Divine messengers

How sage social media posts of retired Italian nuns attracted millions

- Angela Giuffrida

For years, the mostly closed-off lives of the nuns living in a retirement home in Raiano, a mountain village in Italy’s Abruzzo region, followed much the same daily rhythm.

They woke early, prayed, went to the chapel, had lunch, and perhaps whiled away the afternoon reading.

But their routine switched pace when, under pressure from the eldest of the 22 women - Sister Maria Chiara, 98 - to liven things up, they broke out into the world of social media.

“Sister Maria Chiara was starting to feel very low - she would say: ‘We don’t do anything here, and my life feels pointless?’” said Sister Nayiby Jimenez, who works in the home managed by the Ravasco congregation of Catholic nuns. “I felt sorry for them too. These are women who worked hard all their lives and have all this goodness and light in their hearts - we couldn’t just keep them closed off.”

Being the youngest of the nuns, the onus fell on Sister Nayiby, 45, to shine their light beyond the confines of the home.