Two women were forced out of the nunhood this month after disobeying a Vatican order to depart the 14th-century Italian monastery they’ve lived in for the last decade, according to The Guardian. Massimiliana Panza and Angela Maria Punnackal were made to leave the Santa Chiara monastery along the Amalfi Coast on Saturday, having received a letter from Pope Francis telling them they’d “disobeyed the church,” and would therefore be relieved of “the obligations of sacred ordination.” Known in the nearby cliffside town of Ravello as the “rebel nuns,” Panza and Punnackal were asked to transfer to another monastery after Vatican inspectors declared the depleted Santa Chiara site, once boasting dozens of nuns, too small to sustain. The sisters attempted to parley their situation with the Vatican, but discussions went nowhere, The Guardian reported. “It’s essentially a punishment,” an attorney for the two said. “And because it has been confirmed by Pope Francis they can’t appeal. The only solution would be one of grace, in that the pope removes this order and allows them to reintegrate into the nunhood.”