Missouri: Nun’s body which showed little decay since death in 2019 draws thousands of visitors

Thousands of visitors traveled to Missouri over the weekend to see and touch the body of a nun which had barely decomposed since her burial in 2019. Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster, 95, was exhumed in April this year after her death on May 29, 2019. On Monday, her body will be placed in a glass shrine in the church.

People from across the United States flocked to Gower, Missouri to see the body which is unexpectedly intact. She was exhumed by the nuns of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles order.

Over the weekend, the visitors were able to touch her corpse and were even allowed to take a teaspoon of dirt from her grave. Sister Lancaster, a founder of the order, was buried without embalming in a plain wooden coffin. According to the statement by the nunnery, she was exhumed by the monastery to prepare for a new shrine to be placed involving her “reinterment” and was discovered with “a perfectly preserved religious habit”.


As per reports, around 1,800 people traveled to the town following a private email that mentioned the news and it went public by mistake. A visitor from Kansas City, Missouri, Samuel Dawson visited the site and reportedly described the body as “very peaceful” and “very reverent”. By some of the people, the phenomenon involving her corpse has been linked with Catholic signs of holiness.

FAQs:

Q1:When did sister Wilhelmina Lancaster die?
May 29, 2019

Q2:When was sister Wilhelmina Lancaster’s body exhumed?
April 2023