Olalla Oliveros: Spanish Model And Actress Leaves Spotlight Behind To Become Nun

Olalla Oliveros decided to leave her career as a model and actress behind for a much different calling.

The Spanish model has decided to join the semi-cloistered Order of Saint Michael as a nun, saying a visit to a famous site in Portugal changed her life.

Olalla Oliveros told El Diaro de Carlos Paz that she was growing increasingly unhappy with her worldly success. Then Olalla took a trip to The Sanctuary of Our Lady in Fatima, Portugal, where she had a vision of herself as a nun.

Oliveros said she tried to shake off the vision at first, thinking it to be absurd, but still the thought remained in her mind. She later sought out a priest in Madrid, who helped point her toward the church.

“The Lord is never wrong. He asked if I will follow him, and I could not refuse,” Oliveros said, according to National Catholic Register.

Oliveros actually has company in the model-to-nun transition. In 2005, Sister Amanda Rosa Perez traded in her status as one of the top models in Colombia to work in a simple Marian religious community.

“I want to be a model that promotes the true dignity of women and not their being used for commercial purposes,” Perez told El Tiempo in 2010.

And being a nun doesn’t necessarily mean that Olalla Oliveros has to leave the spotlight behind. Sister Cristina Scuccia, who was nicknamed “The Singing Nun,” just won Italy’s version of The Voice. After winning, the 25-year-old nun led judges and the audience in a prayer.

Many audience members and fans of the show loved the idea that a nun could be so talented outside of her religious calling.

“There are plenty of people guiding her who will help organize her artistic activity. I think she has a lot of support,” said Claudia Koll, an actress who enrolled Sister Cristina at the drama school she runs at a nunnery in Rome after hearing her perform. “She is supported by prayer and by people, so she’s not as much at risk as people think.”

Olalla Oliveros seems to want to stay away from the spotlight, however. She has been in her order for the last four years now, but just opened up about the decision.