Wilhelmina Lancaster

Today I almost made fortunes in town from the touts after a police officer gave me his cap to carry. Coincidentally I was in a blue shirt, with a blue notebook and a reflector. 

Just to make use of the few minutes I had the mandate of an officer I pointed a finger at a driver just to see his reaction and he saluted me. Waaaaaw! 

This story is not about reflectors, note books and touts. 

What do you know about Wilhelmina Lancaster? 

Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster's body was discovered intact this week, four years after her burial, when the abbess and other nuns chose to relocate it to a last resting place within their monastery chapel, as is customary for founders and foundresses. 

Although the body was not embalmed and the wooden coffin had a break down the middle that allowed in moisture and dirt for an unknown amount of time over those four years, the Benedictine Sisters discovered a casket with an apparently intact body instead of the bones they had anticipated to find.

Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster might be the first African-American nun whose body didn't decompose despite being buried without embalming for four years.  She was the founder of the Missouri-based Mary, Queen of the Apostles Benedictine nuns.

On May 29, 2019, the vigil of the solemnity of the Ascension, she passed away at the age of 95.

The Catholic Church has a long history of so-called "incorruptible saints," more than a hundred of whom have been beatified or canonized. The saints are referred to as incorruptible because even decades after passing away, a portion, if not the entirety, of their body are resistant to natural deterioration. Her case is still being looked into by the church for eventual canonization.