INCORRUPT NUN
Four years after her death at the age of 95, the body of Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster, founder of the Benedictines of Mary, Queen of Apostles in Lancaster, Missouri, was exhumed in April in preparation for the relocation of her remains to a planned shrine in the abbey’s oratory. As she had been buried in a simple wooden coffin without being embalmed and the soil of Missouri is damp clay, the nuns expected to find just bones. However, on opening the coffin the current abbess, Mother Cecilia, said: “I thought I saw a completely full, intact foot and I said, ‘I didn’t just see that’, so, I looked again more carefully.” Instead of bones, inside the coffin Sister Wilhelmina’s body and habit were intact, as were her crucifix, rosary, and veil. All were
