Church reveals miraculously preserved body of nun remains intact for years

• A Missouri abbey is allowing people to visit the body of a nun who died four years ago.
• The abbey’s nuns say Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster might be an “incorruptible.”
• The term refers to the miracle that some bodies don’t decompose all the way after death.

A small abbey in Kansas City says they have a wonderous mystery on their hands: the “miraculous preservation” of a nun’s body who died four years ago. 

And you can come see her for yourself at the small Missouri abbey every day from 8:30 am to 7:30 pm.

The Benedictines of Mary Queen of Apostles, who run the Abbey of Our Lady of Ephesus, were shocked when they exhumed Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster and found her to be almost perfectly preserved after four years in a coffin, The New York Times reported. Even her habit — the headdress often worn by nuns — was “immaculate.”

The nuns’ intent was to reinter Lancaster, who died in 2019 at age 95, in an honorable place within the church. But finding her preserved body led them to suspect she is an “incorruptible,” a Catholic term referring to those whose bodies miraculously don’t decompose entirely after death, the Times reported. 

“Regarding what seems to be the miraculous preservation of Sister’s body, we are given the opportunity to contemplate the great gifts God gives us every day, especially the ones that are literally hidden from our eyes,” reads an undated letter on the website for the Benedictines of Mary. 

Lancaster would be the first Black “incorruptible” in the world, as well as the first American “incorruptible.” Most reported cases have been in Europe, the Times wrote. 

“I used to think something like this could only happen in Europe, or St. Louis,” 13-year-old Edith Riches, who volunteered to hand out water to people waiting in line to see Lancaster, told the Times. 

The abbey plans to inquire as to whether Lancaster might be canonized as a saint in the future, the sisters wrote on their website.