The “entrepreneurial nuns”, as they describe themselves, plan to stay “cloistered” by remaining in the kitchen, out of sight of diners. Lay volunteers or hired staff will serve the food at the restaurant in Asturias, northern Spain.
The menu will include the pastries and truffles once manufactured by the ex-nuns to sell at their monastery in Belorado, near Burgos in north-central Spain.
They said the proceeds would help resolve Belorado monastery’s complex finances, after a botched property deal led to 10 nuns deciding to leave the Catholic Church.
In a statement last May, they declared they no longer recognised the spiritual authority of Pope Francis, or any pope since 1958. They chose a sedevacantist self-styled bishop Pablo de Rojas Sánchez-Franco as their spiritual leader, but have twice replaced him since.
In a video announcing the initiative, the nuns’ spokesperson said the funding for the restaurant came from the sale of gold ingots and gold coins from North America.
Spanish police are investigating the origin of the gold, the sale of which reportedly earned the former abbess of Belorado €130,000.
The abbess, whose religious name was Sr Isabel de La Trinidad, said the money would also fund a 7,000 square-metre plot of land near the restaurant where the nuns – once fined for operating an illegal golden retriever breeding parlour in Belorado – will now breed and train guide dogs.
She said the community had bought the gold after selling shares, initially because of the pandemic, later due to the war in Ukraine.
The Archdiocese of Burgos, which was tasked by the Vatican with administering Belorado monastery, said it had records of the nuns purchasing more than €250,000 of gold in July and August 2020.
The whereabouts of the bank account holding the proceeds of the gold sale remains unknown.
Archbishop Mario Iceta of Burgos is seeking to evict the ex-nuns.
Regional social services have declared them “vulnerable”, posing legal challenges for their eviction.