Three Nuns Escaped Their Care Home. Now They're at the Vatican.

Remember the Austrian nuns who staged a great escape from their care home last year? Well, they've officially leveled up. Sisters Rita, Bernadette, and Regina, now internet-famous, just made their first-ever trip to Rome, culminating in a general audience with Pope Leo XIV himself.

The Secret Mission to St. Peter's Square

Their aide, Christina Wirtenberger, confirmed the sisters flew to Rome "in secret." Because apparently, a papal visit is best conducted like a spy novel when you're in an ongoing spat with your local provost. Provost Markus Grasl, for his part, expressed concern about their sudden disappearance and confusion over the secrecy. One can almost hear the exasperated sigh from Salzburg.

This whole drama started when the nuns returned to their beloved convent in Schloss Goldenstein last September, after allegedly being placed in a care home against their will. The provost insists they broke their vow of obedience and the convent isn't suitable. The sisters, naturally, disagree.

Late last year, both sides appealed to the Vatican to settle the dispute. And in a plot twist worthy of a Netflix series, a canon law scholar advising the nuns, Wolfgang Rothe, reports the Vatican has sided with the sisters. They get to stay at the convent. The Vatican hasn't officially commented, but it seems divine intervention is on the side of the Goldenstein gals.

An abbot has even been appointed to help the provost manage the sisters' needs. Which sounds less like assistance and more like a very holy babysitting gig. The abbot, however, is now "deeply concerned" because he "has been unable to reach the sisters" since Tuesday, fearing they are being "deliberately kept away" from him. The plot, it thickens.

From Convent to 'Churchfluencers'

Last year, these sisters became accidental social media darlings, racking up nearly 300,000 Instagram followers. Their original account, nonnen_goldenstein, featured Sister Rita taking boxing lessons and sliding down the convent stairs on a mattress. Because why walk when you can slide, especially when you're defying authority?

That initial burst of fame, according to Wirtenberger, actually helped ensure the provost didn't try to remove them again. The internet, it turns out, can be a shield. However, the online world also brought its own set of headaches, with disagreements among volunteers and an Austrian court ordering the original Instagram account to stop posting. That account, now called church_fluencer, has since posted concerns about the sisters' welfare, even suggesting they were taken to Rome against their will.

But fear not, the sisters have a new, official Instagram: realnonnengoldenstein. And photos from Rome and footage on the new account show the sisters, in wheelchairs, smiling broadly as they awaited the papal blessing in St. Peter's Square. Because even when you're caught in a holy turf war, a trip to see the Pope is still, well, a trip to see the Pope.