Protesters were gathering in Saint-Pierre-de-Colombier, in the south of France, in an attempt to stop plans to build a pilgrim centre.
Environmentalists were battling the Famille Missionnaire de Notre-Dame (Missionary Family of Our Lady) community, which is considered to be a possible cult by the French authorities.
In a bid to stop the climate protesters from chaining themselves to the digger, nuns from the missionary formed a human chain.
The night before the nuns guarded the site and had fortified entrances with barricades to stop protesters from sneaking in
However, the clash soon turned physical when a rogue nun sprinted across a muddy field to tackle a protester carrying two plastic pipes.
Sylvain Hérenguel, co-president of the protest group, told France 3: “I didn’t expect that.
“I expected the nuns to be a little reasonable for the public order. The problem is that the religious people decided to resort to violence.
“I was attacked three times by five people, who snatched me, who wanted to throw me out.
“There, they decided to protect the site with their actions and their bodies.”
Hérenguel’s protest group believe the new chapel and residential plans would ruin destory agricultural land in the process that they claimed could be “used for future generations”.
They also said the land is the habitat of protected species.
The Times reported the religious community was told by the Bishop of Viviers to abandon the project on the basis that it is excessively large, but this order was ignored.
Climate activism has been slammed by many in France, with the country’s interior minister labelling them “eco-terrorists”.
