by Pa Rock
Proud Missourian
Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster was a Roman Catholic nun and the founder and head of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, at her small monastery in Gower, Missouri, a contemplative order that adheres to the Rules of St. Benedict. Sister Wilhelmina passed away at the monastery where her order was located in 2019 at the ripe old age of ninety-five, and she was buried there in her nun's habit inside of a plain wooden casket without benefit of embalming.
The good nun was a black woman who had grown up in the western Missouri city of St. Joseph and decided at an early age that she planned to devote her life to God. She had been born in St. Louis, Missouri, as Mary Elizabeth Lancaster, the second of five children of Oscar and Ella Lancaster. She took her vows in 1944 and spent the rest of her life doing good works.
This year the nuns were preparing for the addition of a shrine to St. Joseph at their monastery, a project which necessitated moving the burial site of Sister Wilhelmina. They were told to expect that the sister's remains would be primarily skeletal, but when the good nun's body was dug up they discovered that there had been almost no decomposition. The body had been, as church lore put it, incorrupted, something that occurs very rarely.
When the nuns saw the surprising state of the body, they tried to keep their find a secret, but someone sent to a private email detailing the state of Sister's body, and it quickly became public knowledge. As the word spread, people began driving to the monastery at Gower, 40 miles north of Kansas City, to view the Sister's miraculous remains. Today the county sheriff estimates that more than 10,000 people a day are showing up in his county to take part in what they sense is a religious miracle. The sheriff is quick to note that all of the unexpected traffic from across the United States as well as Canada and Mexico, is taking a very hard toll on his county's roads, both gravel and paved.
Sister Wilhelmina is not yet a candidate for sainthood, but that does not mean that it won't eventually happen. In order for the process to officially get started, the candidate must have been dead at least five years. And an incorruptible body alone does not qualify a person for sainthood, but it is one factor that could be considered among others, and apparently there are many who knew Sister Wilhelmina personally and stand prepared to testify about her life of good works.
But right now many are rushing to see, and even touch, the body and the habit (which also showed almost no decay) of this very unique individual who may go on to one day become a saint in her church.
As of today, however, Sister Wilhelmina is not a saint, and today the tawdry exhibition of her corpse, incorrupted or not, both at the monastery and across the internet, feels more like a carnival sideshow than it does of being one of the first steps in a rugged climb to religious heights.
For those who would like a reason to visit the "show-me" state, may I recommend a trip to Jefferson City instead, where you can visit our beautiful Capitol Building which sits along the Missouri River - and sit in the visitors' galleries and have a very good time watching our legislators throw and eat their own poop. There's not a future saint among them!
Bless me Sister, for I have digressed!
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