[2] After dabbling in Buddhism, self-help groups and self-described "esoteric" and "occult" studies,[1][3] Grundberger claims to have had a decisive encounter with Jesus Christ in 1977 while on a cycling tour of Lake Constance.
[1] Since about 1982, Count Wilderich von und zu Bodman has granted the Agnus Dei group a center of operations at Frauenberg, a former Cistercian monastery in the hills above Lake Constance.
[8] A report published in 2022 revealed that during his years as Bishop of Santo Domingo, Stehle had given refuge in his diocese to numerous Catholic priests who were under police investigation for sexual abuse of minors in Germany.
[8] In a 2018 decree, the new Bishop of Santo Domingo ordered the dissolution of the Agnus Dei group in Ecuador and the liquidation of its properties.
[7] According to the 2018 decree, written by Bishop Bertram Víctor Wick Enzler and published by the Catholic Diocese of Santo Domingo in Ecuador, Grundberger was convicted in 2002 by the Konstanz District Court (Baden-Württemberg, Germany) for sexual assaults on children within his community.
[11] Nikolai, Lucia, Marie-Elisée and Mirjana Gerstner were born in Germany but traveled as children with the sect to Ecuador, where they grew up.