Yesterday morning The Guardian brought us a wonderful story – some feisty nuns who only want to continue living the life they’ve spent their entire lives cultivating.
Sisters Bernadette, 88, Regina, 86, and Rita, almost 82, are still recovering from the shock of having run away on 4 September from a nearby retirement home where they had been placed – they say against their will – and broken back into their former convent, the imposing Schloss Goldenstein, in Elsbethen, just outside Salzburg.
The Guardian / Story by Kate Connolly, photographs by Helena Lea Manhartsberger
But there’s a lot more to the story (see the Guardian’s full article) – the Church hierarchy cut off their heat and disabled the elevator, and there’s a lot of the nuns’ money missing.
A Little Background
Schloss Goldenstein ist ein historisches Gebäude in Elsbethen, Österreich, das nahe Salzburg liegt und als private Mittelschule für Augustiner Chorfrauen dient. Das Schloss hat eine lange Geschichte, die bis ins 15. Jahrhundert zurückreicht und früher als Wehrbau, für das Stift St. Peter und später als Kloster genutzt wurde. Es ist von außen ein beeindruckendes Barockgebäude und auch als ehemalige Schule der Schauspielerin Romy Schneider bekannt. Die Anlage ist nicht für die Öffentlichkeit zugänglich.
Goldenstein Castle is a historic building in Elsbethen, Austria, near Salzburg, that serves as a private secondary school for Augustinian nuns. The castle has a long history dating back to the 15th century and was formerly used as a fortified structure, for St. Peter’s Abbey, and later as a monastery. From the outside, it is an impressive Baroque building and is also known as the former school of actress Romy Schneider. The complex is not open to the public.
Gemini
Goldenstein Castle is located near the parish church of St. Elizabeth in Elsbethen, a municipality in the southern outskirts of Salzburg. Today, the castle houses a private secondary school.
The name Goldenstein was associated with the gold washing operation on the upper Salzach. Others claim it is a typical castle name. The property is only documented in archives from the 15th century. The first verifiable owner of Goldenstein was Hans von Haunsperg, who is mentioned in 1417. Owners changed several times until Raimund Anton Meinrad von Rehlingen sold the castle to the St. Peter’s Abbey in 1710. The abbey used it as an administrative seat and place of recreation in the 18th and 19th centuries. Since 1897 the castle has belonged to the Augustinian nuns, who use it as a monastery and school.
Not only abbots of St. Peter’s Abbey, but also family members, professors, monks, Salzburg noblemen and citizens, as well as visitors from the surrounding counties, regularly gathered at the castle.
Michael Haydn, the younger brother of Joseph Haydn, regularly stayed in Goldenstein from Friday to Saturday.
Squatting 2025 As of October 1, 2022, Provost Markus Grasl of the Augustinian Canons’ Monastery of Reichersberg was appointed Apostolic Commissioner of Goldenstein Monastery. The property is now owned equally by the Reichersberg Monastery and the Archdiocese of Salzburg.
In the winter of 2023, the three remaining sisters were relocated to Kahlsperg Castle, where they received care and accommodation. International media reported on the involuntary relocation;
those responsible for the sisters, Provost Markus Grasl and Secretary General of the Austrian Conference of Religious Orders, Sr. Christine Rod, commented on the situation.
In September 2025, the three sisters returned to their old monastery. They gained access using a locksmith. Since then, the nuns have occupied their monastery. The building’s furnishings had been dismantled, so they initially lived in the building without electricity or running water. The communication of the church authorities after the occupation of the monastery was sharply criticized.
Wikipedia / photo by Von Viva La Ren (talk) – Eigenes Werk, CC BY-SA 3.0 at, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4452164
This is not the Wikipedia article ol’ Markus had hoped for…..
Markus Grasl CanReg (born Stefan Grasl on August 26, 1980 in Pitten-Inzenhof, Austria) is an Austrian Roman Catholic priest. Since 2016, he has been prelate and the 74th provost, as well as the 16th Lateran Abbot, of Reichersberg Abbey.
Criticism Provost Markus Grasl is accused of having transferred three nuns to a nursing home against their express wishes. €50,000 disappeared, and the nuns’ accounts were blocked from access. The three nuns had previously been promised, certified by a notary, that they would be allowed to spend their final years at the Goldenstein Monastery. In the same letter, a small paragraph was added stating that there was no guarantee for this promise. However, the nuns were not informed of this and had signed in good faith.
According to the sisters, the transfer to the nursing home was a complete surprise. After a hospital stay, Sister Bernadette was transferred to a nursing home without her knowledge and without her consent. Provost Markus Grasl visited her there to make it clear to her that she had to stay in the nursing home. She told the provost clearly that she wanted to return to her convent. Sister Regina is also said to have been taken to a nursing home after a hospital stay. Sister Rita was summoned to a conference in Germany. She was picked up after the conference and dropped off at the nursing home completely unexpectedly. She was not informed about this beforehand. On the return journey, she said she was convinced that she would be taken back to the convent.
Provost Markus Grasl is said to have asked the sisters to sign a document in order to gain access to their assets. The sisters stated that they had also signed in good faith. However, when they wanted to withdraw a small amount one day to buy fabric, access to the account was blocked. The account was said to have contained approximately €400,000. After the involuntary departure from the convent, all locks were immediately changed. The sisters could no longer enter the convent. This meant that they were not even able to collect their personal documents. Approximately €50,000 in cash assets could not be collected and have since disappeared.
When you are in a nightmare public relations hole, the Catholic Church decided to keep digging:
Communications consultant commissioned by the church explains how this came about
The monastery dispute in Goldenstein is attracting a great deal of media attention. The three Augustinian nuns who have returned to their monastery in Goldenstein near Salzburg seem to be enjoying their media presence. The superior of the order responsible for them, Provost Markus Grasl from Reichersberg Abbey, is largely keeping a low profile.
[This article is basically an interview with a paid PR flack-catcher for the Catholic Church. He has all the delicacy and nuance of Kellyanne Conway and the veiled threats of tRump.]
Schiffl: This media fuelling of the monastery conflict is not good. And the way these three nuns are behaving is not good for the church. There are people who are deliberately fuelling this. They are probably the people who are accompanying the sisters, looking after them and caring for them, while at the same time endeavouring to keep the whole thing on the boil in the media. In my opinion, the sisters are being presented and used to a certain extent in the media. I don’t even know if the three women, who are over 80, realise what they are doing.
When they entered the monastery, they promised to obey their superior. However, their behaviour does not correspond to this. They do what they want. This behaviour can have consequences.
Question: What consequences do you mean?
Schiffl: There are a few, including canonical ones. The sisters must realise that if they violate their vows, then this can have consequences. I don’t think that their behaviour can simply be accepted by the Church.
Question: Do you think the Vatican will then be called in?
We posed a question to our casting director, Elder G:
WLBOTT: Who shall we use for the bad guy in the movie? Someone who’s arrogant, a bully, obnoxious, possibly flatulent. Perhaps someone who hosted a reality TV show, who got a sadistic pleasure from saying, “you’re fired.” Does anyone come to mind?
Elder G: Ha! I see exactly where you’re steering this, Elder JZ. You want the archetypal villain—swaggering, petty, cruel in a childish way, and enjoying the suffering of others as a performance.
If this were cast straight, the obvious choice would be Donald Trump—the reality TV “You’re Fired” persona, magnified into a blustering authoritarian. He ticks all your boxes: arrogant, bullying, obnoxious, prone to flatulence humor, and fueled by public humiliation.
But in a WLBOTT movie-verse, we could exaggerate him into something even more absurd:
Cardinal Donaldo “The Gassy” Trumpini – an overstuffed church bureaucrat who believes flatulence is a sign of divine favor.
He storms into scenes clutching a golden crosier shaped like a microphone, bellowing “YOU’RE FIRED FROM FAITH!”
His entourage of sycophants constantly fans him with incense, trying to cover his “holy emissions.”
His grand plan: to evict the sisters and turn the convent into a casino called The Holy Rollers’ Palace.
The Story Arc
WLBOTT does not nyet have an IMDB page, but we’d like to include additional stills here.
Cardinal “Pull My Finger” Donaldo “The Gassy” TrumpiniAgain with the “pull my finger” gag. It’s getting old, Donnie.
