Pilgrims flocked to the tiny town of Gower, Missouri to pray over Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster’s body before it was put into a glass enclosure Memorial Day Weekend 2023.
(PHOTO GALLERY AND VIDEOS BELOW)
I have written many times about the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles, (links below) a very conservative and fast-growing order of young Catholic nuns. These talented singing nuns have produced several chart-topping albums of sacred music.
They live their life under Benedictine Rule, an ancient practice for monastic life.
“Tucked away just off a rocky road is a small community of women who have chosen to retreat from the world and spend their days working in silence — except for when they are singing sacred music. They are cloistered nuns, the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles. Their days consist of prayer, work, and song. And when they sing, people listen.” (An excerpt from my first story about them)
In my early visits, I met, photographed, and interviewed Sister Wilhelmina, the nun whose body was unearthed. Her body was found to be astonishingly well preserved, even though she had been buried in a simple pine box and her body had not been embalmed. Her habit was also found to be intact; however, the material in the coffin had disintegrated. When the discovery was made, they were moving her to a shrine inside the church, where she was reinterred.
As word of the mystifying phenomenon spread, thousands of pilgrims descended on the monastery where they were given an opportunity to touch Sister Wilhelmina. People had lined up for days for an opportunity to see, touch and pray over her body.
The sisters prefer a quiet, uninterrupted life; that is where they find God. They have chosen to come away from the world. So, there is a certain irony in the fact that the spotlight keeps finding them. They are trying to be generous with what they see as a miraculous blessing that has taken place on their holy and sacred grounds.
Men, women, and children, all volunteers from the area, helped with parking and managed the crowds so that the sisters could continue their work and life inside the monastery.
I have made a short video from my interview with Sister Wilhemina and a photo gallery of the recent activity at the monastery.
You can see more of my older photos and videos of the sisters at the links below; get comfortable, linger, and learn.
~ All Material © Karen Pulfer Focht 2023
There are also other related links below.
VIDEO BELOW- Hear Sister Wilhelmina talk about her vocation as a nun, in an interview from 2016.
Interview with Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster
https://vimeo.com/206778361 Hear Sister Wilhelmina sing here, if you listen closely you can hear her voice standing out.
PREVIOUS WORK I HAVE DONE ON THE SISTERS:
https://www.karenpulferfocht.com/blog/benedictines-of-mary-queen-of-the-apostles
https://www.karenpulferfocht.com/blog/2021/10/26/singing-nuns-record-again-1
https://www.karenpulferfocht.com/blog/benedictinesofmarynewalbum
A STATEMENT FROM THE SISTERS: https://benedictinesofmary.org/srwilhelmina/
Catholic News Agency has done the majority of the reporting~ however the story has been covered in the main stream media also. Here are some links-
“When the Benedictine Sisters of Mary, Queen of the Apostles exhumed the body of their foundress Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster, OSB, on May 18, they found the unexpected: Four years after her death and burial in a simple wooden coffin, her body appeared remarkably well preserved.” Catholic News Agency https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/254413/who-was-sister-wilhelmina-lancaster-the-african-american-whose-body-is-potentially-incorrupt
For a Catholic perspective on the tradition of incorruptible saints : https://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/incorruptible-saints.html