(OSV News/Reuters/Angelika Warmuth)Three elderly women religious in Austria fled their nursing home and have returned to their longtime monastery, defying church superiors and highlighting the impact of Vatican regulations regarding aging members of dwindling religious congregations. The convent had been placed under oversight due to Vatican regulations regarding shrinking communities of women religious. Cor Orans requires a monastery or contemplative community of women religious to have at least eight professed religious women in order to maintain their autonomy. "Legally, when religious orders become too small or their members reach a very advanced age, the Vatican's Ministry (Dicastery) for Orders appoints a superior — either from within the order's own family or from another community," Sr. Christine Rod, secretary general of the Austrian Conference of Religious Orders, said in a statement. "The Reichersberg Abbey, which he leads, adheres to the same Augustinian spirituality as the Goldenstein Augustinian Choir Sisters."