A nun whose exhumed body showed nearly no signs of decomposition four years after she died is drawing thousands of Catholics hoping to witness the alleged “miracle” to the sister’s rural Missouri monastery.
The visitors are coming from all over the
country to see and touch the body of Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster, who died at
age 95 in 2019 and was exhumed in April with her body and clothing still
intact.
Between 10,000 and 15,000 worshippers were
expected to visit the chapel of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, in
Gower, a small town 40 miles north of Kansas City, each day over Memorial Day
weekend, Clinton County Sheriff Larry Fish said in a Facebook video.
The nun’s body was coated in a protective wax
and displayed inside the chapel as travelers touched her face and prayed over
her.
Her remains — which were initially exhumed to
be put in a new shrine — will be placed in a glass case on Monday.
Local officials said they expect visitors to
continue making the pilgrimage from as far as Canada and Mexico for several months.
People
praying over the body of Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster at the Benedictines of
Mary, Queen of Apostles, abbey near Gower, Missouri, on May 28, 2023.
Fish said the rural area’s gravel roads
weren’t designed to serve that level of traffic.
“We are going to put a very large pressure on
our infrastructure that is not designed for it,” he said.
Local police created a mobile command center
to deal with the size of the crowds in the town of just 1,800 people, and
additional land was cleared for more parking spaces near the monastery,
according to FOX4 Kansas City.
Samuel Dawson came with his son from Kansas City to see Lancaster’s body last week.
The exhumed body of the “miracle” nun has
drawn thousands of visitors.
AP Photo/Charlie Riedel
“It was pretty amazing,” he said. “It was
very peaceful. Just very reverent.”
Lancaster was buried in a simple wooden
coffin without any embalming four years ago, according to a statement from the
Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles.
When the Benedictine nuns exhumed their
founder last week, they expected to find bones in her coffin but were instead
shocked to see her fully intact body and “a perfectly preserved religious
habit.”
The nuns had hoped to keep their discovery
private, but an internal email about the matter was posted online and the news
spread and soon made headlines.
Many Catholics believe that Lancaster’s lack
of decay is a miracle and that she could be a modern-day saint.
“It just felt like the presence of God was
there as soon as I went into the monastery. It’s a true miracle. I really think
that,” Rita Cospelich, a visitor from Blue Springs, Missouri, told FOX4. “God
works in strange ways with miracles.”
However, the Diocese of Kansas City-St.
Joseph has approached the reported science-denying matter with caution.
“The condition of the remains of Sister
Wilhelmina Lancaster has understandably generated widespread interest and
raised important questions,” the diocese said. “At the same time, it is
important to protect the integrity of the mortal remains of Sister Wilhelmina
to allow for a thorough investigation.”
Lancaster’s
body shows no signs of decay despite her dying in 2019 at the age of 95.
AP
Photo/Charlie Riedel
“Incorruptibility has been verified in the
past, but it is very rare. There is a well-established process to pursue the
cause for sainthood, but that has not been initiated in this case yet,” the
diocese added.
The process to investigate sainthood can only
begin five years after a person’s death, and Lancaster has only been dead four
years, the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, also said.
Scientists are also wary of the supposed
miracle.
Some
Catholics have called for Lancaster to be made a saint.
Human remains decay at different rates
depending on a number of variables, and a lack of decomposition even years
later isn’t all that rare, according to Rebecca George, an anthropology
instructor at Western Carolina University in North Carolina
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