The hills are filled with the sounds of compromise as three unlikely rebel nuns are offered the chance to stay at their former convent in Austria — provided they give up their Instagram habit.
Sister Bernadette, 88, Sister Regina, 86, and Sister Rita, 82, were the last nuns to reside at the monastery of Castle Goldenstein near Salzburg, where they lived for decades until they were evicted for medical reasons in 2023.
Nuns who say they were sent to a Catholic nursing home against their will caught the world's attention in September when they escaped care and broke into their empty former home with the help of a locksmith, local residents and former students.
“I’m so glad to be home,” Sister Rita. told the BBC at that time. “I always felt homesick in the nursing home. I'm so happy and grateful to be back.”
Since then, they've been documenting daily life at the former monastery on Instagram, posting videos of some of their favorite activities, from candle making to boxing lessons.
Church officials accused the nuns of violating their vow of obedience during a standoff over their future, but a statement Friday said they would be offered the opportunity to remain at the former monastery “until further notice.”
Reichersberg Abbey Provost Markus Grasl, the nuns' abbess, said that while he believed it would be best for them to receive “comprehensive care in a nursing home,” he would take into account their wishes and allow them to remain in the monastery on the condition that they return to “structured religious life.”
Under Grasl's plan, the nuns would return to a “reclusive monastic life” away from the public eye and the volunteers who supported them, and instead priests would be called in to help them and a doctor for “necessary medical care.”
He referred to the Christian principle of charity in relation to “some of the sisters' actions” over the past few weeks and said that donations received for them, as well as funds earmarked for the sale of a book about them, should be used for the mission project.
But the post is on nun's Instagram page stated that they would not immediately agree to this proposal.
The stipulation that the sisters would be allowed to remain at the convent “until further notice” rendered the plan “legally useless,” according to a statement issued on their behalf.
The trio spoke about this to the Austrian publication Crown newspaper that attempts to silence them were “ridiculous” and said: “We will certainly not accept this agreement.”
Their legal representatives did not immediately respond to NBC News' request for comment.
Vice-Rector's spokesman Harald Schiffl told Austrian public television. RUF that the deal will be beneficial to all parties. He said that “what is conveyed on social media is not really the reality of monastic life.”
