A nun who was buried in 2019 has barely decayed, causing hundreds of tourists to flock to her burial site in Gower, Missouri.
Sister Wilhemena Lancaster was buried in a wooden coffin without embalming (preserving a corpse using chemicals). She served with the nuns of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles order. However, in preparation for a new shrine, she was unburied and found in a “perfectly preserved religious habit,” the nunnery’s statement said.
This has led to around 1,800 people rushing to the town after a private email explaining the situation went public. Since then, the news has “spread like wildfire.”
The nuns at the monastery have been allowing visitors to touch Sister Lancaster’s body to “make her accessible to the public because in real life she was always accessible to people.”
The monastery has also allowed visitors to take a teaspoon of dirt from Sister Lancaster’s grave.
Visitors, like Samuel Dawson, who visited the site from Kansas City, said the experience was very “peaceful” and “reverent.”
Many Catholics have argued that the body’s lack of decay signifies holiness.
The Diocese of Kansas City- St. Joseph says that due to the body’s “incorruptibility,” a case for sainthood will likely be “initiated” once Sister Lancaster reaches the required minimum of five years since death.
In the meantime, the monastery plans to keep her corpse in a glass shrine inside the church, so visitors can see her and collect dirt from her grave.
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