When construction of a St. Joseph shrine at a convent in a small Missouri town called for the exhumation of a nun who had been buried there four years ago, those present expected to find skeletal remains.
So they were shocked at the incredible amount of preservation present in the body of Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster, and now visitors are coming from all over to see it for themselves.
Lancaster was 95 when she passed away in 2019, and she was buried without any embalming in a simple wooden coffin, the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, told CBS News.
Clinton County Sheriff Larry Fish said the town was expecting anywhere between 10,000 and 15,000 visitors each day over the Memorial Day weekend as people flocked to see the remains for themselves.
“The intent was devotional, and to carry this out in the privacy of our cloistered life,” the nuns wrote about Lancaster exhumation. “Nevertheless, the discovery of what appeared to be an intact body and a perfectly preserved religious habit created an unexpected twist to our plans.”
They had planned to keep the revelation to themselves, but once a private email was leaked, visitors began to arrive. But is there a scientific explanation?
“When there is decreased oxygen flow, such as in a coffin, and in a cooler climate - such as the clay the coffin was in - could absolutely slow decomposition down,” Western Carolina University anthropology instructor Rebecca George wrote in an email to CBS News.
“The public rarely sees a human body at this stage of decomposition, so this is likely contributing to the interest we are seeing,” she continued. “If the remains were buried without clothing or not in a coffin in this type of soil, I would have expected them to be skeletal, but the type of preservation observed is typical given the coffin and clothing protecting the remains.”
Still, the Catholic Church is conducting its own investigation to determine whether Lancaster’s remains can be classified as a documented case of incorruptibility, a term that suggests delayed decomposition may be a sign of an individual’s holiness in life, according to the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph and reported by CBS News.
“The Church has an established process for determining if someone is a saint and worthy of veneration. No such process has yet been initiated on behalf of Sister Wilhelmina,” the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph wrote in a statement. “It is understandable that many would be driven by faith and devotion to see the mortal remains of Sister Wilhelmina given the remarkable condition of her body, but visitors should not touch or venerate her body, or treat them as relics.”
Plans are underway to place Lancaster’s remains in a glass shrine so that visitors can continue to decide for themselves.
Related
