Sister Marta is a nun. And she’s a hugely successful content creator, with 32,700 followers and almost 270,000 likes on TikTok. If she has made headlines in recent weeks and her image has appeared in media across the country, it is not because of her footprint on the networks, but rather because of the question she poses in one of her most viewed videos: “How much does a nun make?” This piece is very short, lasting only a minute, but Sister Marta It provides a valuable window into how , and the thousands of other nuns and monks residing in Spain, make their living.

Here’s a spoiler: They haven’t gotten away with doing it quarterly.

“How much does a nun earn?” This is the title of one of the videos Sister Marta posts on TikTok and YouTube. Benedictine nun She is from the Monastery of Santa Cruz de Sahagún, León, who uploads pieces on her channels where she explains what the life and daily life of the nuns is like. And without taboos. He touched on the relationship between science and faith, tattoos or sexuality, among other topics.

In the recording in question, the young Benedictine responds to a TikTok user who asked her one of the most curious unknowns about monastic life: Do nuns have salaries? And if so, how much do they earn? How do they get this money? So how do they achieve this? Over the course of a minute, Sister Marta clarifies (almost) all of these questions.

“We are autonomous”. The first point he explains is that there is a clear difference between priests, monks and nuns in the Church when it comes to remuneration. The first has a salary determined by the diocese in charge; youtuber— to ensure both their “spirituality” and their “living”. In the case of the latter, things are quite different. “We are completely autonomous,” says Sister Marta: “We do not receive salaries from anywhere. Not from the State, not from the ‘X’ of the Church, not from the diocese, not from anything.”

Where does the money come from? Just because they don’t get paid doesn’t mean they don’t need it, so the question is open… Where do nuns and priests get money from? Sister Marta explains that there are several ways to obtain funds. Some monks and nuns teach in schools and institutes and receive salaries as teachers, but in these cases their pay is solely and exclusively for this: the work they do in classrooms. Their salaries have nothing to do with their religious status. The rest, who do not do such work outside the walls of the monastery, have no choice but to look for other sources of income.

“In our convent, where we don’t teach classes or anything, we get money from sweets, from the museum, from cosmetics… from the things we sell,” says Sister María. Their YouTube profile actually includes a link to the Monastery of Santa Cruz de Sahagún; Here you can find information about their inns, art museums, and stores advertising candy and liquor, cosmetics, bracelets, postcards, books, and similar products. religious items such as crosses, medals or rosaries. As detailed on the monastery’s website and X profile, it was founded in 1546 and today 11 nuns.

Click on the image to go to the tweet.

Pray, study… and quote. On the other side of the monastery walls, much of the nuns’ lives focus on prayer, contemplation, and community life; But that doesn’t mean that nuns should be concerned with something as mundane as paying their taxes and following the rules. management. This is explained by Sister Marta, who remembers that as self-employed workers it was up to her and her other sisters to meet the VAT payment or form 130, among other things. In 2019, there were 11,000 religious people in the country. Spain pays taxes according to this epigraph.

“We are registered as self-employed and pay Social Security. We contribute every month, so we retire. So a nun, if she doesn’t have an outside salary, has a fixed salary when she retires.” joking.

Finding a life on Airbnb…. Just because they live in centuries-old communities and are known above all for their pastries and handicrafts does not mean that the nuns make a living using 21st century technology. And not just with online stores. This was proved a few months ago by the Poor Clare sisters of Santa María de Jesús in Seville; After achieving more or less success in their bookbinding, laundry and baking businesses, they decided to bet on a new source of income: renting a house. Airbnb. With the help of collaborators, they began renting many of the houses in their monastery online.

But… What about hard and fast in euros? Sister Marta doesn’t go any further in her video. He’s not talking about numbers. Although he is not the only one who gives clues about the financial situation of religious people. In 2014, the ABC newspaper published an article stating that nuns and priests “receive no wages” and make a living from their profession or marketing products, including Eucharistic hosts and liturgical decorations. In other information published by SER in 2011, it was stated that due to the vow of poverty, those who had jobs outside generally did not receive their salaries individually, but instead transferred them to the system.

The situation of priests is different. In 2020, the Archdiocese of Seville published a note reporting the salaries of priests, including the salaries of the archbishop and auxiliary bishop. The figures: the former received 900 euros gross per month, while the latter, who held higher positions in the religious hierarchy, received 1,258 euros; This amount has not changed since 2016. in 2021 San Diego Union Tribune However, it was noted that the salaries of cardinals in the Vatican can be much higher and payments can be made up to several thousand euros per month.

“Every monastery finds its own environment”. He also touched upon the situation of nuns in 2021 Donne, Chiesa, MondoIn issue 104 he explores On the Wage of Nuns: “Every convent and every congregation finds its own source of subsistence and income, each nun and sister organizes her own life and work and relates differently to the world of production and consumption,” quoted by the specialist website Aleteia publication is stated.

The Italian publication also highlights the situation faced by some nuns who are subjected to heavy workloads without clear limitations. “The sister has to work late at night or on weekends because she has no time for herself or her congregation,” says one of the nuns she interviewed. “And neither she nor her superior has a written text to refer to.” . Therefore, it is useful to agree on salaries, schedules and tasks.

Image | Church in Valladolid (Flickr)

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