Thirty nuns of the Order of Augustinians once lived in the convent beneath the rooftops of Goldenstein Castle, just outside Salzburg, Austria. As decades passed, its halls grew quieter until only three Sisters remained: Bernadette, Regina, and Rita.
In late 2023, the church authority overseeing Schloss Goldenstein, having been given authority over the shrinking Sisterhood, decided without the nuns’ consent that the remaining three should leave the 15th-century castle-convent they had lived in for most of their lives. They were to be relocated to a care facility for religious in Kahlsperg. One by one, they went. Then, less than two years later, they simply felt compelled to leave. With the help of former students and a locksmith, they returned and reclaimed their former convent and home. Their story drew international attention.
Their stand at Goldenstein reflects a wider trend in European cloistered life, where aging monastic communities are relocated from their historic homes as a result of Vatican and ecclesiastical policy. Each of these Sisters pledged her life to preserving the teachings and memory of the Augustinian order and the castle that has held that order. They treat their bond with one another and with Schloss Goldenstein not as nostalgia, but as a sacred obligation. In early 2026, the Vatican granted their wish to live out the rest of their lives in the castle.
Sister Rita, the youngest, told me once that if she could not leave Kahlsperg with Sisters Regina and Bernadette, then she would not have left at all. Their story is about belonging to a place so completely, in memory and habit, that leaving becomes unthinkable. It is about caregiving between women who have grown old together and sustain each other through the final chapter of lives lived intertwined. And it is about the kind of faith and family that are chosen and rooted in the home that holds them.
What does faith or spirituality mean to you now?
Sr. Bernadette: God. God dwells here. God is with us. God dwells here. And we have God in our hearts. And so it is holy. A sacred space, sacred air, the Holy Spirit, the holy Mother of God. My angels. I have many angels. Not just one, but many. Well... He surrounds me, the angels nearly encompass me entirely.
What do I believe? Yes, to live as God wills. What God's will is, is always from one moment to the next, that one strives to live as God wishes me to live… What God has sacrificed for us over these nine months. But we have gladly endured these sacrifices, because we have said it is for all of humanity. All of this suffering.
Sr. Rita: ... when we pray, we pray for one another and also for the whole world, for our former students, those who are still here and those who have already gone and are still connected. We are united in prayer with all of them, those who are no longer with us and their families altogether, and all people who ask us for prayer and for whom we know. All of society and also those in politics, we include them firmly, that the Holy Spirit might guide them. All politicians too, I may say openly, that the Holy Spirit works in all human hearts. That is very important to me.
Sr. Regina: I was still very young, a child. I had an appendix operation when I was six years old. And of course I was taken to the hospital. And there I was placed among the adults. I don't know why I wasn't among the children, perhaps they had no room for me there. I know, yes, and there were sisters there who cared for us. And the way the sisters treated the patients made a profound impression on me… Yes, that thought [of becoming a nun] came to me then. And it simply stayed with me from that point on.
... I suppose it's the community, the sense of belonging, of knowing one belongs here, the care and affection from one's fellow sisters, and then from the children and the teachers… One simply grows into it. One comes to know so much that one could only discover for oneself. One becomes, in some measure, more mature.
How has your relationship with spirituality evolved over your lifetime?
Sr. Bernadette: Yes, that we might gradually, once more, settle ourselves into our quarters well enough again, and that all this public attention will then cease once more, so that we truly have our enclosure. That is to say, that no outsiders come into our living quarters any longer. That we have peace, that we have quiet, that we have our church, that priests come who celebrate Holy Mass with us. That is, of course, the most precious thing of all.
Sr. Rita: Home, where one feels from the heart truly happy. I always say, where one can truly breathe freely and not feel hemmed in. It is simply when one can live openly, share life with one's fellow sisters…
Sr. Bernadette: That one can only live in love, otherwise life would have no meaning. Everything one does, consciously or unconsciously, one lives in love.
My hope is that all people might come to a moment where they come to know God. I pray that all people who are not believers might have just one moment. Often a single moment is enough. Often a single moment suffices. That they might receive God in their hearts, that they would accept Him. These are my prayers for the whole world. And for my sisters, for all the children. May all people have God in their hearts.
Sr. Regina: Love is not merely a word... not merely a word. Love is life lived together. That one, that is, true love is something interior. It is not a flash-in-the-pan kind of love, like a couple in the first flush of romance, where sometimes it is merely a flare. But the love of God must radiate outward onto others, so that we unite God's love and love of neighbor, so to speak.
Interviews were conducted by David Neumayr, Brad Bailey, and Alex Gist
Interviews translated by David Neumayr
What wisdom about spirituality would you like to pass on?
Life expectancy 2023
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