FIFTY-five nuns were on the run last night after racking up debts of £400,000.
The women — all called Maria — had secretly run a knitwear company on the side for ten years.
Their convent supplied 25 shops and they blew a fortune travelling to fashion shows across Europe to keep up with trends.
But the order of St Kyrikos and Ioulite in Northern Greece hit a cashflow crisis after spending huge sums on new machinery.
Their expensive knitting machines were put on a lorry and the sisters disappeared a few days later — just like comics Eric Idle and Robbie Coltrane in the hit film Nuns of the Run.
Store owners complained the nuns — who also ran a candle-making and icon-painting business — vanished with thousands of pounds in deposits.
Greek Orthodox Church officials believe they may be hiding at a monastery in Volos, Central Greece.
Last night the nuns’ lawyer Dionysios Pelekis said they had asked church superiors to settle the debt by selling 16 convent-owned properties.
But the request was refused.
