GOWER, Mo. — In life, Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster was known among her fellow nuns for her devotional poetry, sense of humor, and fierce piety.. A biography published by her order after her death at age 95 in 2019 described her as the nun “who persevered in the faith.”
In death, Sister Wilhelmina has become something much greater: a potential saint, a pilgrimage attraction, a miracle.
The transformation began this spring at the Abbey of Our Lady of Ephesus, operated by the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, a small but growing conservative order whose headquarters are located in the hills north of Kansas City, Missouri. Four years after burying Sister Wilhelmina, the order’s founder, in a simple wooden coffin on the property, the sisters decided to move her body to a customary place of honor inside their church.
When they opened the coffin, expecting to find bones to put in a new box, they found what looked remarkably like Sister Wilhelmina herself. Her face was recognizable, even after years in a damp coffin, and the sisters said her beloved habit was “immaculate.”
For the Benedictines of Mary, this immediately indicated that Sister Wilhelmina might be “incorruptible,” a term used by the Catholic Church to describe people whose bodies—or parts of their bodies—did not decompose after death. Believers in the phenomenon say there have been more than 100 cases worldwide.
Michael O’Neill, who hosts an American radio show called “The Miracle Hunter,” said the case of Sister Wilhelmina, who was black, was particularly distinctive. “There has never been an incorruptible African-American; in fact, there has never been an American of any kind who is incorruptible,” he said. “So this is great news.”
The word began to spread. Soon, large crowds — the sisters say at least 25,000 people — flocked to the abbey during a holiday weekend in May to view the body, touch it and pray.
After that weekend, the nuns locked Sister Wilhelmina’s body in a glass box in the church. The volume of visitors decreased, but remained constant.
In life, Sister Wilhelmina was a descendant of enslaved Catholics and grew up in a Catholic family in St. Louis. She belonged to a traditionally black order of nuns for 50 years, the Oblate Sisters of Providence. But by the end of that time, she was disillusioned by what she perceived as a relaxation in cult standards and styles of dress. She founded the new order in the 1990s.
Some wonder why a largely white movement within the Catholic Church is promoting Sister Wilhelmina so enthusiastically. Almost all of the 64 women who make up the Benedictines of Mary are white.
To the sisters of the abbey, Sister Wilhelmina was simply who she was: a sincere conservative in theological and social matters, in everyone’s opinion. “She wanted unity,” Sister Scholastica Radel said.
Within the walls of the abbey, few openly question what they see. But for forensic science experts, there are other explanations. One is the phenomenon of dry mummification, which can occur if the soft tissues of the body are kept dry enough. Factors include the person’s body fat, diet in the days before death, and the dryness of the wood used for the coffin.
For others, science is not the point.
Madeline Whitt, 17, a grocery store clerk in Gower, shrugged her shoulders when asked if Sister Wilhelmina’s preservation was a miracle.
“Even if it’s not, if it makes more people come and question things, then it is,” he said.
By: Ruth Graham
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/6963234, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-10-31 19:50:36
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