A fire this weekend severely damaged the 17th-century Bernaga Monastery outside of Milan in northern Italy, forcing 21 cloistered nuns to flee the blaze.

The fire broke out around 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 11 as the nuns — part of the Ambrosian hermitages of the Order of St. Ambrose ad Nemus — were watching a live television stream of Pope Leo XIV’s prayer vigil for peace in St. Peter’s Square. The women all escaped without harm, but the monastery, which was built in 1628, was nearly destroyed. Nine firefighting teams intervened to put out the blaze.

The Archdiocese of Milan reported that the fire destroyed documents, religious artifacts, and the nuns’ personal belongings, though the religious sisters managed to save some paintings and a relic of St. Carlo Acutis, who received his first holy Communion at the monastery on June 16, 1998.

Archbishop Mario Delpini of Milan expressed his closeness and prayers following the disaster: “I know that the nuns will continue to pray and that trust in God will be the most necessary encouragement.”

“We still don’t know what really caused the fire, and we will probably never know, since almost everything has been destroyed. Thank God the nuns were quick to call for help and get to safety in a matter of minutes… Unfortunately, when the fire department arrived, the monastery was already completely engulfed in flames,” Father Emanuele Colombo told the Archdiocese of Milan.

This story was first published by ACI Stampa, CNA’s Italian-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.