A flock of cloistered nuns escaped their nearly 400-year-old Italian monastery after a devastating fire broke out late Saturday evening, swallowing up troves of priceless artifacts.
The 21 nuns living on site escaped while the blaze raged through the Bernaga Monastery in La Valletta Brianza, a commune just outside of Milan. 4
Nineteen of the nuns were relocated to another religious facility for temporary housing. Two others were hospitalized for unspecified injuries, Italian politician Massimo Sertori, the current councilor of the region where the monastery resides, wrote on Facebook .
The monastery, which first opened in 1628, is where the recently anointed Saint Carlo Acutis received his First Communion, one of many rites performed by Catholics during mass that’s first offered