bounding up four flights of stairs; and Sister Bernadette, 88, delivering sharp-witted insights over her morning coffee. Their warmth and humor struck a chord. Soon, more than 185,000 people were watching.
But viral fame has consequences — and now the church wants it gone.
The Archdiocese of Salzburg and the local abbey acquired the convent before moving the women into care, believing the property transfer was settled. The sisters insist they never understood that signing the paperwork meant surrendering what they saw as a lifelong right to remain in their cloister.
On Friday, their superior, Provost Markus Grasl, offered a compromise: they could stay if they shut down their social media accounts, stopped speaking to the press, and gave up seeking legal counsel. The sisters rejected the deal instantly. On Instagram — the very platform the provost wants eliminated — Sister Regina warned, “We can’t agree to this deal. Without the media, we’d have been silenced.”
Canon law expert Wolfgang Rothe agrees. He calls the proposal “unreasonable, inhumane, and legally baseless,” arguing that the provost’s terms amount to a violation of basic rights. He also notes the proposal bars lay visitors, including the longtime helpers the sisters depend on. To Rothe, the message is clear: the provost wants control, not compromise.
The church, meanwhile, claims confusion. Through spokesperson and crisis PR manager Harald Schiffl, Grasl says he doesn’t understand why the sisters reject what he considers a generous offer. He has asked the Vatican to intervene. Rome has remained silent so far, though the sisters say they’re still following the papal Instagram account — perhaps with a touch of irony.
The provost’s camp maintains that the nuns’ online presence distorts religious life. But Sister Bernadette counters that the provost engages with the media himself — citing his 2022 photo shoot with an Austrian TV chef. “The provost and the church invite journalists to the big parties they throw,” she says. “It helps raise money. Why shouldn’t we do the same?”
Even the promise that they can stay in the convent is hedged with the phrase “until further notice,” a clause that Rothe says leaves the sisters vulnerable to being removed again at any time. “Once again, the provost is trying to exert pressure to achieve something that is in his interest without asking what the sisters want,” he says.
For now, the whole standoff sits on Rome’s desk. Until the Vatican speaks, three elderly nuns continue their quiet rebellion — filming their daily routines, sipping coffee, and refusing to give up the home they spent their lives serving.
